Comparative, International, and Transnational Histories of Education

Abstract

The introduction to the analysis notes briefly some current changes in political context and suggests that this is as good a moment as any to ask new questions about “the comparative history of education.” The first section of the chapter considers some of the overlaps and differences between the “comparative history” of education and the history of comparative education itself, as a field of study. It is possible to note a separation between the two – though this is not a hint about preferences for the future, on the contrary. The second section of the chapter makes distinctions among styles of comparative histories of education themselves: the institutional bases and theoretical perspectives within which they were written begin to diverge. The third layer in the analysis is the theme of the “international.” International histories of education hint at how historians of education and the histories of education they write respond to new “readings of the global.” The fourth section of the chapter addresses the transnational motif. There is also a brief conclusion which offers some cautious comments – though they might be, more sensibly, thought of as guesses about possibilities.