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.     

Planning mobile futures: the border artistry of International Baccalaureate Diploma choosers

This paper reports on a study of students choosing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma over state‐based curricula in Australian schools. The IB Diploma was initially designed as a matriculation certificate to facilitate international mobility. While first envisaged as a lifestyle agenda for cultural elites, such mobility is now widespread with more people living ‘beyond the nation’ through choice or circumstance. Beck and others highlight how the capacity to cross national borders offers a competitive edge with which to strategically pursue economic and cultural capital. Beck’s ‘border artistes’ are those who use national borders to their individual advantage through reflexive strategy. The study explored the rationales and strategy behind the choice of the IB Diploma curriculum expressed by students in a focus group interview and an online survey. This paper reports on their imagined transnational routes and mobile orientations, and how a localised curriculum limits their imagined mobile futures.     

Global and National Imaginings: Deparochialising the IBDP English A1 Curriculum

In this paper, I argue for the deparochialising of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) English A1 curriculum where teachers as curriculum-makers would critically assess text choice and where students have the opportunities to make critical readings and engage in conversations about issues raised by the text. Through the case study of the implementation of one English A1 curriculum in a Singapore school, I demonstrate the possibilities for a cosmopolitan literature curriculum that is attentive to both the global and the local.     

International education and the ‘second phase’: a framework for conceptualizing its nature and for the future assessment of its effectiveness

International education involves a dichotomy of study between the largely theoretical discipline of comparative education, and the still relatively under‐researched body of international schools. The last 40 years has seen the rapid growth both in scale and diversity of this type of school, plus the emergence of a discrete industry. This dimension of international education now seems to be entering a ‘second phase’, characterized in the main by a desire to exert more influence. This seems to hinge on the bringing of order and greater structure to the growing industry, and the creating of a deeper and more meaningful educational experience. This paper offers an introductory framework for conceptualizing the complex nature and ambition of this ‘second phase’, and offers an introductory platform for the future assessing of its overall effectiveness.     

大学筹资结构对办学绩效影响的实证研究--以美国全国性大学为例

本文以美国全国性大学为样本,对大学筹资结构与办学绩效的关系进行了实证分析。结果表明,大学经费来源结构对大学办学绩效不构成显著影响,竞争性经费结构对大学办学绩效则构成显著影响。具体到各项经费上,政府拨款比例对大学办学绩效构成显著负向影响,政府补助与合同、个人捐赠与合同比例、投资收益比例、其他核心收益比例均对大学办学绩效构成显著正向影响,学费比例不构成显著影响。我国应该鼓励大学筹资结构多元化和民办大学的发展,促进大学基金会和社会捐赠制度建设,培育和挖掘企业或校友资源,增强政府经费的竞争性和选择性,从而促进大学为赢得更多经费支持而不断完善内部的治理结构,提高自身办学绩效。     

卓越计划：世界一流大学建设的德国模式

德国大学在20世纪经历了由盛及衰的历史转变,重塑德国大学当年的辉煌已成为德国政府和民众的共同理想。2006年开始实施的德国大学卓越计划旨在通过加大政府对大学科研的资助,提升德国大学的国际竞争力。从现有资料来看,该计划在经费资助强度,科研与教学之间的平衡,学科与院校均衡等方面产生了相应的问题。     

资助育人成效的体现途径

高校资助工作的目的是帮助家庭经济困难学生顺利完成大学教育,以实现高等教育机会平等、促进社会和谐发展和学生个体的健康成长。本文将分析贫困生在心理、实践和就业三个方面遇到的问题,提出以心理健康、社会实践能力突出和就业顺利作为高校资助育人工作成效的衡量标准。     

International education: the transformative potential of experiential learning

Academic outcomes of post-16 education can be understood in terms of their value for gaining access to university and, at a time when global educational mobility is growing, internationally recognised university entrance qualifications may be considered a form of personal capital. However, narrowly measured outcomes may not reflect the breadth of the school experience nor the extent to which this breadth contributes to the development of the young person. One curriculum which aims to prepare students in ways that extend beyond the academic is the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which incorporates an experiential element at its core. Creativity, Activity, Service attaches a transformative purpose to education, where students’ experiences in each of the three strands can support personal learning that is not confined to subject areas of an academic curriculum. This paper describes the evolution of CAS in the academically rigorous Diploma Programme and presents the findings from a review of literature which contribute towards developing an understanding of the transformative potential of this component.