Research on the Crisis of Comparative Education Identity

Author: Li Xianping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: The identity crisis in comparative education refers to the dilemma of self-identity faced by comparative education as a relatively complete field of human subject activity. It emerged half a century ago and has intensified over the years, becoming a severe issue that contemporary comparative educators must acknowledge and confront. It manifests in four main aspects: the crisis of disciplinary unity in comparative education, the crisis of social value and status, the crisis of scholar identity, and the survival crisis of regional comparative education groups. Since the emergence of the identity crisis in comparative education, the field has adopted various measures to address it, primarily including: constructing a scientific methodology for comparative education, borrowing and adopting multidisciplinary methods and theories, reuniting this heterogeneous field under the banner of culture, and excavating the roots of the identity crisis in comparative education with alternative postmodern thinking. To date, none of these strategies have been proven particularly effective in practice. While the identity crisis in comparative education has contributed to division and alienation, it has also greatly inspired and motivated the sense of mission, responsibility, and creativity within the field, becoming an important driving force for its growth and development over the past half-century. The identity crisis in comparative education is part of the escalating comprehensive survival crisis since industrialization, especially since the 1970s, and the identity crises in educational science and other comparative disciplines are universal. Its essence lies in the contradiction between the rapid changes in the external environment and survival conditions of comparative education and the lagging internal transformation and response within the field. The neglect of its own humanistic thinking advantages, the unrealistic pursuit of scientism, especially positivist academic standards, the exclusion of human factors, particularly irrational human elements, and the intentional avoidance of its own subjective role are the fundamental reasons for the continuous emergence and intensification of its identity crisis. Comparative education is a creative activity that discovers, creates, and develops novel, unique, and visionary connections between existing educational entities and educational development units, thereby generating new values, meanings, and things in educational activities and providing humanity with wisdom for educational development. Comparative, on the other hand, is a discipline or systematic theoretical doctrine created by comparative education scholars about comparative education. The identity of comparative education is diverse, changing, and evolving. Only by pursuing sustainable development in education, pedagogy, comparative education, comparative, and human sustainability can comparative education continuously construct a new identity with practical significance. The Chinese traditional philosophical thought of "harmony in diversity" will become the core operational mechanism for sustainable development. Comparative education is inevitably entering the postmodern era. Postmodern comparative education is sustainable, critical and reflective, dialogical and interactive, creative and constructive, human-centered, unfinished, and open. Postmodern comparative educators should embrace the slogan: "I create, therefore I am." We should take pride in the possibility of becoming such creative forces in comparative education.