ABSTRACT
Comparative education has a long history, and many people have written about its early developments (for example, Bereday, 1964; Gezi, 1971; Holmes, 1965; Jones, 1971; Kazamias and Massialas, 1965, et al.; and more recently Brock, 1986; Cowen, 1980; McDade, 1982) and even its ‘prehistory’ (Brickman (1960). It is a complex and fascinating story. However, as an academic discipline in its own right, or as a sub-discipline of education, the debates really only go back to the aftermath of the Second World War and the late 1950s/early 1960s, when in both the UK and the USA it struggled for recognition as a subject that should be taught at higher education. For the past 30 years it has been riven with debates and disagreements as to whether or not it is a discipline in its own right or whether it is merely a mechanism for using different social science research paradigms but within the context of ‘comparison’, whether or not there is one comparative method for educational research (for example, Holmes, 1965); or whether, indeed, it is a method, a content, a subject, or a framework for conducting research. As a result it is probably fair to say that it is an area of academic research which has suffered from an identity crisis and from a degree of confusion.
