Bereday and Hilker: origins of the ‘four steps of comparison’ model

Abstract

The article draws attention to the forgotten ancestry of the four steps of comparison model (description – interpretation – juxtaposition – comparison). Comparativists largely attribute this to George Z. F. Bereday [1964. Comparative Method in Education. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston], but among German scholars, it is mostly attributed to Franz Hilker [1962. Vergleichende Pädagogik. München: Max Hueber]. Who, then, is the rightful author of the model? This article attempts to answer this question. The methodological approaches of the two authors will be compared and contextualised in respect to their academic lives, especially through the 1950s and 1960s. Hilker and Bereday both referred to each other's publications on several occasions, which indicates a close communication between them. In contrast to the Anglophone dominance of scientific journals today, their way of practising comparative education was multilingual. Their cooperation with the nascent national academic associations of those times is also examined. Finally, the epistemological characteristics of the four steps model, including its limitations, and value for the field of comparative education today, are evaluated.