Educational research at international level: Features, expectations and limitations

This paper offers a short review of the major characteristics and limitations of international educational research institutions. One of the major concerns of the paper is to constrast the role of international vis à vis national institutions in educational research. The complementarity of international and national institutions is manifested in the selection of topics, application of approaches, use of methods and organisation of work usually applied in international research programmes, but rarely used in national projects. The article concludes by drawing attention to the fact that the variety of international research institutions alone cannot satisfy evolving needs in the educational field, but should be accompanied by sufficient flexibility for continuous adaptation.