Between Epistemology and Research Practices

Neo-institutionalist theory of global 'isomorphism', or so-called World Culture Theory (WCT), has been much debated in comparative education. One notable feature of the debate is that the vast majority of its participants belong to a handful of closely knit comparative education communities. Ironically enough then, a debate that fundamentally concerns the globalisation of education has hardly been 'globalised', with virtually no comparative scholars participating from 'other' comparative education societies. Clearly, there is a need to critically engage with WCT by explicitly drawing on 'other' intellectual traditions of comparative educations. To this aim, I first discuss the critical methodological insights and underlying epistemic standpoint of Japanese comparative education scholars. I then employ their arguments as a starting point for my subsequent post-colonial critique of WCT and the WCT debate. Overall, this study illuminates the hitherto unacknowledged 'epistemic ignorance' of the on-going WCT debate in the English-language, 'paradigmatic' comparative education realm and suggests a way to move beyond this provinciality.

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Introduction to Part 2: Comparative Education Trends and Directions

Wiseman¹,

Anderson²

2013

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2013

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Between Epistemology and Research Practices

Cited by 3 publications

References 26 publications

Towards a new articulation of comparative educations: cross-culturalising research imaginations

Towards a new articulation of comparative educations: cross-culturalising research imaginations

Provincialising the world culture theory debate: critical insights from a margin

Introduction to Part 2: Comparative Education Trends and Directions

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