Comparative higher education - potentials and limits.

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Autor/in	Teichler, Ulrich
Titel	Comparative higher education - potentials and limits.
Quelle	In: Higher education, 32 (1996) 4, S. 431-465Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Beigaben	Literaturangaben 40; Abbildungen 4
Sprache	englisch; englische Zusammenfassung
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-1560; 1573-174X
DOI	10.1007/BF00133257
Schlagwörter	Evaluation; Forschungsmethode; Methodologie; Vergleichende Bildungsforschung; Sprachbarriere; Internationale Zusammenarbeit; Hochschulbildung; Wissenschaftskooperation; Hochschulforschung; Hochschulorganisation; Hochschulreform; Hochschuldidaktik; Europäisches Studienprogramm; Internationaler Vergleich; Welt; Übersicht; ERASMUS (Förderung der Mobilität von Hochschulstudenten); Forschungsprojekt; Deutschland
Abstract	Research on higher education is an object-focussed area based on a broad range of disciplines. The institutional base is often shaky and diverse. Various characteristics, notably the blurred distinction between the scholar and the reflective practitioner, contribute to considerable tensions, though research on higher education enjoys substantial public attention. Interest in comparative research on higher education grew in recent years and was reinforced by the community of higher education researchers in Europe. As it can be conceptually and methodologically demanding and fruitful, the growing interest could serve as a stimulus for enhancing a common identity and a growing quality. However few comparative research designs represent the ideal type of setting a research agenda of clearly defined hypotheses to be tested, and if they do so, the study mostly turns out to be too simplistic due to disregard of the complex context. Rather, most comparative projects are exploratory and most productive in providing unexpected insight. In addition, comparative research faces many problems of a practical nature. Costly research seems to be granted sufficient funds only if it addresses issues of current political concern. Language barriers and limits of field knowledge often lead to a poor provision of information. International collaborative research teams tend to be vulnerable due to, among others, a heterogeneity of schools of thoughts, spiralling costa and different work styles. The author argues that comparative studies on higher education are most fruitful in destroying conceptual reasoning based on narrow experience - they are a gold mine for the early stages of conceptual restructuring. They are indispensible for understanding a reality shaped by common international trends, reforms based on comparative observation, growing trans-national activities and partial supra-national integration in higher education. Comparative projects can be regarded as theoretically and methodologically most promising if they are based on a semi-structured research design, whereby the strengths of various conceptual approaches in explaining the phenomena are analysed and the researchers systematically deal with the fact that the project is likely to generate surprising information requiring to restructure the initial conceptual framework. Inhaltliche Schwerpunkte: Introduction - Research on higher education (Higher education as an object-focussed area of research - A close link to problem-solving - The blurred distinction between practitioners and researchers - The systematic incompleteness of higher education research - The shaky balance of communication with the actors concerned - The thematic pattern of higher education research) - The comparative dimension of higher education research (Growing involvement in comparative research - Methodological issues - Practical issues of comparative higher education research) - Select research experiences (Reference to personal experience - Implementation of higher education reforms in Europe - Evaluation of study abroad - The ERASMUS evaluation research project - The academic profession - Relationships between education and employment in Japan in comparative perspective - A summary of research experiences) - Implications for further research. (HOF/Abstract übernommen).
Erfasst von	Institut für Hochschulforschung (HoF) an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Update	1998_(CD)