Wide horizons and blurred boundaries: comparative perspectives on adult and lifelong learning

Abstract

General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms The history of comparative education is a distinguished one, although, like most specialist fields in education, the influence of different intellectual paradigms can be seen in the variety of approaches to research, and in the diverse nature of the leading books and journals. It is an area that Peter Jarvis has engaged with and contributed to over many years. Furthermore, many of his publications, authored or edited, address international issues in adult education which provoke comparative reflection. Readers are encouraged to step out of their own world view and environment into less familiar territory or into, what Bhaba (1994) calls, the 'Third Space'. In times of rapidly intensifying globalisation, both in the physical and abstract sense, on the one hand, and the increasing polarisation of ideas and communities on the other, comparative research in education has much to offer. If educational change is to be better understood, or successfully embraced, contexts and specificities matter more than many policy makers and researchers realise. This calls for deeper analyses of the tensions between the global and the local which lie at the heart of context sensitive forms of comparative and international research in education (Crossley and Jarvis, 2001). Here we examine Peter Jarvis's contribution to both his primary field of adult education and to the challenging and thought-provoking area of comparative scholarship.

Peter Jarvis: 1937–2018

“…The impact of Peter's work in adult and lifelong learning was celebrated in a 2017 special issue of the International Journal of Lifelong Education and, for readers seeking specific details, this provides an insightful account of his key publications and an informed analysis of his overall intellectual contribution (Holford et al 2017). The volume also includes a paper by Lore Arthur and myself reflecting upon Peter's contribution to the field of comparative education and highlighting how he served as President of the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE) from 1999 to 2000 (Arthur and Crossley, 2017).…”