The Analysis On Dependency Theory Research Paradigm In Comparative Education

While encountering "the identity crisis", it is necessary to analyze the research paradigm existing in the developmental history of Comparative Education as a discipline, construct a system of discipline's knowledge. They are indispensable for Comparative Education to establish its academic status, beyond the identity crisis and prove that Comparative Education is not in a state of disunity and some enclaves. Because of this, this thesis regards Dependency Theory Research Paradigm as the object of study which was prevailing in the western Comparative Education circle in 1970s and 1980s, by probing into its emergent background and developmental process, looking back on some cases that several experts in this field applied this research paradigm to educational research, analyzing the research paradigm's core features and its status in the history of Comparative Education, discussing its contemporary significance in relation to this discipline's development, in order to enrich its discipline's knowledge.Starting from analyzing its background of emergence of Comparative Education, this thesis has demonstrated the three leading factors that resulted in the paradigm's emergence: the decline and the failure of functionalism and educational modernization model dominated by functionalism, the emergence of dependency theory and its increasing importance in social science research. We believe that it is the two forces which are pushing and pulling respectively that brought about the Dependency Theory Analytical Paradigm in Comparative Education. Afterward, we chose three typical experts for study who were advocating dependency theory in Comparative Education field, namely, Martin Carnoy, Altabach.P, Kelly, G.P, introduced and made comments on their researches and viewpoints. From that, we generalized the paradigm's theoretical cores from the aspects of its basic standpoint, basic methodology, basic arguments and basic conclusion, evaluated its historical status from positive and negative dimensions. We argue that, the contributes of this research paradigm chiefly lie in the expansion of Comparative Education's research perspective, offering a new appliance explaining the world educational development lopsidedly, appealing to pay more attention to the international education intercourse. On the other hand, its flaws chiefly consist of its rigid dichotomous reasoning model, the denial of the positive effect of outside factors, the exaggeration of the character of educational enslavement and the ignorance about the rebellion of the colonists. Finally, after reviewing the dispute between the international perspective and the national standpoint of Comparative Education, we proposed that we should comprehend it in a dialectical way. We put forward, Comparative Education should recognize international perspective as its discussing dimension, at the same time, it also should base itself on the national standpoint, they are two concepts which oppose each other and complement each other as well.