Abstract:

With the “nation state” becoming the basic unit of comparative education analysis since the beginning of Western modern times, the methodology of comparative education has long been trapped in the quagmire of “methodological nationalism”. Methodological nationalism assumes that a nation state is a natural development form of modern society and political organizations, viewing it as the only analytical unit or “container” of social processes. In the research process, “methodological nationalism” uses the experience of nation states to explain the modernization process, ignoring the context of other nation states, and thus limiting the research to the geopolitical boundaries of specific nation states, viewing the nation state as the ultimate unit of analysis, and defining multiple analytical phenomena and problems in social sciences. With the deepening development of globalization and the arrival of a global risk society, cosmopolitanism has become an important trend in global education development and has important educational value implications. Methodological cosmopolitanism takes into account the multiple perspectives of the entire world and its globalization, reconstructs the various binary opposing conceptual systems formed in the sociological system of “nation states”, expands the analytical units and research paradigms of comparative education, and transcends the limitations of “methodological nationalism”. In the context of the transition from “nationalism” to “cosmopolitanism” in humanities and social sciences, it is a feasible path to overcome the current development dilemma of comparative education methodology.

Key words: comparative education methodology, nation-state, nationalism, cosmopolitanism