The article draws attention to the forgotten ancestry of the four steps of comparison model (descriptioninterpretationjuxtapositioncomparison). Comparativists largely attribute this to George Z. F. Bereday [1964. Comparative Method in Education. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston], but among German scholars, it is mostly attributed to Franz Hilker [1962. Vergleichende Pädagogik. München: Max Hueber]. Who, then, is the rightful author of the model? This article attempts to answer this question. The methodological approaches of the two authors will be compared and contextualised in respect to their academic lives, especially through the 1950s and 1960s. Hilker and Bereday both referred to each other's publications on several occasions, which indicates a close communication between them. In contrast to the Anglophone dominance of scientific journals today, their way of practising comparative education was multilingual. Their cooperation with the nascent national academic associations of those times is also examined. Finally, the epistemological characteristics of the four steps model, including its limitations, and value for the field of comparative education today, are evaluated.
The article is directed to theorizing Transnational Education (TNE). This entails definitions of what is meant by transnational and by education. It also focuses a variety of social realities which might be classified as TNE. The main aim of the article is to sharpen TNE as an analytical concept and at the same time broaden the horizon on the range of actors who are involved in TNE within different sectors of education epitomised as schools, universities, and beyond. It is posited that for research it is not only essential to have a clear view of what is considered as transnational, but also to take into account which sectors of education shall be addressed. This leads to questions of legitimacy and governance, because: who defines, controls, and regulates TNE? Here the theoretical crushing point is the relation of TNE to the sovereignty principle of national education policy. In the first part of the article TNE is defined and conceptualised, whereas in the second part the three TNE research areas announced in the title are characterised.
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