To what extent is international education, as envisaged by the IBO, able to be implemented in schools where it is taught?
To what extent is international education, as envisaged by the IBO, able to be implemented in schools where it is taught?
By Aybars Dastan
Introduction
International education is an umbrella term to use since it is frequently used for comparative education, development education, and multicultural education. Nevertheless, studies over the past few decades have provided valuable information that not much effort has been made to clarify or differentiate the boundaries of international education and define the concept of international education (Umar, 2013). This shows that much uncertainty has always existed about the conceptual understanding of international education in the world so far. What remains unclear, however, is changing now due to the fact that the world has experienced unprecedented globalization, which weakens the borders among the countries and, most importantly, among people. As a consequence of globalization, having dual citizenships or transnational marriages has become a common practice among millions of people, and geographical boundaries or physical distances do not become an issue with today's advanced technology. (Walker 2010: 69). Although there have been lots of international schools with a variety of philosophies, either they were driven by the market, pragmatically or ideologically focused (Hayden & Thompson, 2009), however, the unstoppable dynamic force of globalization is changing the conceptual understanding of international education offered by the international schools in the world has emphasized on two important philosophies which are 'internationalism' and 'international-mindedness' (James Cambridge* & Jeff Thompson, 2004). Up to now, the success and the contribution of IBO to international education, international-mindedness, globalization, and the denationalization of international education are undeniable. That is the reason why the first few pages I would like to spend understanding the strengths of IBO and what made it a pioneer in international education. This paper has two key aims. Firstly, This essay has aimed to what extent international education is implemented in IB schools and in what ways globalization has challenged IB; secondly, how IB is created, evolved with globalization, and adopted by many international schools in the world with its powerful philosophy.
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The IBO
Although an international baccalaureate had been proposed before (Hill, 2002: 19–20), there was almost no need for an internationally accepted university entrance exam until the 60s due to political conflicts among the nations. This situation continued until the end of the second world. However, the post-second world war decades, the families started to be mobile and as a result of this mobility, new requirements have emerged as a response to globalization . An increasing number of expatriate students needed to be supported and had to have access to both their home country universities and multilateral (multicultural) international schools in different countries, for instance, the International School of Geneva (Mayer, 1968). Therefore the International Baccalaureate became an essential pathway for those who needed it since it offered what it demanded. In relation to this, Peterson (1972: 9) explained that the idea of an International Baccalaureate – that is, of an international university entrance examination that could be taken in any country and recognized in any country – was first conceived by a group of teachers in the International School of Geneva and taken up in 1962 by the International Schools Association. They were concerned with both practical and educational needs.
Even though International Baccalaureate made a huge difference with its vision of international education, it experienced political tensions due to the cold war since education was intensely nationalized and aimed to produce national subjects among the countries (Tarc 2009, 23).
As a result of this, International education suffered from the instability of the political situation of the world until the Soviet Union dissolved on December 25, 1991, which led to a new era of capitalism and neoliberalism, which in turn, gave rise to the formation of a global economy and job market, and countries started to develop a mutual international political economy. As a result of those transformations, cultural representations became more doable and practical to the IB's vision (Resnik, 2012). In this context, John Phillips (2002) argues wealthy parents seek alternative paths for their children to obtain the kind of education and credentials that will ensure that they secure passage into the global marketplace. The cognitive, emotional, socio-communicative, and ethical dispositions fostered in the IB curriculum are similar to the skills needed to succeed in managerial positions in transnational corporations (Resnik 2008, 2009). To be able to understand this transition we need to take a more in-depth look at neoliberalism which will help us to understand the rise of international education. In the history of international schools, neoliberalism has been thought of as one of the key factors in a rapidly globalizing world, and the rise of neoliberalism could only be achieved by changes in culture; consequently, the best way seen to achieve to change the culture through the education system. I believe that neoliberalism requires considerable critical
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attention to three significant changes that came together with it and favored international education in general, globalization as well as international education envisaged by IBO.
The following three components set out to think critically and comprehend the ways neoliberalism impact international education and globalization.
1. Need for standardization to be implemented in international schools
Neoliberal education did not focus on schools collaborating to improve learning quality for all students. Instead, schools compete against each other for resources in a constant tug of war, and the schools became increasingly standardized to measure accountability. The need for standardization was in line with what IBO was offering, which was initially named the International Schools Examination Syndicate (ISES), and it was a standardized examination system built upon high-quality standards. (Tarc, 2009)
2. Finding Funds for international schools in a rapidly globalizing world
International organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank also supported international schooling by providing funds (Tarc, 2009), which fueled exceptionally private entrepreneurs to open new international schools, which, of course, favored IB's adoption by newly established international schools all over the world.
3. The Imperial Tongue: English as the Dominating Academic Language.
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the diffusion of the English language dissolved the boundaries of nations by becoming a catalyst for globalization and prepared the ideal medium for IBO to convey its philosophy to the rest of the world as well as encourage countries to adopt IB's philosophy of international education as the way, IBO envisages it. Supporting this view, in 2008, Hayden and Thompson found the growing influence of English as the primary international language and the associated desire of many non-native English-speaking parents for their children to speak English as well as their mother tongue has been the other major contributory factor for international schools to grow and helped IB's philosophy to be understood.
As a consequence of those social and political changes caused by globalization. The Nations shifted from idle mode to a dynamic model in which interactions among people
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can take place regardless of the boundaries of countries. The domino effect created by all those factors mentioned above encouraged International schools to snowball.
According to the study carried out by the International School Consultancy (ISC) predicted, the number of students attending international schools will increase to 8.26 million by 2025. The reason for this phenomenal growth is that most major cities in the world today have at least one international school, and they are thought to be a valid path to Western universities and one of the most apparent findings to emerge from this research is that English will be the language of instruction for all of those international schools. These results suggest that there is a definite association between the adoption of IBO and the number of international schools in the world (Education Investor, 2015).
These findings draw our attention to the importance of understanding the globalization of education as well as how IB quickly spread throughout the globe and became the first choice among many international schools in the world.
Now we will try to understand how IB envisages international education and how international education is implemented in IB schools.
International education in IB's way
IB gained its rightful reputation through DP over the years with its high standards that Resnik (2012) named as "gold standard."
The extent to which international education is able to be implemented in schools is dependent on a range of factors, three of which are as follows (IBO, 2009)
Pragmatic
After the completion of DP, students receive a diploma that is useful in practice, highly reputable, and internationally recognized, which gives the students mobility and freedom to apply anywhere in the world for their further education, which in turn, gives students the identity of a global citizen.
Idealistic
Promoting international-mindedness through the IB's mission statement that is presented through 10 attributes of the IB Learner profile. These attributes develop a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success.
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This approach is clearly supported by Walker (2010) points out that the emphasis on international-mindedness found in all DP courses is a reflection of the IB's mission and of the belief that this "will give students the capacity to build those defenses of peace that will make the world a better place."
Pedagogical
The acquisition of knowledge itself is not the only necessary skill in the contemporary information era since the volume of information and the knowledge that we have to comprehend is rising exponentially, so by no means it gives us a chance to compete with it; therefore, knowing how to inquire, apply and evaluate the knowledge matters more than ever before. Thus, IB always pays a great deal of attention to their learners to gain the necessary skills and independent learning strategies which can be applied in many contexts. Briefly, students can become lifelong learners who know how to learn (Peterson 2003: 41). Those three dynamic forces shed new light on how IB envisages International education. Moving on, the success of IBO as a model of international education proved the importance of an international-minded and skills-oriented view of international education with its denationalized nature which prepares the students for the contemporary and highly globalized world by promoting the international-mindedness (what is "international" about IBO), besides make the students highly mobile in their potential careers and further studies by equipping them with skills that are highly transferable in the international context (what is "baccalaureate" about IBO) (White, 2008). In addition that if we want to understand how IB envisages international education, we should get to know more about the IBO's definition of international education, which has, as a central focus, that of 'developing citizens of the world in relation to language, culture and learning to live together' (IBO, 2011).
Another strength of the IBO is its holistic approach IB with its holistic approach, offers a continuum of international education for students between the ages of 3 and 19 years.
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Those are as follows;
Learner profile and other components.
The learner profile is one of the most critical components, each of which emits a powerful message about internationalism and how IB describes it; according to IB, ten attribute means what it means to be truly "internationally-minded" (Fabian 2006). A similar point to the learner profile is described as follows "based on values that are the embodiment of what the organization believes about international education" (IB 2008, 3).
Another strength of the IB comes from its holistic approach to education, which is, concentrating on providing rich opportunities ( concept-based learning, global contexts, ATL skills, balanced subject choices, spiral inquiry cycles, transdisciplinary themes, CAS, TOK, extended essay, PYP exhibition, Community and personal projects in MYP, pedagogical approaches, and the mission statement ) to its learners to make the learning process is a part of life by providing such unique experience and internationally minded global citizens.
Tensions on IB
Economic Reasons
IB is a costly program in every aspect; moreover, to maintain the IB World School license, schools have to invest in their schools and teachers and keep their standards following the standards established by the IBO. In wealthy countries, the cost can be covered by the parents; however, in public schools it is a big challenge (Resnik,2012).
As a consequence, for emerging countries, the situation is getting even more severe due to their weak currency (www.ibo.org). This situation brings a single statement to the minds that IB was just for 'schools for rich kids' (IBO, 1972: 15), which is entirely fair to ask because of its history and the current situation of private schools. Dating back to history, only privileged children of diplomats or higher-class parents could access those schools, while the case today is nothing surprising. Only local elite and middle-class families can access those schools (Resnik 2012); however, how much sacrifice those middle-class families must make to send their kids to those schools is arguable.
Political reasons
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Life is not the same in every country. There have always been people suffering mostly because of the complicated political reasons, mostly in non-democratic countries, which in turn, creates tension on either the adoption or implementation of IB's philosophy of international-mindedness due to many reasons, such as after a failed military coup in Turkey 5,000 academics and more than 33,000 teachers have also lost their jobs (Morris, 2018), Authorities have closed 15 universities and around 1,000 secondary schools (Sezer, 2016) or Youtube ban in China (Chang, 2009). It would be tough for students to understand the international mindedness in those countries under those circumstances.
Western cultural capital
A growing body of studies indicates that IB or international schools as seen mostly as a tool to access Western countries, which shade many values in IB. (2014)
Conclusion
I have noticed a correlation between Richardson's (1996) work on world citizenship and the international education envisaged by IBO. I have attempted to merge both ideas together within my own reflection in Figure 2. As a result of my research, I am continually astonished by how the IB applies its theory to practice. Although several questions remain to be answered about the tensions in IBO, I believe that the IBO is the best representative of international education so far. However, considerably more work will need to be done, especially to lower the cost of IB, the adaptation of IB in the East, Africa, and the middle east.
References
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