Comparative Education Research at the Education Policy Agora: On Globalizing Tandem Processes in Nordic Welfare State Education Policy and Research : Panel Session at the CIES 2018 Conference in Mexico City

• This panel session focus on the interplay between education policy discourses and international comparative research. Firstly, It is grounded in a hypothesis that a comparativistic paradigm – emphasizing hierarchies and rankings – is emphasized in current educational policy discourses as well as in educational research (on this development, see e.g. Cusso and D’Amico, 2005; OECD, 2001). We have made a broad distinction between comparatistic research analyses, emphasizing educational qualities and reciprocal understandings of ways of dealing with educational matters (c.f. Novoa and Yariv Mashal, 2003), and comparativistic analyses, where the focus is on ranking and hierarchizing measures. Though international comparative studies often include comparatistic as well as comparativistic apects, the point made here is that in current policy discourses comparativistic analyses are prioritized and are governing educational policy making (c.f. A1,A2andA3, 2015). This is an international and transnational tendency presumably played out differently in different national and regional contexts (e.g. Grek 2009). In order to develop a more precise analysis we focus our studies on developments of International Large Scale Assessments (ILSA) in a Nordic welfare state context, which we link to international tendencies. Secondly, this session is based on a hypothesis that a comparativistic turn is developed in tandem processes and displayed at an education policy and research agora (Nowotny et al, 2003; Rip, 2006) where different actors in different positions are at work, identifying and framing problematics and road maps, and by that also positioning different politics of knowledge in education discourses and governing practices. Given these historical and conceptual framework, the panel session is based on a set of four inquiries to be presented in different papers: 1. Education policy history: Welfare state education in change: a historical analysis focusing on the research-policy agora trajectories and changes in the politics of knowledge 2. Research history: A science and technology study of the history of comparative education research with a focus on discourses on ILSA in national and international contexts. 3. Research publication and communication; Analyses of communication patterns in ILSA research based on systematic research reviews 4. Implications of a comparativistic paradigm: Analyses of a system of reason in policy and research in formating educational knowledge and policy positions. These inquiries are presented and jointly discussed in plenum with discussants having an international perspective of the field of international comparative research and policy discourses. The ambition of the panel session is to develop a thorough understanding of international comparative education research in current institutional and intellectual contexts (e.g Manzon, 2011; Cowen and Kazamias, 2009; Epstein, 2008) and to contribute to a discussion of positions and positionings at the education policy agora. The symposium is of significant importance for comparative education in several ways; the papers deal with interplay between local and transnational processes in the construction of ILSA and their translation at the education policy agora and by that transforming the politics of knowledge in and on education.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Comparative Education

Science - Society Interaction

Education Policy Research

International comparisons

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