What is the methodological basis of our comparative education research? First of all, we must take Marxist philosophy as the methodological basis. The methodological basis of science should have two obvious characteristics: a serious scientific attitude and a scientific method system. The so-called serious scientific attitude is to have a comprehensive, systematic, objective and dialectical way of thinking to analyze and study problems; The so-called scientific method system is to constantly explore the comprehensiveness, reliability and effectiveness of the method.

Modern system theory (including cybernetics, information theory and general system theory) has strong methodological characteristics, but it does not have the equivalence of philosophical world outlook. Our comparative education research can and should apply some useful methodological principles, but it cannot be used as a methodological basis.

Taking dialectical materialism and historical materialism of Marxist philosophy as the methodological basis of comparative education research, we should pay attention to the following basic principles in specific comparative education research.

1. Realistic principle

Objective reality is the only essence of matter, natural laws are objective, and social laws are not transferred by people's subjective will. The study of comparative pedagogy must adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, proceed from the objective educational reality of all countries in the world, reflect the objective reality realistically, and draw the inherent rather than imaginary educational regularity from it.

2. Practical principles

Practice is the basis of understanding, the only criterion for testing truth, and an effective way to develop truth, which is also the basic principle of dialectical materialism. The research of comparative education must implement the principle of practice and pay attention to the following problems.

(1) Test the truth through practice. Because one of the main purposes of comparative education research is to use for reference, we should also judge whether foreign experience is suitable for China's national conditions by the principle of "taking me as the main and serving me". It is necessary to determine the scope of application of the conclusion through domestic practice. It is the key to learn from foreign experience, gain experience through experiments, and then gradually popularize it.

(2) Develop the theory through practice. The educational theory affirmed by comparative pedagogy through comparative research has only relative truth. Educational theory will develop with the development of the times.

3. System principle

Universal connection is a universal feature of the material world, and systematicness is the fundamental attribute of things. This is the basic viewpoint of materialist dialectics. Accordingly, comparative education research must follow the systematic principle and pay attention to the following problems.

(1) Integrity of the education system. The education system is an organic whole with its own nature and function. This property and function is not a simple addition of the properties and functions of its elements, nor can it be restored to the properties and functions of its elements. When observing and analyzing problems, we must focus on the organic whole and take the function and benefit of the whole as the starting point and destination for understanding and solving problems.

(2) The structural nature of the education system. The structural nature of the education system refers to the relationship among the elements in the education system. When studying problems, we should pay attention to analyzing the ways in which various elements in the education system interact with each other, including a certain proportion, a certain order and a certain combination.

(3) the hierarchy of the education system. The hierarchy of the education system refers to the hierarchical structure of the education system and the relationship between levels. When studying problems, we should analyze all levels of the education system and the status and hierarchical relationship between the system and the elements (subsystems). Analyzing the levels of the education system is helpful for people to master the vertical structure of the education system. Gradually identify the common operation rules and special operation rules of different levels of systems.

(4) the openness of the education system. The openness of the education system refers to the relationship between the education system and the surrounding environment. When studying problems, we must pay attention to the analysis of the relationship between education and national politics, economy and culture, as well as the relationship with the surrounding social environment. Pointing out this relationship will help people attach importance to the role of external conditions in educational practice and consider how to make the best use of the situation.

4. The principle of comprehensiveness

Everything in reality exists as a system and a process, and both systems and processes are full of contradictions, which is the core view of materialist dialectics. Accordingly, comparative education research must pay attention to the principle of comprehensiveness. According to the contradiction of things, use the contradiction analysis method to comprehensively observe and analyze problems and find the truth.

(1) Comprehensively analyze and study the contradiction between universality and particularity in educational development and reform in various countries.

(2) Comprehensively analyze and study all kinds of contradictions in the process of school education at all levels.

(3) Comprehensive analysis of the internal and external causes of education development.

5. Connectivity principle

Materialist dialectics holds that the phenomenon of the material world and its reflection in thinking have universal and interrelated fundamental characteristics. There are universal objective relations such as mutual connection, interdependence, mutual influence, interaction and mutual transformation between phenomena and elements in things or things.

As a social phenomenon, education cannot exist in isolation. There are various connections between education and other social phenomena, between various elements within education and between educational phenomena in different countries. In the study of comparative education, we must pay attention to the analysis and research of these rich and complex relationships to ensure that the conclusions drawn from our research are comprehensive, scientific and correct.

6. The principle of ontology

Materialist dialectics holds that everything in the world is the unity of opposites of essence and phenomenon, and it is the basic task of science to grasp the essence of things through phenomena. Similarly, as a scientific research, comparative education should grasp its essence through all educational phenomena, that is, through the analysis and comparative study of various educational phenomena, and finally grasp the essence and law behind existence, that is, grasp the "ontology" of education.

7. Practical principles

Practical viewpoint is a basic viewpoint of dialectical materialism epistemology. Dialectical materialist epistemology holds that knowledge is a conceptual or theoretical relationship between subject and object. Although it is realized and expressed through the subject's consciousness and thinking activities, it is based on the material interaction between subject and object, that is, practice. Practice is the fundamental source of knowledge and the only criterion for testing truth.

Second, the basic research methods of comparative education research

Comparative pedagogy is a discipline that pays equal attention to theory and application, and it directly takes the actual situation of education in various countries as the research object. Since Julian, the founder of comparative education, researchers of comparative education have always attached great importance to the exploration and application of scientific comparative education research methods. Especially after entering the era of social science method, researchers of comparative education put forward various research methods. Mastering scientific research methods is the premise for us to engage in comparative education research.

1. survey method

Visit: It is a way for researchers to visit the research object on the spot and obtain first-hand perceptual materials. If conditions permit, this method can of course be adopted. The material obtained by this method has great reference value.

Questionnaires: Questionnaires are a method for investigators to collect materials in written or correspondence form.

The materials obtained through investigation can be sorted out by descriptive and statistical methods.

2. Literature method

It is an important method of comparative education research to understand the educational situation by analyzing important educational documents. This is a practical method in China at present.

Generally, the data collected by literature method should go through the stages of consulting, sampling, identifying and sorting. First of all, you should be good at using bibliography, index, abstract, dictionary, encyclopedia and other tools. Attention should be paid to the analysis and extraction of important information in the consultation process. Sampling refers to the selection of data, which is very important. If you are not good at choosing, you will be at a loss in the face of vast literature. There are usually three sampling methods.

(1) source sampling. This is a sample of data sources, such as what kind of books, newspapers and magazines to choose.

(2) Date sampling. This refers to which piece of data is selected. Comparative education research mainly selects post-war data, especially current data.

(3) unit sampling. This refers to which data unit is extracted, which may be the whole book or one of them, a paragraph or a page.

Identification is a detailed analysis of the authenticity of the data, so as to get rid of the rough and extract the fine, remove the false and keep the true, so that the following analysis and research can be based on reliable data. Data identification can be handled by proofreading, our school, other schools, proofreading and other methods. Collation refers to the classification of data according to research purposes and unified standards, so as to make it systematic and easy to use. Comparative education research is generally classified according to problems. Narrative materials can be arranged in clear and fluent words, and quantitative materials can be arranged in statistics, tables and diagrams.

3. Comparative method

The comparative method in comparative education research is a method to compare the educational systems or practices of different countries (or regions) according to certain standards and find out the special laws and universal laws of education in various countries.

The particularity of comparative pedagogy determines that comparative method is its most basic research method. Comparison itself contains some analysis and explanation, without which comparison is impossible.

Comparison can be divided into vertical comparison and horizontal comparison according to different angles.

Vertical comparison can be a comparison of educational performance of a country (or region) in different historical periods, or a cross comparison of educational performance of two or more countries (or regions) in different historical periods. This is to study things in the process of their development and change, so as to analyze the law of their development and change.

Horizontal comparison is to compare things that coexist at the same time. It is a comparison between two countries (or regions) and many countries (or regions) on one or several educational issues and even the whole education system.

4. Analytical method

The concept of analysis is broad, including formal logic analysis and dialectical logic analysis. The purpose of analysis is to make an in-depth study of comparative problems in order to gain insight into the essence of things through phenomena. The analysis can be carried out by combining quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis.