Comparative Studies: an Evolving Commitment, a Fresh Realism

Abstract

Once upon a time Comenius dreamed of discovering invariant rules of in education. soon as we have succeeded in finding proper method, it will be no harder to teach schoolboys in any number desired than with help of printing press to cover a thousand sheets daily with neatest writing. In his search for the proper method Comenius was of course thinking only of didactics to transmit steady-state knowledge in classroom as he knew it. Knowledge, learners, classrooms and commitment have been transformed since his day; and significance of formal instruction has shrunk in proportion as alternatives and responsibilities have expanded. Education is now at very heart of political life. There is not merely more education to develop, and more use of it over a much longer time by an infinitely enlarged body of people in circumstances never envisaged earlier; we have also more sensitive understanding of factors involved, systematic analysis, a body of empirical evidence with its own techniques, and a vastly different range of partners and communications in education. These remarks, mutatis mutandis, apply equally to comparative education's commitments and methods today. To say so does not condemn previous studies; it updates them by bringing out some aspects of relevance today, while assigning to other commentaries their places of honour on history shelves. As Nicholas Hans said, purpose of comparative education is clearly reformative. It clearly reforms itself.