This article revisits a topic central to the past and the present of comparative education: the theme of "transfer". It outlines four ideas. First, that comparative education as a field of study, having begun in the study of "mobilities", became diverted by other anxieties. Second, the article notes that the theme of…

Over time, the field of comparative education has seen sharp discontinuities in method and topic. One approach to understanding these discontinuities is to examine their roots in a "double-reading" of the world: the combination of academe's internal display of a disciplinary form and the external reading of a specific global time-space…

Outlines several ways of looking comparatively at democratic educational systems. Examines narratives of democratic education in American educational history; nation-building as a primary policy objective; and conceptual weaknesses of the model of elite, mass, and universal education. Sees current trends toward educational efficiency and quality…

Comparative education is late in addressing postmodern issues because of its traditional theoretical orientation and focus on practice and policy. Ideal-typical models illustrate how "modern" educational goals based on notions of national culture and a social contract are being replaced by postmodern emphases on efficiency and…