A two‐sided medal: On the complexity of international comparative and collaborative team research

Abstract

In recent years, more and more international comparative research has been conducted in internationally and geographically spread project teams and international research networks, and comparative research has become a fundamentally collaborative effort. Accordingly, research in such projects has to cope with a higher level of methodological complexity than non‐comparative research as well as with a particular sociocultural complexity. This complexity can have an influence on the research process and therefore on the quality and validity of the results, an issue that has so far not been discussed much, either in Higher Education research or beyond. Thus, this article refers to studies that provide empirical insights into comparative collaborative research teams and illuminates why international collaboration in comparative research projects is both a source of better solutions and of amplified complications and how they are interrelated. On this basis it provides a conceptual reflection and delineates dimensions of task‐related, methodological complexity and team diversity. While comparative research has specific methodological challenges that can be alleviated by international team collaboration, collaborative research has particular social challenges that can be aggravated in comparative research. The conclusion makes propositions for further analyses, discusses lessons for comparative Higher Education research and sets out implications for its institutional development.

Mobility and Research Performance of Academics in City-Based Higher Education Systems

“…One key factor related to (expected to result from) mobility and the internationalisation of academic work is publishing. In academia, it is becoming increasingly common for academics to publish in the English-language dominated international peer-reviewed literature to heighten chances of recruitment and career progression (even in the social sciences and humanities: Sivertsen, 2016) and to participate in international conferences and obtain co-authorship on international research projects and publications (Kosmutzky, 2018). Thus, universities worldwide are increasingly engaging in the isomorphic policy of borrowing perceived successful practices, norms and values from universities located at the centres of academic and scientific power that rely heavily on mobility and internationalisation and adopting them, sometimes with variations, which can create tensions and disruptions (Oleksiyenko, 2018).…”

Towards a methodology discourse in comparative higher education

“…A debate about the methodology of comparative research is particularly important for the interdisciplinary higher education research community because it comprises scholars from different fields with their own intellectual and epistemic traditions, diverse methodological approaches as well as different preferred methods (Cantwell, 2020; Daenekindt & Huisman, 2020; Teichler, 1996). Furthermore, we conduct our research to a large extent in interdisciplinary as well as international teams (Brew, Boud, Lucas, & Crawford, 2013; Kosmützky, 2018a; Teichler, 2014). On the one hand, the richness of disciplinary approaches, strategies and international perspectives fosters innovation and creativity.…”

Comparative education in an age of competition and collaboration

“…Academics continue to move consistent with long-established hierarchies among nationstates and organisations, yet academic stratification dimensions continuously evolve (Kim 2017). Such globalisation manifests itself in joint, dual, or franchised programmes, online and distance education, and international branch campuses, with research developing apace (see Kosmützky and Putty 2016). What will be the consequence of these elite border-crossings in the face of humanitarian crises of restricted migration and mobility, such as Europe's waves of refugees and newly-constructed walls between countries?…”

“…Thirdly, heightened competition and collaboration require individual scholars to cultivate their skills to work interculturally and compare more explicitly than ever before. International research teams, with larger numbers of team members and broader in scope and scale, are challenged to successfully develop comparative and mixed-methods projects, which have grown more complex (see Kosmützky 2018). This is especially so to avoid misunderstandings and fully capture the essential characteristics of other times and places.…”