Comparative education

Comparative education is a discipline in the social sciences which entails the scrutiny and evaluation of different educational systems, such as those in various countries. Professionals in this area of endeavor are absorbed in advancing evocative terminologies and guidelines for education worldwide, enhancing educational structures and producing a context to which the success and effectivity of education programs and initiatives can be assessed. According to Eckstein & Noah (1985), and Farooq Joubish (2009), comparative education has five purposes: To describe educational systems, processes, or outcomes. To assist in the development of educational institutions and practices. To highlight the relationships between education and society. To establish generalized statements about education that are valid in more than one country. To help the current generation understand the nowadays education systems with reference to the past. Comparative education is often incorrectly assumed to exclusively encompass studies that compare two or more different countries. In fact, since its early days researchers in this field have often eschewed such approaches, preferring rather to focus on comparisons within a single country over time. Still, some large-scale projects, such as the PISA and TIMSS studies, have made important findings through explicitly comparative macro analysis of massive data sets. Many important educational questions can best be examined from an international and comparative perspective. For example, in the United States, there is no nationwide certificate of completion of secondary education. This raises the hypothetical question of what may be the advantages and disadvantages of leaving such certification to each of the 50 states. Comparative education may draw on the experience of countries such as Japan and France, for instance, to show how a centralized system works, and illustrate the possible advantages and disadvantages of a more centralized approach to educational certification.