ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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Comparable Concepts, Different Questions? National Adaptation in Cross-National Measurement |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Cordelia Menz (Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna (IHS)) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Eva Maria Vögtle (The German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW)) |
Session Details
Cross-national surveys seek to measure common constructs, but identical respondent-facing questions are not always meaningful, understandable or feasible in every setting. Legal frameworks, cultural norms, institutional structures, language and nationally specific terminology may require different operationalisations of the same concept. Procedural standardisation can therefore increase consistency while weakening comprehension, inclusion or validity.
This session examines how survey programmes establish comparability when national implementations cannot be identical. We invite empirical studies, comparative cases and methodological frameworks on construct definition, questionnaire adaptation, multilingual development, cognitive testing, response-category design, measurement experiments and ex-ante and ex-post harmonisation.
Relevant cases include sensitive identity measures, such as gender identity and sex characteristics, where detailed categories may not (yet) be politically or institutionally feasible in every country, and institutionally specific concepts, such as qualifications providing standard access to higher education, which must be expressed through nationally recognisable pathways and credentials. Other applications may include disability, ethnicity, migration background, household relationships, or income/expenditure.
Contributions may examine how national wording and categories are developed, how different measures are mapped to shared variables or indicators, how residual non-equivalence is evaluated and documented, and when partial comparability is preferable to apparent uniformity. We also welcome coordinated experiments testing alternative question formats, response formats or respondent communications across national and cultural contexts, as well as evaluations of multilingual automated or machine-learning-based coding or translation.
The session seeks transferable approaches for balancing conceptual comparability, respondent comprehension, inclusion, national feasibility and transparent reporting.
