Epistemological and Methodological Issues and Frameworks in Comparative and International Research in Education

These are challenging times for comparative and international education (CIE), times when global socio-political changes and tensions are prioritising the critical interrogation of the intellectual foundations of our field, the nature and rationale for international development, the foregrounding of decolonisation debates, and the implications of climate change and environmental uncertainty for more equitable education futures in what we hope will become a post-Covid world. In this presentation for the CIE Round Table I will draw upon my own long term theoretical and empirical work challenging the international dimension of uncritical education policy transfer… doing so in ways that highlight the changing nature and scope of related epistemological and methodological issues and implications. This will include a critical analysis of globally dominant educational goals and agendas; the nature and impact of comparative educational assessments and related league tables; the increasing influence of big data; implications for international research and development agencies; epistemological issues related to research positioning, international partnerships and insider-outsider collaboration; and the significance of different cultural perspectives, ways of knowing and indigenous knowledges for epistemic justice and ongoing debates and tensions within our multi-disciplinary field.