ABSTRACT
Since its founding, comparative education has struggled with a problem of identity. Is it a compendium of interests in education, internationally applied? Or is it a discipline in itself with unique traditions of scholarship? If the former, it would include all educational applications of the social sciences (anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, history, psychology, etc.), all educational applications of the professional disciplines (law, school administration, university administration, public policy and management, curriculum and instruction, teaching and learning, and technology), and all the concerns of specific nations and/or regions (Africa, Latin America, postconflict environments, postparty states, and the like). If comparative education consists of all this, what might it leave out? On the other hand, if comparative education is a discipline with a specialized set of interests deserving of an independent and autonomous position among other disciplines, then what are those disciplines and what is their future?
