1. Comparative education: an educational research field that takes comparative method as the main research method, takes the education of different countries, nationalities, regions and the international community in the contemporary world as the research object, and discusses the laws and experiences of educational development on the basis of analysis and comparison.
2. Factor analysis. The research method of comparative education initiated by Arnold and Sadr was widely used in comparative education research from the early 20th century to the 1960s. This method emphasizes the influence of a country's historical tradition and national characteristics on its education, and pays attention to analyzing various factors and forces that affect a country's education.
3. A theory of western social science. This theory holds that in a social system as a whole, each part plays its own unique function to maintain the relative stability of the social system.
4. World system analysis theory: the theoretical framework of comparative education research put forward by contemporary western neo-Marxist school. Popular in the field of comparative education in 1970s, the main representatives are Canoy, Meyer, Altbach and Anoff.
5. Theories of contemporary western social sciences. In 1970s, it became popular in the field of comparative education, challenging the structural functionalism that has dominated the research field of comparative education for a long time.
6. Neo-colonialism theory: a theory describing the relationship between exploitation and exploitation, control and dependence between western developed countries and third world countries in today's world. This theory regards these existing unequal relations between countries as new colonial relations and examines them in connection with colonialism in history.
7. Basic methods of comparative education research. In the study of comparative education, researchers of comparative education have some similarities in the same historical period or social and historical conditions, and so on.