The roundtable will discuss the possibilities of complex designed comparative analyses on conditions, mechanisms and instruments of production, distribution and reception of scholarly educational research knowledge. It takes up the meaning and problem of comparative research in and on educational research against the background of the process of Europeanization. It is less interested in comparative education as a mode of governance and policy advice for improving national educational systems, but in comparative research as an exciting and inspiring mode of historical and empirical investigation, scholarly reflection, and intellectual self-governance. It aims at using comparison as a methodological and epistemological tool to defamiliarise and disenchant ourselves and the context we are embedded in as researchers. Such a perspective is all the more important, because it implies, on the one hand, the question how educational research contributes to the formation of a European Research Area, and how these contributions are addressed to, taken up and valued by educational professionals, administrators and politicians both on national and European level. On the other hand, it comparatively looks upon the current state of the educational sciences in Europe and their research conditions, directions and outcomes against the background of current shifts in educational research governance and its consequences. Comparative research on educational research, therefore, also seems to be a fruitful analytical approach to empirically identify future options of educational research in the present, and to historically relate these 'visible' future options with the complexity of their origin. And, comparative research also will reflect, whether this approach is an analytical one or not by asking the basic question: how is the compared comparable? It, thus, defends critical questions against overhasty answers. However, the roundtable could also be a forum for an organizational answer to the mentioned questions. It could and should explore the possibility of establishing a renewed network in EERA – comparative research. The following scholars (in alphabetical order) will contribute to the roundtable: Professor Edwin Keiner (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany) + Comparative Research presented in ECERs – an empirical view Professor Volker Kraft (University Neubrandenburg, Germany, network 13) + Forms of educational knowledge as a challenge for comparative research Professor Martin Lawn (University of Edinburgh, UK) + Introduction and chair Professor Sverker Lindblad (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) + Modes and Means of Comparative Research on Education Professor Terri Seddon (Monash University, Australia) + Disturbing work disturbing research: Extending cross-national comparison to trans-border theorising. Dr. Florian Waldow (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany) + Accounting for educational reform?

Attempt to revitalize a comparative research perspective and a respective network of comparative research focusing on educational research