Towards the Next Epoch of Education: The Problem of Periodisation of the History of Comparative and International Education.

For the scholarly field of Comparative and International Education, which uses the reconstruction of its historical evolution to define itself and to chart a trajectory for its future development, the periodisation of its history assumes special importance, more so in times when a next or nascent epoch of education needs to be factored in this stock-taking exercise of past, present and future. This paper surveys the present stock of periodisations in use in the field and found these wanting. One urgent need is that the present phase in the development of the field should be identified, named and described. Besides providing an outlook for the future development of the field, one requirement for building this construct of the present phase in the field, is that it should take cognisance of the nascent epoch in education. This paper offers a set of ideas of the main features of this epoch, in the belief that the discussions contained in the remained of the papers of this book, will contribute towards forming a clear idea of this new or nascent epoch in education and thus contribute towards gaining an intellectual hold on the present phase in the evolution of Comparative and International Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]