Comparative Education

Comparative education is a fully established academic field of study that examines education in one country (or group of countries) by using data and insights drawn from the practises and situation in another country, or countries

comparative education has four purposes:

1. To describe educational systems, processes, or outcomes.

2. To assist in the development of educational institutions and practices.

3. To highlight the relationships between education and society.

4. To establish generalized statements about education that are valid in more than one country.

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 macroanalysis 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 question of what the advantages and disadvantages are of leaving such certification to each of the 50 states. Comparative education draws on the experience of countries such as Japan and France to show how a centralized system works, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of centralized certification

Comparative education is used in the development of educational testing procedures and the creation of educational programs and frameworks. Comparing systems can provide educators with ideas for revitalizing one system by incorporating elements of others, and it can allow people to track progress over time. This can strengthen an educational system in addition to creating an objective method of...