Intercultural comparative research: rethinking insider and outsider perspectives

Abstract

A commonsense problematic positions comparative researchers as either inside or outside cultures, or their situation is considered so as to acknowledge cultural fluidity and fragmentation. This article rejects the objectivism of these positions to provide a relational account. Using the lens of social practice theory, comparative pedagogy is analysed and a case study provided, where pedagogy is described as a socially situated phenomenon and research on pedagogy as a contested field. Three relations are examined: researchers to pedagogy in processes of data generation; researchers to theories of and empirical research about pedagogy in processes of analysis; and theories of and empirical research about pedagogy to pedagogy in processes of validation. Methodological insights into the status, legitimacy and limitations of research findings are discussed, and a view of comparative pedagogy as craft apprenticeship is presented.