Is ‘Small’ Always Small and ‘Big’ Always Big? Re-Reading Educational Developments in Small (and Micro) States

This volume is concerned with a topic that has only relatively recently started to attract the attention it deserves: educational developments in small states. The volume is guided by the question (i) if and how small states deal with certain policy challenges to their education systems that research has identified as particularly important for their future development, and (ii) whether there is something like typical ‘small state behavior’ in educational matters. The volume seeks to contribute to a genuinely comparative approach to education in small states. Moreover, widening conventional definitions of smallness, it aims to advance research in the field not only in a thematic but also in a theoretical perspective. Overall, the volume seeks to expand our understanding of small states – and by implication of ‘big’ states as well –, especially regarding what is general and what is particular about their ‘behavior.’