Ethical and Empirical Dimensions of Teaching Comparative and International Education

Introduction

The field of comparative and international education (CIE) endeavors to understand how education systems and issues interact with their surrounding contexts, from the local to the global, and how, in turn, they shape these contexts. CIE draws upon multiple disciplines and fields (e.g., sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and political science) to examine education in developed and developing countries. Comparative inquiry often leads to an investigation of the role that education (formal, nonformal, and informal) plays in individual and societal development. It is also important to consider how societal values influence attitudes and expectations of formal schooling. Key questions that address ethical and empirical dimensions in teaching CIE include whether education is a benevolent agent of change or whether education is a mirror of the larger society, manifesting the status quo and inequalities through its structure, curriculum, and pedagogy (Kubow and Fossum 2007)....