Time and Comparative and International Education

Abstract

This article argues that epistemological and theoretical issues surrounding time in relation to comparative and international education need further exploration in consideration of the new understandings of time that have emerged (or re-emerged) during the last century. By drawing on an interdisciplinary selection of ideas as well as various scholars' conceptualizations of time that range from antiquity to the present, the article suggests practical ways, supported by sociological and historical examples, to theorize time for application in comparative educational research. Appropriating a more nuanced understanding and abstraction of temporality is necessary and opens different time-worlds for comparison, resulting in knowledge informed and shaped by a time that transcends Newtonian linearity and discreteness. The article is written with the understanding that as technology continues to stimulate globalization and redraw the boundaries of space and time, the importance of reconsidering temporality in regard to educational research is clear.