Dr Germ Janmaat, Dr Susanne Wiborg, Dr Christine Han | Eight two hour sessions | Spring: 17:00 - 19:00  Thursday 31 January + 7, 14, 21, 28 February + 7, 14, 21 March | Room 746

This course will introduce participants to key aspects of the theory and practice of comparative education, with a view to helping them 'frame a thesis comparatively'. It will review the historical development of the field and with other areas of comparative study; explore key concepts and theoretical frameworks used by comparativists; and develop understanding of the main methodological approaches to systematic comparative research. All approaches and concepts will be illustrated with examples and studies from the field of education and other social sciences. 

Essential Readings:

Green, A. (2002). Education, Globalisation and the Role of Comparative Research Professorial Lecture. London: Institute of Education, University of London

Ragin, C. (1981). ‘Comparative Sociology and the Comparative Method’, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 25, (1-2), 102-117.

Mill, J. S. (1970). Two Methods of Comparison (excerpt from ‘A System of Logic’, 1888) in A. Etzioni and F. Du Bow (eds) Comparative Perspectives: Theories and Methods. Boston Mass: Little, Brown, pp. 205 - 213.

Ragin, C. (1987). The Comparative Method. Berkeley: University of California Press.

(Essential: Chapter 6: ‘A Boolean Approach to Qualitative Comparison: Basic Concepts’).

Skocpol, T. and Somers, M. (1980). ‘The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry’.  Comparative Studies in Sociology and History, 22 (2), pp.174-197.

Mahoney, J. (1999). ‘Nominal, Ordinal and Narrative Appraisal in Macrocausal Analysis’.  The American Journal of Sociology, 104, (4), 1154-1196.