Overcoming the methodological nationalism paradigm in educational research? Reflections based on the research in international schools

Abstract

The research in international education and especially in international schools provides new challenges for education research that uses the paradigm of methodological nationalism. Traditional analytical tools which use the nation-state as a reference point have proved to be inadequate to analyse educational transnational contexts. As a reaction to that we will reflect on the concept of transnational education spaces and on a reconstructive qualitative methodology. This is based on research into international schools in the region of Lisbon. Finally, we will outline some general challenges for research in transnational education phenomena.