Conducting comparative studies in education has a long-lasting background in many societies; however, in the last few decades, the tremendous growth of Information and Communication Technology alongside researchers’ interest in broadening their knowledge of the role of education systems in socio-economic development of countries have yielded a growth in comparative research in all humanities disciplines. Hence, awareness of the theories, methods as well as rules applied in comparative studies is of vital importance. Nevertheless, comparative educational studies in Iran have been confined to a superficial understanding of the similarities and differences between education systems. Therefore, the present article aims at introducing new methods of research in comparative educational studies. The paper starts with an introduction to the comparative studies. Next, the characteristics of comparative research are explained. The main part of the paper elaborates on John Stuart Mill comparative research Method of Agreement, Method of Difference, and Boolean Algebra Method, respectively. The paper would end with a brief comparison of these methods and a conclusion.

Regional conflicts have greatly increased during the last two decades, a trend that is the outcome of the type of relationships among civilizations. Considering the political, social and economic relations between Muslim and western countries majority of these conflicts have taken place in the Middle East. In such a situation, surely family and educational systems play a vital role in alleviating human suffering. These two social systems can increase common understanding among intellectuals and people in the involved societies. On this score, comparative education can promote intercultural understanding in the diverse world of the twenty-first century. The present paper endeavors to briefly compare educational viewpoints held by three Muslim pedagogues- Al-Farabi, Avicenna and Al-Ghazali – with those of three western pioneers in education–Locke, Rousseau and John Dewey- via historical comparative research and demonstrate the fact that common educational viewpoints can reduce formation of prejudiced attitudes and boost intercultural understanding at national and regional levels via family system.