ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an introduction to an area of educational studies often described as ‘international and comparative education’. It sketches its early origins and examines the ways the discipline has evolved. The chapter discusses various aims and purposes and considers the reasons why educational comparisons have become of growing global interest. It looks at a number of important considerations that sometimes call into question the validity of educational comparisons and what they are claimed to show. Students of education employ a range of lenses through which to view and understand what education is, means and how it operates. Concepts and analytical tools are often employed from the disciplines of sociology, psychology, history or political science in an attempt to explain educational processes, trends and developments. The chapter presents many examples that illustrate the problems concerning validity, fairness and bias in educational comparisons.
