ABSTRACT
As indicated in the previous chapter, comparative education in one form or another has a long history. International education’s emergence as a distinctive field of activity is more recent. The purpose of this chapter is to show in what ways these and other related fields of study have evolved, merged and intertwined; what the major strands of enquiry have been; and why there is, today, a need to re-consider the nature and focus of contemporary comparative and international research in education. In engaging with such issues the more orthodox history of the field is first explored. In critiquing this, however, increased attention is given to the diversity of intellectual foundations that underpin contemporary work, and to the cross-cultural implications of this analysis for the reconceptualisation thesis. The chapter does not, however, consider the challenges and developments of the later decades of the twentieth century – leaving these for exploration in subsequent sections of the book. The fact that this diverse and multidisciplinary field has repeatedly changed and adapted according to the context and the times is, nevertheless, testimony to the pertinence and resilience of its varied foundations and traditions.
