This article focuses on the educational policies that have been developed in Argentina since the universalization of secondary education in 2006, comparing and contrasting the jurisdictions of Santa Fe and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in the context of the national and global political agenda. From an anthropological-discursive perspective, this study combines elements of comparative education to study subnational policies and interprets results within a discursive hermeneutic-dialectical framework. It analyzes institutional policy documents to understand the construction of a discourse on the transformation of secondary school’s academic regime as a key to inclusion. Comparative analysis makes it possible to trace the configuration of a consensus at supranational, state, and local levels. It highlights a two-sided neglect of structural aspects of (educational) inclusion. On the one hand, interventions have focused on academic or managerial issues, to the detriment of more comprehensive socio-educational policies. On the other hand, the transformation of the academic regime has contemplated neither the modification of the institutional structure of secondary education nor investments to transform its material aspects. This has entailed holding individual teachers responsible as agents of change, thus deepening the fragmentation of the education system.

Historicism vs Positivism: An Examination of Dual Threads in Comparative Education Methodology from the Perspective of the History of Social Ideas

Kindergarten curriculum construction occupies a pivotal position in early childhood education, as the decisions made regarding curriculum content, design logic, and foundational starting points carry far-reaching implications for children's development, learning trajectories, and long-term life outcomes. This review examines the theoretical and empirical literature on the logic and starting points that underpin kindergarten curriculum construction, synthesising diverse perspectives drawn from developmental psychology, sociocultural theory, comparative education, and curriculum studies. Using a narrative review approach, the paper analyses peer-reviewed and policy-related literature selected from major academic databases to identify recurrent curriculum logics, foundational starting points, and points of tension across international scholarship. Drawing on scholarly work spanning multiple national contexts, the review identifies four principal starting points for curriculum construction: the child as a developing being, sociocultural and community contexts, structured knowledge domains, and value-laden educational goals. Its main analytical contribution is to bring these starting points into a single comparative framework and to show how they interact with competing curriculum logics rather than functioning as isolated or mutually exclusive foundations for curriculum design. The dominant logics shaping curriculum design — including child-centred, subject-centred, play-based, and emergent curriculum logics — are analysed alongside the tensions and complementarities between these perspectives. Comparative analyses of curriculum models from Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, East Asian, and Reggio Emilia traditions illuminate how socio-political contexts shape curriculum philosophy and practice. Contemporary challenges, including the growing pressure for academic readiness, the demand for inclusive and equitable curricula, and the implications of digitalisation, are also addressed. The review concludes that a coherent and ethically grounded logic for kindergarten curriculum construction must integrate developmental appropriateness, cultural relevance, professional agency, and a holistic conception of the child as simultaneously a being and a becoming.

ABSTRACT This ethnographic paper employs spatial and place-based approaches to explore how Muslim women teachers from a rural Punjabi community in Pakistan connected with their ancestral lands. The lived experiences of these women provide critical insights into how land operates as an active agent, shaping identities, experiences, and hierarchical structures rather than as a static context that bounds them. This paper highlights how educational scholarship focusing on globalisation and international and comparative education can benefit from engaging with spatial and place-based theories that recognise the intersectionality of temporality, culture, and space/place, rather than treating context as a static physical entity. On the one hand, this approach can provide deeper insights into how social, historical, and spatial factors shape educational sensemaking, processes, and outcomes in different contexts. On the other hand, it provides onto-epistemological framings to explore the reciprocities between human and more-than-human environments.

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper critically examines the convergences of posthumanist, new materialist, and decolonial frameworks in comparative education, situating this dialogue within the broader ‘post-foundational’ turn in the field. While these approaches share a commitment to decentering anthropocentrism and reimagining education as an entangled, more-than-human process, their intersections also reveal deep tensions around race, coloniality, and the category of ‘the human.’ Drawing on insights from Critical Black Studies, the paper argues that efforts to universalise relational ontologies risk reproducing Eurocentric and colonial erasures, if they fail to confront the constitutive role of anti-Blackness and colonial violence in modernity. By foregrounding the entanglement of race, ontology, and ecology, the paper advances a framework for future comparative education research in the Anthropocene that views education as a site of ethical, ontological and political struggle, and calls for methodologies of relational critique, decolonial care, and planetary repair.

Clinical, practical, and psychosocial challenges of living with glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome.

This study systematically compared social studies items—specifically politics and law, Economics, and Society and Culture in Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), and contemporary society and politics/economics in Japan's Common Test for University Admissions—using Bereday's comparative education methodology and Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive domains. Analysis of sixty Korean items and sixty-one Japanese items revealed distinct assessment priorities between the two countries. Korea placed the highest emphasis on knowledge application, prioritizing the ability to apply concepts to real situations, while Japan emphasized knowledge recall most heavily, prioritizing accurate understanding of fundamental concepts. Despite this difference in priorities, both countries showed a common orientation toward higher-order thinking assessment, with the combined proportion of application and analysis domains exceeding that of knowledge recall in both systems. Regarding resource utilization, Korea demonstrated strong subject-specific differentiation, particularly in economics with extensive use of tables and graphs, while Japan emphasized complex thinking processes through higher use of mixed-format items combining multiple resource types. Korea maintained assessment consistency through a standardized five-option format and elective subject system, whereas Japan pursued mandatory subjects with diverse item structures ranging from four to nine options. This study aims to provide empirical comparative data that may inform policy discussions on Korea's upcoming 2028 university admission reform process.

This study analyzes the quality of education in the state of Piauí in comparison with the broader Brazilian educational context, integrating quantitative indicators, public policies, and the perspectives of administrators, teachers, and students. Using a multi-method approach—including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, field observations, and the review of official educational data—the research seeks to understand how progress and challenges emerge within state and municipal systems. The findings indicate that, in the early years of Elementary Education, Piauí has achieved notable gains due to the influence of PPAIC, continuous training across different regions, and the enhanced use of diagnostic assessment. However, structural disparities in learning remain evident, particularly in the final years of schooling and in the upper grades, with significant gaps recorded in Portuguese Language and Mathematics. Inadequate infrastructure, shortage of qualified teachers, high staff turnover, and differences between urban and rural environments—among other factors—continue to hinder the consolidation of high-quality education. Students’ perceptions underscore the need for equitable policies that align access, retention, and pedagogical practices with local realities. Comparative analyses show that, although Piauí has reduced some historical inequalities, its proficiency levels and school continuity rates remain well below national averages. Therefore, the study argues that educational progress in the state depends on sustaining localized policies, strengthening teacher training, improving pedagogical management, and investing in infrastructure that reflects regional needs.

This article investigates the construction of imagined school communities in the digital space of schools. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s theory of imagined communities, the study examines how two schools in northeastern Estonia, amidst significant systemic educational reforms and demographic shifts, use social media as a space to establish values and cultivate a sense of belonging. Using qualitative content analysis of over 200 Facebook posts from two newly opened state gymnasia in Narva, a predominantly Russian-speaking city, we found that social media served as a curated digital space for community construction, a compass for community direction, and a channel for articulating community commitments. The analysis demonstrates that social media functioned not only as an informational, but also as a cultural forum for generating new educational imaginaries. This study contributes to the spatial turn in comparative education by highlighting the value of researching social media to understand school community development and the role of digital space, especially during periods of systemic reform.

This article presents empirical findings from 21 teachers’ experiences across Afghanistan during the first year following the Taliban’s return to power. It examines the transformations within the school system and their impact on the teaching profession, students, and learning environment. These changes are analyzed through three interrelated dimensions: unpredictability, inflexibility, and unknowable futures. Together, these dimensions inform the development of the concept of pedagogies of unbelonging, a framework that explores how education institutions can actively contribute to social disruption and exclusion. By introducing this concept, the article critiques and extends the comparative education literature on transitologies, highlighting the role of education in shaping and reinforcing societal upheaval during periods of political transition.

ABSTRACT This article engages critically with ongoing debates on decolonisation in comparative education, contending that divergent positions on the issue reflect ontological politics – the idea that empirical realities, particularly in postcolonial contexts, are inherently complex and often contested through struggles over which realities are recognised as legitimate or more real. Rather than viewing contrasting accounts as mutually exclusive, I argue that such differences may instead be understood as complementary. The discussion focuses on two aspects of these divergences: the contested meanings of decolonisation, and the ways in which theoretical assumptions underpinning research accounts also enact multiple realities. These themes are illustrated through a re-examination of the scholarship on the politics of education in Hong Kong. Instead of treating the vehement disagreements provoked by the decolonial lens as irreconcilable divides, I propose they be embraced as productive tensions, vital for pushing the intellectual frontier further.

In “Comparing Futures or Comparing Pasts”, Cowen criticizes current theories for being static, depending on notions of equilibrium, and being able only to incorporate a limited range of dimensions. He argues instead that there should be efforts to study transitions, with the belief that features of educational systems are revealed in processes of sudden change that remain hidden when those systems are not changing, or changing only slowly. This paper takes inspiration from Cowen’s idea of “transitologies” which he presents as part of a critique of comparative education’s failure to deal with non-linear systems. This paper takes up the challenge of representing non-linear relationships between different aspects of systems. It suggests that catastrophe theory offers an interpretation of changes in educational policy that go at least some way toward the demands that Cowen makes of future theory. Catastrophe theory is presented and described, and illustrated using the decisions made in countries to join or leave the OECD PISA programme.

Purpose We explored the oral traditions of the Luo people as pedagogical resources for advancing social justice education. We sought to show how Indigenous epistemologies, as exemplified by Luo proverbs, can resist colonial erasures, affirm cultural identity and provide tools for justice-driven teaching, learning and critical inquiry. Design/methodology/approach Using interpretive analysis, we examined the pedagogical significance of Luo proverbs as living epistemologies. Framed within social justice education and decolonial theories, we underscored Luo language and literature as intellectual traditions that can both reflect and bolster educational practices of justice. Reflexive engagement as Luo women scholars – one transnational and diasporic, the other locally rooted – guided our analysis. Findings Luo proverbs encode enduring lessons about freedom, interdependence, dialog, reciprocity and stewardship of natural resources. These proverbs can be mobilized to design practices aligned with decolonizing pedagogies, such as discussion circles, collaborative projects, peer mentorship and critical reflection. Therefore, Luo proverbs can be used to foster culturally grounded yet globally relevant approaches to social justice-oriented education. Social implications By integrating Luo proverbs into educational practice, social justice–oriented teachers can affirm Indigenous wisdom as a resource for cultural sustainability, solidarity and liberation, thereby connecting local traditions and localized knowledge to global struggles for equity. Originality/value This article contributes to scholarship on Indigenous knowledge by centering Luo epistemologies, which remain underrepresented in comparative education. We highlight the potential of Luo oral traditions to animate decolonial pedagogies, contribute to a pluriversal and globally situated archive of knowledge and reimagine education as a transformative enactment of justice across landscapes.

In the annals of comparative education, there have been several scholars whose focus evolved into the field of higher education, particularly comparative and international higher education. Long the most prominent example, of course, is Philip Altbach, sometime editor of the major U.S. journal Comparative Education Review and, for many years subsequently, director of the renowned Center for International Higher education at Boston College. Other examples include Professor Qiang Zha at York University, Canada, Professor Ruth Hayhoe at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Terri Kim, formerly at the University of East London, and the current author at the University of Sydney. In all these latter cases, the solid training in comparative education, at what was at the time the University of London’s Institute of Education, now University College, London (UCL), proved a strong foundation for subsequent work in international higher education.

The article provides a comparative and analytical review of the thematic component of STEM education in legislative and regulatory documents in the field of education and science in Ukraine and the United States of America. The existing laws, strategies, state programs and by-laws that determine the directions of STEM education development, its goals, implementation mechanisms and institutional support at the national level are analyzed. It is established that in the USA STEM education is established as a long-term state priority with clear interagency coordination, stable funding and orientation towards innovation, national security and competitiveness of the economy. US regulatory documents are characterized by systematicity, heredity and a direct connection between education, science, technological development and the labor market. At the same time, in Ukraine, the regulatory and legal support for STEM education is formed mainly through framework laws on education and science, concepts, strategies and state programs that reflect the adaptive and transformative nature of educational policy in the context of social challenges and martial law. It was found that a common feature of the legislation of both countries is the integration of STEM approaches with the goals of developing an innovative economy, digital competencies and training specialists for high-tech industries. The differences lie in the level of regulatory detail, the degree of institutional maturity and the mechanisms for implementing STEM education. The results obtained can be used for scientific research in the field of comparative pedagogy, educational policy, as well as to substantiate the areas of improving the regulatory support for STEM education in Ukraine, taking into account the experience of the United States.

Against the backdrop of higher education internationalisation, general education reform has become a crucial pathway for enhancing students’ comprehensive competencies and global employability. This study focuses on Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), examining their general education reform from a comparative education perspective. Drawing on literature analysis and case comparison, the research systematically investigates the institutional context, curriculum structure, and implementation approaches of both universities’ general education programs. It analyses similarities and differences across dimensions such as course offerings, interdisciplinary integration, teaching and assessment mechanisms, and international orientation. Findings indicate that BFSU emphasises the foundational role of general education within the undergraduate curriculum, fostering both language proficiency and broader competencies, whereas HUFS highlights practical engagement and international projects to cultivate global leadership and intercultural skills. Despite their differing emphases, both reform pathways reflect a shared trend of shifting general education from a knowledge-supplement model to a competency-oriented approach. The results provide comparative insights and practical implications for advancing the internationalisation of general education in foreign language universities.

ABSTRACT This article presents findings from a study exploring factors shaping in-service teachers’ enactment of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in school settings. Addressing gap in research focused predominantly on pre-service teachers, this qualitative study explores how GCE is experienced by in-service teachers in Poland and Portugal, considering contextual similarities and differences. Grounded in a critical GCE perspective that emphasises global social justice and advocates for systemic change (Pashby, K., M. da Costa, S. Stein, and V. Andreotti. 2020. “A Meta-review of Typologies of Global Citizenship Education.” Comparative Education 56 (2): 144–164), data were collected through focus group interviews with 37 teachers and analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun, V., and V. Clarke. 2019. “Reflecting on Reflexive Thematic Analysis.” Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health 11 (4): 589–597). Findings reveal the influence of national policy, local communities, peers, and teachers’ personal values on GCE practice. Rather than placing responsibility on individual teachers, the study advocates a systemic view of the GCE landscape. Using the metaphor of GCE as a garden, the study illustrates how interconnected elements – such as national context (climate), schools (sun), external partners (rain), social actors (plants), resources (fertilisers), educational system (soil) collectively support or hinder implementation. It concludes that nurturing all aspects of this ecosystem is essential to support teachers effectively. Additionally, it proposes different garden types to illustrate different GCE models: neoliberal (analogous to French gardens), liberal (English gardens), and critical (permaculture gardens).

Globalization and postmodernism have determined the need to realign the epistemological corpus of the comparative discipline of Education to integrate the gnoseological requirements of these discourses into our knowledge. Additionally, resolving the scientific vulnerabilities of Comparative Education and achieving a post-relativist phase in the construction of the discourse of our science is necessary to combat the serious absence of Teleology in Western education. It requires the collaboration of interdisciplinary work within the teleological sciences of education, particularly with philosophy and theology to create a firm foundation. By establishing robust foundations between the sciences that transcend the evolving theoretical paradigms imposed by successive historical cycles, the development and consolidation of the comparative education discipline can achieve greater stability, coherence and intellectual rigor.

A continuous effort to put in relation and to combine ‘re-thinking’ and ‘new thinking’ is one of the characteristic features of most of the writings of Robert Cowen, interweaving and combining a discussion of the state of the art of each of the themes addressed, including the relevant trends historically emerged in the area, with a theoretical reflection on the possible trajectories and new prospects for further evolution. This aspect runs through all Cowen’s production, and can also be seen in his most recent work, up to his very last essays, that focus precisely on the future of comparative studies (Cowen 2022, 2023). This paper will try to investigate the connection between those two moments of ‘thinking’ addressed by Bob Cowen, coessential to each other, intending to propose some lines of development with regard to the possible role of the comparativist and the responsibility of comparative education, from a theoretical as well as an ethical-political point of view: thus gathering a legacy, and at the same time taking up a challenge for the future that cannot be evaded.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a comparative study of parental decision-making in private tutoring in Hong Kong and the Czech Republic, using similar qualitative approaches. It is based on interviews with 145 parents, exploring the factors, criteria, and strategies influencing their choices. The findings reveal both convergences and divergences in parental approaches. Key influences include rational choices, emotions, and cognitive biases, with both groups exhibiting ‘bounded rationality’. Despite differences in geography, culture, and education, the study reveals unexpected similarities, particularly regarding child agency – parents’ involvement of children in decisions about tutoring. The paper critically examines explanations for these trends, emphasising factors beyond culture, such as social class, global parenting images, and social media. It advocates for further research into the global influences shaping parental decisions and how these evolve in a globalised context. The study contributes to the field of shadow education and comparative education, offering new methodological and conceptual insights.