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Comparative Education Research: Approaches and Methods (2014, 2nd edition). M. Bray, B. Adamson and M. Mason (Eds.) Hong Kong and Dordrecht: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong and Springer, 443 pp., ISBN 978-988-17852-8-2.
Reviewed by Merli Tamtik, SSHRC Postdoctoral Scholar, York University.
Having had the opportunity to teach a graduate level course in Comparative and International Education, this book review is my reflection based on the practical needs of a course instructor. Finding materials for students that are beginning to discover the field of comparative education can be challenging. There are introductory books available that contain information on basic foundations, theories and debates in comparative education (e.g. Mundy et al. 2008, Phillips and Schweisfurth 2008). Yet, when it comes to practicalities (students research papers), there is always the struggle over how to compare and what counts as a valid comparison. Being a multidimensional subject area where context determines the research results, there has been a certain ambiguity in the methodological approaches of comparison even among the most distinguished scholars. The complexity of making comparisons has increased with the shift away from the nation-state being the primary focus of a comparative inquiry.
The current book takes an important step away from the exploratory perspective of comparative education and tackles the key question in the field - how to compare. It provides important methodological advice and analytical perspectives on making comparisons. Yet it is not a manual on specific ways to use particular tools. It invites students to "making strange patterns familiar" and "familiar patterns strange" by encouraging reflections on the variety of issues and challenges one can face in comparative inquiry. The book takes a critical perspective on the topics covered, focusing particularly on the complexity of any methodological tool used for research results. Fortunately, it does provide plenty of practical recommendations and approaches for making comparisons. The fact that this is the second edition of a book first published in 2007 additionally speaks to its merits.
The book is divided into an introduction, three main sections and a conclusion. In the introduction piece Mark Bray, Bob Adamson and Mark Mason set the stage for the reader by briefly describing the main historical developments in the field, focusing on the emerging challenges...