My friend and colleague Bob Cowen, who has died aged 84 following a heart attack, was emeritus professor of comparative education at the Institute of Education, University College London.
He became a leading light in the development of this particular field of study, in which social science is used to analyse and compare educational systems and explore how they relate to wider social and global factors. Bob helped to shift comparative research away from describing similarities and differences towards a focus on the “transfer, translation and transformation” of educational ideas and policies, and how educational systems navigate global influences.
Thus he promoted comparative education as an area of academic inquiry, in an era when many were drawn to the rewards of consultancy work and advising policymakers, and ensured that the Institute of Education was seen globally as an institution leading the field.
From 1991 he was a member of the editorial board of the journal Comparative Education. He was also a leading member of the Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE), and served as its president and vice president.
Bob was born in Darlington, County Durham, the son of Joseph Cowen, who was then in the army and later ran a farm, and Margaret (nee Minto), a teacher. He went to Queen Elizabeth grammar school and did his first degree in economics at the London School of Economics. He then trained as a teacher at Trinity College, Dublin, and taught social sciences at a secondary school in East Ham, London, while undertaking postgraduate study at the Institute of Education.
From 1971 to 1975 he was an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo, New York, before joining IOE in 1976. He rose from lecturer in comparative education, to senior lecturer, reader and professor. He retired in 2004, but as emeritus professor continued to research, write, supervise and teach.
Bob’s priority in all his professional roles was the next generation. In a talk to students in Cyprus last year he was asked about the future of comparative education. He replied, “I will die a happy man if I have helped to leave the field in safe hands.”
He was an insightful teacher who demanded rigour but he was also kind, supportive and possessed a wicked sense of humour. He continued to encourage, inspire and support many of his former students, and later friends, long after they graduated.
He was living in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, at the time of his death, having moved there in 2019. He went initially for a short trip but the Covid-19 pandemic prevented his return.
Bob is survived by his second wife, Maria (nee de Figueiredo), whom he met at IOE and married in the 1980s; and by two children, Paul and Maura, from his first marriage, to Olive.