Good afternoon, everyone!

My name is Paula Yaptangco together with my partner, ma’am Mhelvin

Reyes from Potrero National High School SDO Malabon and we will be your first set of reporters for
today. Some might say “ALAY” but we will try our very best to discuss the definition of comparative
education. Please bear with me as I’m still recovering from the flu, not COVID, thankfully! Alright! This
will be a quick discussion so let’s start with it!

So how do we define comparative education? Do any of you guys have any idea about this? I’m sure
each one of us here already has a gist of what comparative education is. While I was researching, I came
across a lot of definitions of comparative education but it all boils down to this: Comparative education
is a discipline in the social sciences which entails the scrutiny and evaluation of different educational
systems, such as those in various countries. It’s basically a framework that compares educational
systems and practices across regions and countries.

Professionals in this area of endeavor are absorbed in advancing evocative terminologies and guidelines
for education worldwide, enhancing educational structures and producing a context to which the
success of education programs and initiatives can be assessed. So if you want to delve in the world of
comparative education you must have a whole lot of knowledge about educational structures around
the world as you will be delivering a framework to measure and assess the effectivity of different
education systems.

A couple of statements from two known personalities in this field. First one is from Nicholas Hans who
was an educator from Russia and the author of the book “Comparative Education A Study of Educational
Factors and Traditions”, he said that comparative education is a step-by-step study of different and
often contrasting educational systems with a view of understanding their differences and similarities. So,
we should aim to understand the differences and similarities of the various educational systems across
regions and countries and not call them out if, say, they have a different approach than us. Because it
doesn’t mean that their approach is not working for them just because it’s different than ours. Much like
opinions, people may have different takes and opinions on a lot of things, but it doesn’t mean that one
is wrong, and the other is right. It is just that, it’s different.

The next one is from Erwin H. Epstein, a Professor of Cultural and Educational Policy Studies and
Director of the Center for Comparative Education at Loyola University Chicago. He said that Comparative
Education is a field of study that applies historical, philosophical, and social science theories and
methods to international problems in education. So clearly, we have a lot of theories to take into
consideration in order to address international educational problems. And it’s not a one size fits all.
There must be different methods to be used in different problems.

And now let’s discuss the objectives of comparative education. According to Harold Noah (1985), and
Farooq Joubish (2009) comparative education has five purposes: First is to describe educational systems,
processes, or outcomes. Next is to assist in the development of educational institutions and practices.
Third is to highlight the relationships between education and society. Fourth is to establish generalized
statements about education that are valid in more than one country. Lastly, to help the current
generation understand the now a days education systems with reference to the past. Noah and Joubish
stated that Comparative education is often incorrectly assumed to exclusively encompass studies that
compare two or more different countries. In fact, since its early days researchers in this field have often
eschewed or avoided such approaches, preferring rather to focus on comparisons within a single
country over time. Still, some large-scale projects, such as the PISA (Programme for International
Students Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) studies, have
made important findings through explicitly comparative macro analysis of massive data sets. Let’s watch
this video for context. This one is from the official YouTube channel of NowThis World, if you’re familiar
with that. And the data here is from PISA.

That’s it for my part, I’ll give the floor now to my partner, ma’am Mhelvin Reyes. Thank you for listening!