The potential of videography in comparative education: Introduction

Abstract

In recent years, next to well-known cross-cultural and cross-national large-scale studies in comparative education, qualitative approaches have become more and more significant. Several authors argue that to be able to analyse the influence of culture and expectations on similarities and differences in educational practices, more intensive and highly focused studies, in further restricted settings should be undertaken. To this effect, Michele Schweisfurth (2013: 121) argues that sometimes in comparative and international education inquiries, it is necessary to move from a telescopic to a microscopic perspective; the latter allows a close-up, sustained, and locally-framed view, which provides a more fine-grained picture. She regards ethnographic approaches as a most valuable approach for showing in detail what might be missed in a more distanced perspective (see also Crossley and Vulliamy, 1997; Webb and Vulliamy, 1999; Webb et al., 2004). In relation to school research, it has been argued that qualitative approaches are more suitable for exploring the relationship between national context, institutional ethos and classroom practices, and in adopting contextual sensitivity when comparing educational systems (Galton, 2001: 182f; Osborn, 2004: 266). In this line of argument, qualitative approaches in comparative education might be less prone to draw conclusions from isolated results (e.g. on student achievements), which neglect the cultural contexts behind those outcomes. On the other hand, we would argue that the choice of a qualitative design does not protect projects in comparative research from the many risks associated with comparison, which have been pointed out many times (e.g. Alexander, 2001; Cappai, 2005; Matthes, 1992; Schriewer, 2000). In the field of qualitative research, as in other disciplines, a strategy of comparison systematically contrasts at least two different cases with each other, aiming to achieve results based on similarities and differences (Bollig and Kelle, 2013). The decision to compare certain cases also means, however, that optional perspectives of comparison will automatically be dropped. It therefore seems reasonable to make an individual’s strategies of comparison as transparent as possible or to