The research on international education – especially on aspects of its management – is generally modest, especially at the level of empirically consistent studies. Traditional analytical tools, anchored in the paradigm of methodological nationalism (e.g., Beck, 2007), which is particularly relevant in the research of education, turned to be out inadequate for researching international education (e.g., Resnik, 2012; Schippling, 2018). There is a need to “transnationalize our research practices” (Keßler & Szakács-Behling, 2020, p. 183) to grasp the complex reality of international education in which local, national, international and transnational dimensions are intertwined. Our contribution proposes a methodological-level reflection on researching the management of international education, taking the example of German Schools Abroad, which are supervised by the Central Agency for Schools Abroad. The mission of these schools, as part of the cultural and educational policy for abroad, is to provide an encounter with the society and culture of the host country, to secure and expand school provision for German children abroad and to promote the teaching of the German language in the foreign school system. Taking the example of German Schools abroad, the research seeks in particular to explore the implications of the intercultural encounter between German and national actors at the management level, as well as the gaps between the governance structures envisaged by German bodies and the de facto models practised in schools at the local level (Barroso, 1996; Lima, 2001) in their structure as public-private partnerships (Klingebiel, 2014). As such, they operate within a model that simultaneously combines degrees of autonomy and dependence between German state educational bodies and the private maintainers of schools at the local level. The German state supports schools through funding and the provision of teachers, while the responsibility for the management and financing of schools lies mainly with local sponsors. In this context, the tension between private school autonomy and external state control is an important feature of German Schools Abroad. In conclusion, our contribution aims to provide a critical reflection on researching politics of the management of international education via the example of German Schools Abroad in a global perspective, discussing adequate methodological tools to overcome research that is anchored in the paradigm of methodological nationalism.

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