Contextualizing identity in comparative studies after the demise of national character

'National character' has been one of the founding concepts of comparative education studies. A migrated notion of the concept - national identity - still features prominently in comparative literature as most international evaluation studies/inquiries are conceptualized in national terms and comparisons juxtapose findings based on data collected around similar 'categories' and/or indicators within a national context. Such conceptualization extends to performance indicators and league tables, in terms of which standardized hierarchies of prominence are constructed and teachers' and learners' subjectivities shaped. The rights to power (as reflected in national polices) and the distribution of resources are still mainly based on the subject's national identity. Globalization and local discourses, however, interact to construct complex and dynamic notions of the 'self' that pose special challenges to conceptualizing comparative international studies. If one, furthermore, assumes that context is not an external force, but forms an integral part of identity (network of interactive linkages), interpreting data representing national education systems becomes especially challenging. This article explores some of the challenges posed to contextualizing comparative studies at a stage when 'national character' seems to have lost its representational power, but nevertheless remains constitutive of the right to power.