Wang Cheng-xu (1998)

An overview of the book: The book portrays a hundred years of comparative educational development and evaluates its multi-faceted academic doctrines, methodological issues and theoretical frameworks. In comparative perspective, it mentions some international educational organizations and outlines some historical development of comparative education in Germany, France, Japan, former Soviet Union and China. The book won the first grand prize in the Second National Distinguished Educational Science Academic Works Competition.

Abstract [321 English words, cited in the book, pp.1-2.]

The book consists of eight chapters. Chapter I defines the stages of the development of comparative education and the scope of the book. Chapter II deals with the first stage, which spanned from 1817 to the end of the 19th century and laid the foundation of comparative education. Apart from a short section on the prehistory of comparative education, theories of four comparators are discussed. They are Marc Antoine Jullien, Victor Cousin, Horace Mann and Henry Barnard.

Chapter III deals with the second stage, which spanned mainly the first half of the 20th century with the formation of comparative education as a discipline. Theories of three comparators are discussed. They are Michael Sadler, Issac Kandle and Nicholas Hans.

The rest of the book mainly covers the third stage of the development of comparative education, the postwar period. Chapter IV deals with four schools of methodology of comparative education. Methodologies of George Z. F. Bereday, Harold Noah and Max Eckstein, Brian Holmes and Edmund J. King are discussed.

Chapter V deals with three theoretical debates in comparative education in the west since 1970s. They are the debates on structure functionalism, dependency theory and ideology in comparative education. Chapters VI and VII deal with comparative education studies in seven countries. Chapter VI deals with comparative education studies in the United States and England. Chapter VII deals with comparative education studies in Germany, France, Japan, former Soviet Union and China.

The last chapter deals with international organizations and the study of comparative education. The chapter is divided into three sections. Section 1 deals with the Bureau of International Education (IBE) and UNESCO and their contributions to the study of comparative education. Section 2 deals with the establishment of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and its research in comparative education. Section 3 deals with the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) and the work of its eight World Congresses.

Introduction to the author:

Prof. Wang Cheng-xu is a distinguished figure in the field of comparative and international education in Mainland China. Earning a bachelor degree in 1936 at the Dept. of Education,  Zhejiang University and a master degree and professional certificate of education at the Dept. of Education, London University in 1941, he worked as a university lecturer at the University of Nottingham, a professor at Zhejiang University and Dean of Zhejiang Normal University, and currently works as a tenured professor and doctoral study consultant at Hangzhou University. In 1993, he was awarded the title of honorable research fellow at London Institute of Education and has been an educational consultative UNESCO committee member in the Asia-Pacific rim and a national consultant for educational development of Mainland China. His prolific academic publications lie in the fields of history of comparative education, higher education in UK and democracy in education.

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