Post-development theory and comparative education

Abstract

Comparative education has engaged with the concept of ‘development’ for more than 40 years (see, for example, Kandel, 1961). As a result, development has become a substantial thread in the tapestry of comparative education; many comparative educators include a discussion of development issues in their courses, and work as consultants on small and large-scale development projects. Part of the process is re-imagining comparative education, therefore, must involve an engagement with contemporary post-foundational theorizing in the field of developmental studies. In many cases, the ways in which comparative education has dealt with issues of development have mirrored the generation of ideas about the concept that have arisen in the development studies. However, in this chapter we argue that key aspects of recent theorizing in development studies have not found their way to any great extent into the comparative education literature. It is our aim to identify and address these gaps. We first provide a brief overview of earlier perspectives on development, and then discuss a broad group of alternative development theories that are variously labeled ‘alternative development’, ‘alternatives to development’ and ‘post-development.’ We examine the uptake of these theories in recent comparative education textbooks and explore their implications and applications for a re-imagined comparative education.