Comparative and international education research in a post‐truth era

Abstract

AbstractThe paper offers a postcolonial critique of comparative and international education (CIE) research in the United States (US) by tracing the Euro‐centrism of its agendas, methodologies and publications to their colonial entanglements in the past and examining the current predicament of CIE in the context of the rising nationalist and anti‐science discourses in the US. Viewed through the prism of actor‐network theory, CIE represents a circulatory network of scholars and students, methods and surveys, national and supranational funding agencies and the public opinion that shapes education policymaking. As they seek to garner public support, create new allies among politicians and donors and infuse their network with international knowledge and scholars, CIE researchers revisit the ontological and epistemological assumptions of their field, address the dominance of Western perspectives in CIE in the context of the White House rhetoric of hostility toward non‐Western nations and justify the veracity of their science to policymakers.