The Content and Method of Comparative Education

The Content and Method of
Comparative Education
by Kandell (1955)
Instructor: Che-Wei Lee
ADMPS 3347 Comparative Education, Spring 2012
Thursday, 12 January 2012, 7:15-9:55 pm
4301 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
University of Pittsburgh
All Rights Reserved © 2012 by Che-Wei Lee 1

Please first read the following paragraph
and start deliberating what it means to you.
We cannot wander at pleasure among the
educational systems of the world, like a child
strolling through a garden, and pick off a flower
from one bush and some leaves from another,
and then expect that if we stick what we have
gathered into the soil at home, we shall have a
living plant. (p. 9)

Agenda
O Historical Background: An Era of Crisis
O Education and Postwar Reconstruction
O Scope and Meaning of Comparative Education
O Intangible Forces in Education
O Foundations of National Systems of Education
O Comparative Education and Philosophy of Education
O The War of Ideas
O Education as an Instrument of National Welfare
O Current Issues in Education

An Era of Crisis
O World War II and Cold War
O Relationship among Uncertainty, Instability, and
Educational Progress
O Scientific Advancement vs. Traditional Values
O Forms of Government: Totalitarianism vs. Democracy
O Economic Forces vs. Imperialist Exploitation
O The best means: Education
O Panning of Institutions
O Distribution of the Privileges of Education

Education and Postwar Reconstruction
O Priority: Economic Reconstruction and
Financial Resources
O Emerging Pattern of Educational Organization

Scope and Meaning of
O Descriptive studies of comparative education: Basic
materials for portray of the educational systems, e.g. class
sizes, & curricula
O Thick studies of comparative education : Penetrative
insights, richly, beyond descriptive deconstruction of
educational ideologies of the nations, e.g. Literacy for the
political ends in the USSR, & Nazi doctrines of racism &
militarism
O Association between the control of education and nation’s
culture pattern on the attitudes and modes of thinking of
its members

Scope and Meaning of
O Scope: International Scale
O Members: worldwide representative
professionals
O Themes: the problem of examinations presents a
serious difficulty in individual own education
system (common problems/framework derived
from their respective cultural differences)
O Determinations for solutions: political, social,
economic, & cultural forces

Argument of Comparative Education
O Comparative education is concerned with the
solution of which traditional cultural backgrounds
and current political and social aims as well as
economic forces will contribute more than any
universal theory of education, since it seeks to
analyze and compare the forces that make for
differences between national systems of
education, can only be done by starting with
certain common concepts or problems (P. 8).

Intangible Forces in Education
O Descriptive analyses of education systems are
valuable, accurate, but fail to contribute to the
breadth of approach to the problems of
education limited by a narrow concept of
education.
O The student of comparative education must, as
Sadler pointed out in a lecture delivered in
1900, “try to find out what is the intangible,
impalpable spiritual force which, in the case of
any successful system of education, is in reality
upholding the school system and accounting for
its present efficiency”(p. 9).

What is the intangible, impalpable
spiritual force?
O Sadler defined that “in studying foreign systems of
education we should not forget that the things
outside the schools matter even more than the things
inside the schools, and govern and interpret the
things inside” (p. 9).
O Being sensitive to the contextualization, localization,
& globalization (sometimes) of un/written studies
(secret workings, unique recipe, or failings of national
character)
O Practical value of studying in a right spirit: being
better fitted study and understand our own (p. 10).

Foundations of National Systems of
Education
O A national system of education cannot be established by borrowing
a piece from one country, another from another and so on.
O It is mixed with diversely direct or indirect influences by other
countries.
O A national system of education will have to grow out of its soil from
the seeds of its cultural tradition.
O The general principle that a national system of education must be
inspired by “things outside the schools,” and that these things
“govern and interpret the things inside the schools does not mean,
however, that a nation cannot incorporate into its own sound ideas
found in the educational systems of other countries (p. 11).
O The process of cross-fertilization of ideas is the key.

Comparative Education and
Philosophy of Education
O Relationship: Learn to ask what, when, where, how, and why.
O Contribution: it deals with fundamental principles and
fosters the acquisition of a philosophic attitude in analyzing
and therefore stimulating a clearer understanding of the
problems of education.
O Make educators better able to enter into the spirit and
tradition of the educational system of his own nation. What
about other nations?
O Serve as a challenge to examine the roots of the educational
system of one’s won nation.
O The comparison helps to bring into sharp focus the
similarities and differences between systems of education.

The War of Ideas
O Ideology: totalitarianism vs. demoracy

Education as an Instrument of
National Welfare
O The nature of the factors and forces outside the
school must be studied to understand the
characteristics of an educational system as it is and
as it changes.
O The progress and expansion of education as the
foundation of social stability and intelligent
citizenship have become the concern of the largest
social political unit in every country – the state.
O Good question: to the degree to which the powers of
the state should be used, and to what extent the
control of education should be centralized or
decentralized.

Current Issues in Education
O How to determine the aims of education?
O Depends the degree of freedom and authority
permitted in a system of education as well as the free
flow of ideas and the adaptation to new needs as
they are arisen.
O The solution of which socioeconomic changes and
educational theory have the answer, but the
realization of that answer in practice is dependent
upon the nature of the controls and their location –
whether the determination of education issues is
entirely in the hands of the state or whether the
public can express its opinions freely.

Conclusion
O Good attitudes for the study of comparative
education that I would like to encourage one
another mutually below.
O A study of these problems and issues and of the
ways in which they are, if not solved, at least
dealt with will be a contribution to a philosophic
attitude toward the wide field of interest covered
by the term organization of education, and to
quote Sadler, to make us better able to enter
into the spirit of our own national education (pp.
16-17).

Conclusion
O The fact that this is an era of transition when plans
for the future development of education are more
easily discussed than capable of being carried out
renders the study of comparative education all the
more valuable as stimulus to thought.
O No system of education anywhere, not even in the
United States, has reached a stage of equilibrium
(What about now? Who wants to share the current
status? ); all are in a state of becoming and the
directions, aims, and forms constitute the materials
for the study of comparative education.

Discussion
O Notice the context and era of this article.
O What are the points of Kandel’s arguments impressed you a lot?
O What are your imagination for the comparative education study before and
after reading Kandel’s piece?
O What is the purpose of the study of comparative education?
O Based on Kandel’s (1955) article, does a comparative study compare the
differences or similarities? Why or why not?
O Is it correct to interpret that comparative education study only care about the
successful cases? Why or why not? How to see the ineffective cases?
O Rethink the meanings of that paragraph I showed you previously.
O How do we distinguish the differences between “borrow” and “copy” in
comparative education terms?
O Share some elements you consider important when conducting a
comparative education study that is not included in Kandel’s paper.

Reference
Kandell, Isaac L. 1955. “The Content and
Method of Comparative Education.” In The
New Era in Education: A Comparative Study,
3—17. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

The Content and Method of Comparative Education

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