The global growth of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme over the first 40 years: a critical assessment

The year 2007 was a highly significant one for ‘international education’ in an ‘internationally minded school’ context. It marked the fortieth anniversary of the first trial exam of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). This paper charts the rather random global growth of this programme, from it being a long‐awaited experiment in international education sat by 147 students in two schools, to it being a curriculum offered in 1779 schools in 128 countries. It is shown how the initially Eurocentric bias of the global spread has become a distinct North American one. At present 35% of schools can be found in the US, whilst Africa accounts for only 2%. In 38 countries there is a single school offering the programme. The wider implications of this regional disparity are explored, concluding that perhaps the programme requires a more critical and planned growth strategy.     

School building design for feeding programmes and community outreach: Insights from Ghana and South Africa

This article investigates how school building design can support primary school feeding programmes in low- and middle-income countries. Furthermore it argues for schools to become community “development hubs”; incorporating both local access to education and also to programmes for nutrition, ICT, health education and other services, outside of school hours. It reviews the literature on school feeding programmes. Data from field research on schools in Ghana and South Africa is used to identify the key design issues for schools delivering feeding programmes. It considers how national education policies can affect school planning and building priorities. The article concludes by calling for the evolution of a new school design model, in which the school site becomes a “development hub”, supporting children” education, associated support activities including school feeding, and importantly also, integrated community development outreach activities.     

Teacher training through distance education: IICBA's experience

Abstract

This paper describes the experiences of the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) in running distance education programmes for teachers and education personnel in sub-Saharan Africa. The Institute, established by UNESCO in 1999 and located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is mandated to work with teacher education institutions (TEIs) in sub-Saharan Africa in the areas of curriculum development, teacher education, distance education and educational planning. The subject areas IICBA focuses on are the teaching of Science, Mathematics, languages and ICT (Information and communication technologies) through the use of modern pedagogy. The Institute implements its projects in partnership with distance education offering institutions in Africa and other parts of the world. The paper begins by providing brief remarks on IICBA and its mandate and organisation, and proceeds to explain why it focuses on the areas of teacher education, capacity building and the distance mode of delivery to offer its training programmes. At the end, it describes the kinds of programmes it has been running since its establishment and the partner distance education institutions that offered the training courses.     

Teacher and Student Perceptions of the International Baccalaureate Program

Abstract

This study examined the perceptions of teachers and students during the first year of implementation of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program at a high school. The research team interviewed all IB teachers and students regarding their decision to teach/enroll in IB; how IB differed from teaching/taking regular courses; and other facets related to the Program. IB faculty and students perceived the Program positively, believing it challenged them to be better teachers and higher achieving students. The study also cited the increased workload of teaching/taking IB courses and its impact. Policy recommendations are offered for schools utilizing the IB for the first time, and guidance is provided to parents regarding the suitability of IB as an option for gifted students.     

The International Baccalaureate and ‘growth scepticism’: a ‘social limits’ framework

The number of schools offering the programmes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) hit 3000 in July 2010. Since 2004 the IB has aimed for further growth within a ‘wider access’ and ‘greater impact’ paradigm. A further 7000 schools are expected to be involved by 2020. However, there is now considerable concern about growth, especially within the ‘international school movement’ who see it as compromising quality. This recent phenomenon can be termed ‘growth scepticism’ in the same way economic growth is now questioned as desirable. This paper charts this development and argues there is room for a much wider framework of analysis, viewing the global growth of the IB within a social and moral lens. This paper takes the economist Fred Hirsch’s 1976 Hirsch, F. 1976. The social limits to growth, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] book The social limits to growth as its core theoretical framework, linking growth to potential social externalities such as increased competition and the commercialization of society.     

The effects of environment‐based education on students' critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical thinking

This study examined the relationship between environment‐based education and high school students' critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical thinking. Four hundred four 9^th and 12^th grade students from 11 Florida high schools participated in the study. A Pretest‐Posttest Nonequivalent Comparison Group Design (9^th grade) and a Posttest Only Nonequivalent Comparison Group Design (12^th grade) were used. Interviews of students and teachers were used in the classic sense of triangulation. Data collection took place over the 2001–2002 school year. When controlling for pretest score, grade point average (GPA), gender, and ethnicity, environment‐based programs had a positive effect on 9^th grade students' critical thinking skills (p=.002). When controlling for GPA, gender, and ethnicity, environment‐based programs had a positive effect on 12^th grade students' critical thinking skills (p < .001) and disposition toward critical thinking (p < .001). The results of this study support the use of environment‐based education for improving critical thinking and can be used to guide future implementation.     

Early identification and intervention for children with initial signs of reading deficits - A blinded randomized controlled trial

Early identification of reading disorder (RD) can prevent a “wait-to-fail” situation and can increase the efficacy of subsequent interventions. In this study we identified children in the middle of first grade of German elementary schools who were at risk for RD and evaluated a subsequent phonics intervention. We assessed 234 children and randomly allocated those performing below the 30^th percentile in a short standardized reading speed test to a six-week phonics (n = 29) or blinded motor control intervention (n = 26). Both interventions were implemented at school three times a week in small groups. Results showed that the first graders who had received the phonics instruction improved significantly in reading ability compared to the control group. Moreover, significantly more children in the control group exhibited RD than in the phonics group. This study provides the basis for developing school-based early identification and intervention programmes to remediate reading deficits and prevent RD.     

An international model of world-class education: The International Baccalaureate

This article posits that world-class education is international education, as defined by UNESCO, and presents International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes as examples of this phenomenon. It begins with the IB??s 1960s origins in international schools, which educated the children of globally mobile parents who worked principally in the UN and its agencies, and in embassies and multinational companies. Its origin led to its perception as elitist, but it has since been democratised in public (state) schools in quite a number of countries, notably in North America; starting in 2012, the IB offers the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC) programme for students following vocational courses. Then follows an overview of the four education programmes of the IB, in order of creation: Diploma Programme (1970), Middle Years Programme (1994), Primary Years Programme (1997), and the IB Career-related Certificate (2012). Attributes of a world-class education are suggested: the concept of interdependence between nations, the shaping of attitudes, the relevance of curriculum content and teaching methods, and the importance of including an international perspective. The article concludes with a list of competencies for a world-class education based on the IB Learner Profile.     

Transnational accreditation for public schools: IB,PISA and other public–private partnerships

ABSTRACT

This article examines a particular type of public–private partnership (PPP) that is rarely studied in comparative educational policy studies: one in which a government funds privately run international schools. The aim of this PPP is to enrich and thereby improve the regular curriculum or to the quality of education in public schools. As the exponential growth of International Baccalaureate (IB) illustrates, such forms of PPP have increased significantly over the past few years. The authors show that transnational accreditation holds a special appeal for the middle class that is committed to cosmopolitanism, international mobility, and global citizenship. However, international standards schools such as IB are not alone with advancing a transnational accreditation of their educational programmes. Symbolically, Programme in International Student Assessment also provides a transnational accreditation, albeit not on individual education programmes but rather on entire educational systems. The article examines the reasons for the popularity of this type of PPP, analyses the interaction between the private and public education sectors, and investigates how governments explain, and what they expect from, the close cooperation with private education providers.     

Private higher education in Africa: The case of Monash South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to review the contribution of private institutions to higher education in Africa and use Monash South Africa as a case study. A literature search was conducted to gain perspective on the current situation with respect to private higher education institutions in Africa and how they are perceived in relation to public higher education institutions.

In comparison with public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions in Africa were successful in four areas: ? Widening access to higher education in the continent

? Improving the quality of education

? Improving student experience

? Increasing the recognition and marketability of their degrees

However, private higher education institutions in Africa have failed in two areas: ? Reducing the costs of higher education in Africa

? Assisting with retention of skilled human capital in African countries.

In fact, private higher education institutions in Africa, have exacerbated the two situations above.

Monash South Africa was the first foreign university to be established in South Africa and one of over 100 private universities in the continent. As a campus of Monash University in Africa, it has seen a steady growth with over 3,500 students in the past 10 years of its existence. Like other private institutions, the campus was successful in the four areas above and also fails in the area of costs and assisting in retention of skilled staff in Africa. The campus has been successful in blending its private provider status with a public purpose mandate by offering degrees in social science, business and economics, information technology and health sciences.     

International schools’ leadership and Christianity

ABSTRACT

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a secular educational franchise, educating the globally advantaged and potential future leaders. Drawing on Bourdieu, this article involves original interpretivist research, reviewing data surrounding the international IB school and its educational leadership. It presents findings pertinent to the remarkable pervasiveness of Christianity and Christian values in the orientation of IB directors in a Western European context.

IB directors foreground Christianity in their make-up. In the fluid global market-place of IB schools, consistency is rare, and highly valued. Through Bourdieu, IB directors emerge as islands, with relative freedom from the State. They lead a secular school, with an implicit Christian orientation. The IB purposefully pluralises the culture of the IB experience through the IB learner Profile (IBLP). In the main, IB school leadership rejects the operational consistency of the IBLP and embraces pluralism through the consistency of Christianity.

The international school is an incubator for Anglo Christian values providing cultural laundering, ontologically tied to the imperial gaze in this globalised neo-liberal schooling context: the international gaze.     

Multilevel design of school effectiveness studies in sub-Saharan Africa

School-based improvement programs represent a core strategy in improving education because they can leverage pre-existing social and organizational structures to promote coordinated and comprehensive change across multiple facets of schooling. School-based programs are generally designed to be implemented by intact schools/districts, frequently making it infeasible or atheoretical to assign students within the same school to different conditions while ensuring study validity. Rather, studies frequently assign intact schools/districts to treatment conditions to accommodate the multilevel structure of schooling and the theory of action underlying many school-based programs. In planning such studies, effective and efficient design requires plausible values of the variance partition coefficients and the variance explained by covariates during the design stage. Using representative samples of each country, we develop empirical estimates of design parameters within and across 15 countries that are intended to inform and facilitate the efficient design of multisite cluster-randomized studies of school improvement in sub-Saharan Africa.     

The International Baccalaureate in England and Wales: the alternative paths for the future

The year 2007 was a significant one for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in England and Wales. Several milestones were reached, and the number of schools offering the curriculum reached one hundred. This article charts the growth and development in England and Wales of this continuum of international education and shows how the Diploma Programme, in particular, has reached a fundamental crossroads. On the one hand, the IB looks set for further growth and has the ability to be an influential and respected catalyst for the movement towards international education in curriculum development. On the other hand, the IB is emerging as an elite programme of study alongside other ‘baccalaureate’ curricula and in competition to A level, and other ‘Diploma’ developments. The ability of the IB to be a divisive force is explored.     

The International Baccalaureate in Australia: trends and issues

The presence of International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes in Australia has grown significantly over the past decade. Despite this, little critical research exists on the IB in Australia. This article provides an analysis of the IB currently in Australia, outlining the trends in growth across the various IB programmes over the last decade and compares this to international trends, including those of the Asia-Pacific region in which Australia is located. This profile is then contrasted against the profile of research that has been conducted into the IB in Australia during this same period. A discrepancy is apparent between implementation of the IB and critical analysis of that implementation. Much of IB practice in Australia therefore remains unresearched. Suggestions for future research to address this discrepancy are offered.     

The International Baccalaureate in the USA and the emerging ‘culture war’

The International Baccalaureate (IB) has undergone rapid growth and largely unhindered expansion over the past four decades. It has moved beyond its European nexus and the three IB programmes now have a relatively large presence in the USA, especially among public high schools. The IB gathered federal funding in 2003, and a concerted attack has subsequently emerged from a vast array of ultra-conservative agencies and commentators who denounce the curriculum as federal interference, and fundamentally ‘un-American’. This paper explores the complex nature of this ‘culture war’ and reveals the key issues and protagonists.     

The rise and decline of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in the United Kingdom

The three main programmes of the Geneva-registered International Baccalaureate (IB) have grown substantially worldwide over the past decade, although the programmes have found a natural ‘home’ in the United States. This paper charts the growth of the IB in the United Kingdom (UK) revealing that involvement there, mainly in England and mainly with the original pre-university Diploma Programme (IBDP), peaked at about 230 schools in 2010, but since then the IBDP has begun suddenly to decline. Yet, in no other country has there been a fall in IBDP provision. This paper offers some key explanations for this phenomenon, where a lack of funding and continued lack of university recognition in the face of Advanced Level (A-Level) reform and numerous ‘baccalaureate’ developments has led to many state-funded schools in particular dropping the IBDP. Thirdly, this paper discusses a number of implications, both for the IB itself and education in the UK in general.     

All against all competition: the incorporation of the International Baccalaureate in public high schools in Canada

ABSTRACT

Since the 1980s, education in Canada has been through a process that led to school choice, targeting the improvement of students’ performance through school competition. These policies fostering an education quasi-market became an ideal framework for the expansion of IB schools. Since the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate (IBDP) offers a differentiated international curriculum and is perceived as a program that contributes to students’ achievements, it has been increasingly adopted in school districts and schools. This paper explores the marketing strategies developed in schools and districts in response to school competition by tracing the incorporation of the IBDP in high schools in different districts in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Based on interviews with school staff, district officials and IB local association representatives, this study analyzes schools’ marketing decisions from a consumer and producer orientation taking into account the macro environment (federal government) and micro-environment (provincial government and districts). Rather than fostering efficiency and improving students’ achievement as intended, marketization policies resulted in an increased focus on the recruitment of high achieving students, which led to a competition between schools, between districts and between other programs in the districts or in other words –an ‘all against all’ competition.     

DOES FAMILY BACKGROUND MATTER FOR LEARNING IN EAST AFRICA?

ABSTRACT

The extent to which differences in family background characteristics explain differences in learning outcomes between children captures the extent of equality in educational opportunities. This study uses large-scale data on literacy and numeracy outcomes for children of school age across East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) to investigate the contribution of family background to learning differences. We find that learning differences between children from less-advantaged households and those from more-advantaged households equals around one year or more of effective learning on average. Even so, family background does not fully explain why children of school starting age display large differences in learning between countries.     

Optimising meritocratic advantage with the International Baccalaureate Diploma in Australian schools

This paper explores two of the tensions Tarc identifies in the history of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: firstly, between its design for meritocratic competition and its internationalist vision and, secondly, between the IB as a global commodity and its localised interpretations. Using data from three case studies of Australian schools offering both the IB Diploma and the local government curriculum, and student responses to an online survey across 26 such schools, the analysis shows how choices behind the IB's growing popularity foreground strategies for optimising meritocratic competition. Framed through Bourdieu's concepts of field and ‘rules of the game’, the analysis shows how students act on their own comparative analyses of each curriculum to optimise their chances to access desirable university pathways within the local rules of the game for university placement. Schools are shown to offer the IB Diploma to recruit and retain academically ambitious students by pooling their relative advantage in different local ecologies. Students are shown to carefully evaluate the benefits and costs of the IB choice. The conclusion reflects on how the choice of the IB Diploma for meritocratic advantage by some might change conditions for others not choosing it.     

Developing skills for youth in the 21st century: The role of elite International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme schools in China

There is a growing body of research suggesting that schools need to respond to changing social and economic dynamics by prioritising “21st-century skills”. Proponents of this view, who have been termed “the 21st century skills movement”, have called for greater emphasis on cognitive and non-cognitive skills development, alongside the learning of subject content and technical skills. This paper explores the potential of International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) schools to respond to this mandate in China, one of the fastest-growing markets for International Baccalaureate^® (IB) schools globally. The authors’ research team undertook a multi-site case study of five elite IBDP schools in China. Their findings revealed confidence among interviewees that the IB educational philosophy was conducive to 21st-century skills development, especially through the provision of the three IBDP “Core Requirements”, which are Creativity, Action, Service (CAS), Extended Essay (EE) and Theory of Knowledge (TOK). Despite this confidence, concerns remain about the implementation of the IB educational philosophy in the context of IBDP schools in China.