迈向中观:比较教育研究中的机制解释

Towards the Middle View:Mechanism Explanation in Comparative Education Research

将机制解释作为比较的参照系就是将比较的重心放在分析造成教育现象异同背后的因果机制上。机制解释相对于微观比较与宏观比较,建立了中观比较参照系。这有利于比较教育研究中问题意识、理论意识和方法意识的提升。在研究案例选择上,机制解释着眼于小样本案例的筛选原则。在研究方法上,机制解释凸显了方法上的实用主义和个人主义特征,可以依据研究情境,采取定性比较分析、多主体建模、统计因果推断、过程追踪以及比较历史分析等方法。然而,机制解释有其本体论层面和技术层面的弱点,也并非适用所有的比较教育研究问题。比较教育仍需遵循阐释性理解和因果性解释并行的两条进路,承认教育问题的复杂性并欣赏复杂性之美。

Using mechanistic explanation as a reference frame for comparison is to focus on analyzing the causal mechanisms behind the similarities and differences in educational phenomena.The mechanism explanation establishes a meso comparative reference frame relative to micro and macro reference frame.This is conducive to the improvement of disciplinary thinking qualities,namely problem awareness,theoretical awareness,and methodological awareness among comparative education researches.In the selection of research cases,the mechanism explanation focuses on the screening principle of small-N cases.In terms of research methods,mechanism explanation highlights the pragmatic and individualistic characteristics of the method.Qualitative comparative analysis,agent based modeling,statistical causal inference,process tracking,and comparative historical analysis can be adopted based on the research context.However,the mechanism explanation is not a panacea,with its ontological and technical weaknesses,and it is not applicable to all comparative education research problems.Comparative education still needs to follow two parallel paths of interpretive understanding and causal explanation,acknowledging the complexity of educational issues and appreciating the beauty of complexity.