COMPARATIVE EDUCATION IN SEARCH FOR ITS IDENTITY: CONTEMPORARY DILEMMAS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The article examines the current situation of comparative education and elaborates several challenging questions that it’s facing within the process of developing its own distinctive science identity. The main attention is focused on examination of four issues: Is comparative education a method or a science? What are the different terms describing the field in different cultural contexts and languages? Should comparative education research be focused on education-society relationship or should it treat the education as an autonomous system? What is proper comparative education: comparing educational phenomena or national systems only?