The dimensions of social dynamics in comparative studies on higher education

Välimaa, Jussi; Nokkala, Terhi

doi:10.1007/s10734-013-9684-y

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Research that seeks to span national boundaries but is rooted in conceptual frames developed in single national contexts is unlikely to yield credible explanations. Researchers often fail to interrogate the historically specific relationship between higher education organisations and systems with the societies in which they are a part but instead assume that higher education plays some generic function in all places and times (Välimaa & Nokkala, ). Together these fallacies create the temptation to smooth variation or cite difference as an obstacle to knowing anything.…”

Section: Threats To Explanatory Research In Comparative and Internatimentioning

confidence: 99%

Explanatory accounts in international and comparative higher education research

Cantwell

2020

Higher Education Quarterly

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Developing plausible explanations rooted in theory and supported by evidence is a challenge for comparative higher education studies. The purpose of this article is to consider how comparative studies in higher education might develop accounts that allow the research community to enhance explanatory power. Higher education studies can advance explanations about what is happening and why, as well as interpret the meaning of occurrences by drawing broadly on realist scholarly traditions. Rather than prioritising a methodology, the field should prioritise essential questions and address them with all appropriate empirical tools. Avenues for explanatory research include bounded case studies, multi‐method investigations into specific phenomena, mechanism‐based approaches and macro‐social analysis.

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Section: Threats To Explanatory Research In Comparative and Internatimentioning

confidence: 99%

Explanatory accounts in international and comparative higher education research

Cantwell

2020

Higher Education Quarterly

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“…Researchers have long documented that 'schools teach more than they claim to teach' (Vallance 2014: 5). Notably, the school context, exercise of authority, curricula, and the characteristics of the staff and students have an implicitly socializing effect, transmitting norms that strongly influence students' values and behavior (Välimaa & Nokkala 2014;Trevino & McCabe 1994). Students may also actively accommodate and sometimes resist learning in the sense defined by the teacher (Higginbotham 1996;Willis 1981;Giroux, 1993).…”

Section: What Is the Hidden Curriculum And Why Do We Need To Pay Attementioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education

Semper

Blasco

2018

Stud Philos Educ

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“…Unwarranted response variations can also be triggered by country differences in contextual pressures, such as on what is socially desirable and what is not (Kreuter, Presser, & Tourangeau, ). The same question or measure may even hold different meanings in different countries, cultures (Välimaa & Nokkala, ) or, more subtly, items translated in different languages may convey different meanings (Brady, ). An extensive literature has explored comparability of survey items in cross‐cultural and cross‐national survey research (Holland & Wainer, ; Peng, Peterson, & Shyi, ; Strauss, ), and several types of equivalence have been identified, which can be grouped in two fundamental domains (Johnson, ).…”

Section: Operationalisation: Challenges For Comparative Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework and operationalisation challenges for quantitative comparative research in higher education

Seeber

2019

Higher Education Quarterly

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The increasing availability of data on higher education systems, institutions and their members creates new opportunities for comparative research adopting a quantitative approach. The value of future studies crucially depends on the capability to recognise and address some major methodological challenges existing in quantitative comparative research in higher education. The higher education context presents in fact specific features that can hinder comparisons, and political and social processes occurred in recent decades further enhanced complexity. This article aims to discuss key challenges that are currently met in quantitative comparative research in higher education while developing the conceptual framework and in research operationalisation, to discuss possible solutions and the value of configurational and multilevel analytical approaches in identifying meaningful objects of comparisons, to take into account the complexity of the higher education context and in identifying causal relationships.

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The dimensions of social dynamics in comparative studies on higher education

Cited by 45 publications

References 18 publications

Explanatory accounts in international and comparative higher education research

Explanatory accounts in international and comparative higher education research

Revealing the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education

Framework and operationalisation challenges for quantitative comparative research in higher education

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