当代西方比较教育研究中的社会地图学

The Social Cartography in Western Contemporary Comparative Education Research

20世纪70年代,特别是90年代以来,西方比较教育研究者将社会地图学引入比较教育研究中,取得了丰硕的研究成果。社会地图学实质上是后现代主义中表陈现实、阐释社会的一个学术流派,是地图学原理在其他社会科学中的应用。它以其独特的魅力为当代比较教育研究提供了一个有效的空间工具和崭新的研究视角。波斯东绘制的比较教育理论图即是将社会地图学运用于比较教育研究中的一个经典范例。尽管社会地图学已经受到一些学者的质疑,但作为一种研究工具,其在当代西方比较教育研究中似乎仍有很大的发展空间。

Since the 1970s, especially the 1990s,westem comparative education researchers have introduced social cartography into comparative education research,and created a lot of research fruits. In fact,social cartography is an academic school of expressing the reality and explaining the society in the postmodemism, which is an application of cartography principle to other social sciences. It provides comparative education researchers a useful spatial tool and a new research perspective with its unique advantages. Macro-mapping of paradigms and theories in comparative education mapped by Rolland G.Paulston is a typical example of application of social cartography to comparative education research. Social cartography has been criticized and blamed,but as a kind of research tool,its development space in western contemporary comparative education research seems to be still very large.