The Symbiotic Relationship between Empirical Comparative Research on Education and Neo-Institutional Theory

Abstract

As comparativists of education are well aware, over the second half of the 20th century there was a dramatic increase in the pace of educational expansion around the world. This revolution has made the world a schooled place both in terms of enrollment rates and increased average total years in schooling. What has been particularly noticeable is the degree to which governments in all types of nations have come to see that education plays a central role in the future development of the nation's human capital, and in turn governments have become the main providers of schooling. This alone is a significant shift from anything ever seen before the 20th century. Further this remarkable expansion of education has fostered notable homogeneity of goals, aims, and basic organizational forms of elementary and secondary schooling and, more recently, higher education.

Citation

Wiseman, A.W. and Baker, D.P. (2006), "The Symbiotic Relationship between Empirical Comparative Research on Education and Neo-Institutional Theory", Baker, D.P. and Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) The Impact of Comparative Education Research on Institutional Theory (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3679(06)07001-0