Comparative Research in Education: a mode of governance or a historical journey?

This text is not a research paper, nor an epistemological reflection about the field of comparative education. It is an essay in the literal meaning of the word—‘an attempt, trial, that needs to be put to test in order to understand if it is able to fulfil the expectations’—in which we introduce an interpretation of the current condition of the field of comparative education. In the introduction to this essay we discuss the current phenomenon of a regained popularity of comparative educational research. We believe that this situation has both positive and negative consequences: it can contribute to the renewal of the field or it may be no more than a brief fashion. Our reflections focus on the uses of comparative research in education, not on any precise research question. Even so, only for illustrative purposes, we present some examples related to the European Union. We then go on to discuss current comparative practices, arguing that comparative educational studies are used as a political tool creating educational policy, rather than a research method or an intellectual inquiry. In the two main sections of this text we define two extreme positions: comparison as a mode of governance and comparison as a historical journey. We do recognise that between these two extremes there is room enough to imagine different positions and dispositions. But our intention is to separate very different traditions of the comparative field analytically. Throughout the article we build a case in favour of a comparative-historical approach. Nevertheless, we argue that the reconciliation between ‘history’ and ‘comparison’ will only be possible if we adopt new conceptions of space and time, and of space-time relationship. This is a condition required for the understanding of comparative research in education as a historical journey.     

Further thoughts on the writing of stories: a response to Michael Gard and Ian Wellard

The terminological disunity in the usage of the terms 'sport' and 'physical culture' leads to controversy over their meanings. This study recapitulates their content (substance) in a broader sense than is usual in common usage and points out some possible philosophical connections. The first part focuses on an analysis of the terms: 'culture' and 'body' and their joining together to form the term 'physical culture'. The author first calls attention to other levels of human corporeality than sport and movement (such as hygiene, body aesthetics, eroticism, etc.), which show us that the implications of the term 'physical culture' is too broad. On the other hand, the term 'sport' is delimitated too narrowly, because the cultivation of human motion is a concern in school physical education and recreational physical exercise as well. The second part gives reasons for the use of the term 'kinanthropology' and allows us to grasp its philosophical conception as 'philosophical kinanthropology'.     

Mass Education,Privatisation, Compensation and Diversification: Issues on the future of public education in Mexico

The corrosion of public education in Mexico by institutional rigidities and decades of underfunding have placed the system in severe crisis. The rich have opted out and the poor are dropping out of it. The failure of incomplete and politically decentralisations to address poor quality and persistent inequalities have resulted in widespread applause for special compensatory programmes aimed to reach the most underprivileged students. This article argues that the disappointing results are due their sidestepping needed reforms within the system in favour of targeting the students it is incapable of retaining, and an erroneous view of the underprivileged as possessing educational aspirations and abilities completely distinct from the rest of society. The article proposes a more inclusive educational approach to provide high quality education for all.