Session Information
23 SES 12 B, Research, Politics and Practice
Symposium
Contribution
As a consequence of the imperative of internationalism in educational research, the amount of international research projects is rising. However, a qualitative comparative approach is still rare in educational research if compared to large scale international studies. Hence, the question arises what difference qualitative comparative research makes compared to large scale quantitative international studies and how the imperative of internationalization is (or might not be) inscribed constitutively into any international research project. Therefore, this paper is taken as an opportunity to critically reflect on concepts of internationalization and methodological challenges of intercultural comparative research. Our arguments build on the analysis of a qualitative research project, comparing school cultures and education systems in Germany and the US. In this project we ask how schools deal with ethnic, cultural and lingual diversity among their students. Which concepts of diversity do schools have and how are these perceptions interwoven in a global perspective? Following questions like these, ethnographic case studies in schools are combined with the analysis of political documents like law texts and Mission Statements. By means of this project, the possibility of qualitative comparative studies becomes apparent. They show the intrinsic logic of cultural arrangements (like the education system). At the same time, the paper asks: Which restrictions determine such qualitative comparative research projects? While one part of that question can be deemed as methodological, the other part is concerned with obstacles of empirical research in schools. As a German research team, our perspectives on and experiences with regulations, schools and school practices in Germany and the US are therefore not only quite different but also sometimes unexpected. So, from a methodological point of view, how can we ensure that our comparison does not narrow concepts of culture and diversity down to national borders?
References
Baker D, LeTendre G (2005). National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling (Third.). Stanford Univ Press, Stanford. Hummrich, Merle and Rademacher, Sandra (2012): Die Wahlverwandtschaft von qualitativer Forschung und Kulturvergleich und ihre Bedeutung für die Erziehungswissenschaft - strukturtheoretische Überlegungen. Zeitschrift für qualitative Forschung, 13(1/2), 39–53.
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