edu 304 - comparative education - National Open University of Nigeria

Horace Mann of America who after a six-month visit to Europe also
published his findings in 1843 on educational institutions and practices
in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany as well as Holland. His
report was purely on the comparison of the school organization and
methods of instruction.
Matthew Arnold of England visited both France and Germany in
1859 and 1865. On his return home, he made some remarks particularly
on the educational institutions and practices in both France and
Germany. Like others, he advised that some useful aspects of the
educational system of France and Germany should be integrated into
the systems of education in England.
What can be viewed as second generation in the study of
Comparative Education could be traced to Sir Michael Sadler who in
one of his publications: how far can we learn anything of practical value
from the study of Foreign Systems of Education which was published in
1900, went further than other pioneers before him who were more
utilitarian and straight forward in the description of the foreign
educational systems studied by them.
While contributing to the development of Comparative Education
study, Kandel cited by Hans (1958) observed that:
The chief value of a Comparative approach to
educational problems lies in an analysis of the
causes which have produced them, in a
comparison of the differences between the various
systems and the reasons underlying them and
finally, in a study of the solutions attempted. In
other words, the comparative approach demands
first and appreciation of the intangible,
impalpable spiritual and cultural forces which
underlie an educational system, the factors and
forces outside the school matter even more than
what goes inside it.
In the same vein, Friedrich Schneider, a German speaking and
Director of the Institute of Comparative Education, Salzburg started the
editing of the international Review of Education in four languages in
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