Spatial Theorizing in Comparative and International Education Research

The authors argue for a critical spatial perspective in comparative and international education. We briefly summarize how time and space have been conceptualized within our field. We then review mainstream social science literature that reflects a metanarrative, which we critique for contributing to false dichotomies between space and place and oversimplified views of the relationship between the global and the local. We present some of the key ideas associated with the “spatial turn,” including a relational understanding and productive capacity of space. In the final part of this article, we analyze the significance of new spatial theorizing for comparative and international education by reviewing examples of both comparative and educational researchers who are engaging with critical spatial theorizing. We argue that a possible way to confront binary thinking about space and place is by shifting attention to the relational conceptions of space, through analyses of networks, connections, and flows.