Comparative and International Education: A Field Fraught with Contradictions

In this short piece, written from the authors’ particular perspective as co-chairs of the Globalization & Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), they argue that the field of comparative and international education is fraught with contradictions. This chapter reflects on the implications for the field of three interrelated aspects in particular: the shift in the primary responsibility for education from the nation-state to non-state actors in our globalized world, the unsettled ontological assumptions of the field, and the lack of theory that informs some of its actors.