New publication discusses the comparative educational research in the Nordic countries

09.11.2015

The importance of comparative educational research has increased in the changing society. When addressing the issues of education policies at a local and national level, there is a clear need for wider comparative research on the phenomena which often are of global nature. The newest publication discussing the comparative educational research, Comparing times and spaces, aims to answer these challenges by examining the current comparative educational research conducted in the Nordic countries.

Turun yliopiston tiedote 9.11.2015

The changing educational environment with different kinds of actors has challenged researchers to consider the effect of the changes on different levels of education. For example, the global spread of educational phenomena has become a challenge in the swiftly changing world. This publication takes part in this discussion by offering a diverse review on the different approaches of comparative research.

The book views the changes from three different perspectives. First it examines the development of comparative educational research in the Nordic countries through the pioneers and institutions of the field. Mina O’Dowd, Thyge Winther-Jensen, and Lennart Wikander create an overview of the development of comparative educational research to a scientific field in the Nordic countries, and Martin Lawn presents two significant pioneers of the Nordic comparative research, Torsten Husén and Laurin Zilliacus.

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Theoretical viewpoints on comparing time and space in education are illuminated for example by analysing the global educational flows and global imaginaries. Pasi Sahlberg compares the Finnish education policy to a Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM). He is concerned over the spread of educational policy movements worldwide and their effects on the appeal of the teaching profession in the future.

The third part of the book specifically examines the phenomena of education policy in the European educational space and beyond. Elizabeth Eta presents her views on how a local education policy has spread to another continent. As an example, there is the spreading of the European Bologna process to Cameroon, Africa. Also Tommi Wallenius offers an interesting comparative aspect with his current example on the differences between Finnish and Swedish schools when publishing school performance results. He compares the justifications behind publishing performance results in these two neighbouring countries.

Laurence Bonnafous introduces a European vocational training programme, which produces a transnational learning space for the students and trainers. Her study, for instance, discusses the experiences of ‘otherness’ during the training. The training programme was carried out collaboratively between France, Sweden and Spain.

Suvi Jokila, Johanna Kallo & Risto Rinne (eds.): Comparing times and spaces. Historical, theoretical and methodological approaches to comparative education. Research in educational sciences 69. Publisher: Finnish Educational Research Association (FERA).

Luotu 09.11.2015 | Muokattu 09.08.2021