IB and International-mindedness - Individual Assignment

Please respond to the questions based on the readings below. Answers to each question [e.g. 1(i)] should be approx. 40-100 words, so please be succinct and evidence-based. Please do so as an Individual Assignment by creating a Microsoft Word Doc (titled 'Module 2. IB and international-mindedness') in your OneDrive Folder (which I've now created for you and sent you the link for by email). Formatting - for all assignments: Please use 'calibri' font (black colour), font size 11, 1.0 spacing. Readings can be found in the 'Resources' section of our Brightspace Course.

Part One:

Based on " “International Education as Developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization” by Ian Hill (excerpted from: Sage Handbook of research in international education, Edition: 1st edition, Chapter: 2, Publisher: Sage, London, Editors: In M. Hayden, J. Thompson, J. Levy, pp.25-37), please respond with specific evidence/examples. When doing so, cite the relevant page number from this reading in brackets - no formal citation format needed other than this.

i) What would you discern to be most unique about the IB's origins/beginnings (i.e., historically and geographically)?

ii) How have this/these feature(s) shaped or infused the IB programmes (especially the original one, the Diploma Programme)?

iii) Do you think the IB could have just as easily had its origins (i.e., been created first) in a national public school in your current setting? (i.e., if you're in S. Korea, what about in S. Korean national public schools? Be sure to include what country/setting you are in).

Optional extension sources:

iv) You may also find it interesting to view the following video presentation (TEDxBathUniversity), 'International Education and the Promotion of Intercultural Understanding' which looks at the origins of the IB and the related United World Colleges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cbn08FYElU . You could also refer to your particular programme's guide, 'Principles into Practice', as found in the 'Resources' section. See the section, 'history of the programme'.

Part Two:

Please answer the questions below for each of the following two readings. As much as possible, please respond with specific evidence/examples (citing the relevant page number from the reading in brackets - it needn't be more formal than that). You should include at least one page reference per reading.

2.1 - George Walker, 'Speech at the Biennial Conference of IB Nordic Schools (Stockholm, September 9, 2005): What have I learned about international education?'

i) To what extent does this reading complement and/or build upon the IB foundation as depicted by the Hill article? What stands out most in this reading for you?

In the handbook, the idea of international education is distinguished between learning information about a particular place other than the place one is attending school, learning school curricula in English while living in a country where English is not the first language spoken and learning how to be internationally mindfful (Hill, pg.2). This idea is complimented by Walker's speech through the story of the student discussing the challenge where in Walker uses the characteristic of negotiation in order to identify what international education could result in (Walker, pg.6).

ii) Application: To what extent might this reading augment or challenge your educational philosophy and practice? In what ways is/could this version of 'international-mindedness/global citizenship' be relevant to your teaching practice? In what ways not? (if you are currently teaching, you should reflect on the relevance to your current school setting). What next step, if any, does this reading lead you to in your teaching practice/in your classroom with your students?

In my current teaching practices the idea of by culturally critical and responsive in pedagogy is something that is not only emphasized as highly important to me by my colleagues in Ontario, and something that I work really hard to achieve here, but indeed something that is mentioned in Walker's speech (Walker 3-4).

The next step of my career is to idenitfy ways that I challenge my students' sense of perspective without being taken out of context. What Walker describes in regards to the student who made him question whether or not an IB school would be successful in Jordan resonates with me, teaching in China, there are a great many things that we as educators want to ask, say or inquire about, however to a certain degree, administrators will not only frown upon it but strongly advise against (Walker 4-5). In this, I seek to achieve a more internationally atmospheric classroom to give studenst the bravery or humility enough to not only be asked those questions, but ask those questions themselves.

iii) Thinking/Reflection: Are there universal values of a good education? What is the relationship between our perspectives and knowledge & truth? To what extent does bias limit our
pursuit of knowledge & truth (including educational programming/curriculum)? To what extent can this be mitigated?

Universal values of good education are indeed characteristics that resonate with me after reading Walker's speech, he describes characteristics of international education that I believe are values of "good" education, the three that I think I might say are characteristics of a good education are communication, cultural awareness and negotiation (pg.1). Our perspectives, knowledge and truth are related through the idea that they make us feel grounded and are large contributing factors to our ideas of right and wrong. Our bias is our concept of truth. This limits our pusuit of knowledge and truth because we are only looking at the things we are prompted to be looking for. We can combat this through interacting with international companions and developing an international mindedness of our own.

2.2 - Irene Davy, Learners without Borders: A Curriculum for Global Citizenship

i) To what extent does this reading complement and/or build upon the IB foundation as depicted by the Hill article? What stands out most in this reading for you?

On a fundamental level, the ideas presented in page 2 of Davy's Learners without Borders: A Curriculum for GLobal Citizneship, adheres to the call for international schools to place individuals of different pathways and backgrounds (culturally, academically, and socially) in rooms next to each other in order to develop a picture of what the future could, should and likely will look like for many in the future. Davy's idea shared is that the time period we find ourselves in is the actualization of the curriculum that was initially envisioned by the IB and thus making this global citizenship curriculum extremely relevant. Ultimately, what stands out to me is the sentiments shared, being an international school teacher and having my feelings on experiences in schools overseas teaching, it really resonates me as something I try really hard to bring to the staff, school and students in general through content and experience. I would like to work towards a more "internationally minded" (pg.8) curriculum, however at this stage in my career, I am working more on an internationally minded-department. Unfortauntely I can work with other departments to impart opportunities for international mindedness, but it is not solely up to me nor does our staff often have the resource/accessibility to do as we envision.

As I mentioned, while reading this perspective on global curriculum by Davy (pg.8-9),my practice currently includes the attributes of an international minded teacher. The idea regarding the future directions of IB educators is still in my distant future as I seek to complete the IBEC-DP qualification. That being said, In my practice, for example, my students are tasked with identifying characteristics of social justice in a text (in the past we studied Twelve Angry Men and Reasonable Doubt). From this base point, students begin to inquire on levels of the text that they feel they either would like to learn more about and/or refine their understanding of to that of an "expert" level. The project is uniformly a podcast unit that requires students to take on the responsibility of building an maintain sustained spoken English and share an interview they took with a relevant voice on the topic they are inquiring about. This project started years ago when I realized that written pen pals were not a feasible endeavour from China as some of our class pen pals were in places like Sengal and Brunei, these places are very inconvenient to recieve and send mail to through China. That being said, with regards to Davy's sentiments on future practice for IB educators, I had a colleague who joined me in teaching ENG4U, together we established what we both thought were reasonable parameters to our classes together and since, have been working together to align as well as explore what projects look like in classrooms beyond our own. These projects have come to a point where we now hold an annual film festival that students are the sole contributors to, students are confidently publishing work to social media and learning how to control their online presence in a professional manner.

Assignment Title: 'Module 2. IB and international-mindedness'

Module 2. IB and international-mindedness

Carmelo Bono

Eric Robertson

IBEC-DP-Teaching and Learning

Jan. 29. 2025

Part 1 and Part 2- What is IB?

Part 1 “International Education as Developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization” by Ian Hill

What is most unique about the IB'S origins and beginnings is the idea that it was founded on the basis that there is indeed a distinction between an "international school" and a school that offers a curriculum from a different country. It raises a great deal of attention for me, to the idea that international schools contribute to international mindedness through curriculum, learning environment, and school philosophy as these are fundamental pieces of information that many "international schools" through around in a manner that really delinates the importance of these things for marketing purposes (Hill, pg.26).

ii)

The idea of a worldly curriculum that entails world history and world geography being of little attraction to individuals who are enrolling their children there is something that resonates with me deeply (Hill, pg. 26). There is learning world history and then there is, learning history in a language other than the geographical location’s first language. The idea that there is a pragmatism and ideal in running a program like this (the IB) certainly has an influence on the way it is received and delivered, in this handbook, it is outlining how the curriculum is developed in 1996 to educate the future and an individual's life in a global way (Hill, pg.33-34).

iii)

It was interesting to read essentially how the IBDP was inspired by the trials and procedures carried out through Atlantic College onwards of 1962 wherein students were in living situations that were essentially built to challenge their willingness to communicate with people of other cultures (Hill, 2006, pg.27). It was after 1970 that amendments to the curricula began to occur eventually leading to a situation that resembles the use of triangulation to identify student readiness for graduation. Being from Canada, specifically Ontario, given the time of the development wherein the IBO begins branding its IBDP in 1970, Ontario's Ministry of Education was only in its early stages of its own organization of the education system and thereafter began experiencing a decline in enrollment (School Systems, 2015). That being said, given the idea that "eventually" a curriculum to that of the IB would be developed in Ontario, through Ontario's education as a jump-base, it seems unlikely given the fact that within the situation of the IBO, that beginning with the International School of Geneva, the curricula was expected to resemble something that would apply to students on a global scale and be something that students attending could ascertain regardless of their citizenship. In Ontario, or even Canada in general, there is a grand disconnect between each province let alone districts wherein the education system and the stakeholder's education resemble their home province rather than a unified "national perspective" in Canada at that time. If we as Canadians can claim witness to the development of international Education, I believe we would have seen it much earlier on, however Canada did not overcome the obstacles of segregated schooling as a whole until the early 90's, prior to that the Japanese, Chinese and Indigenous people were at one point or another excluded from what might be percieved as equal opportunity in education, and it might be said that segregated neighbours (not schools), may have limited the number of visible minorities into certain schools as an exclusiionary practice (Dr.Karen L., 2019). Through all the time between the 90's to now, Canada has developed an education situation that better resembles the Indigenous in Canada, even then, the idea is that there is a great deal of disconnect seperating provinces and people based on the various histories, cultures and geographical locations. Maybe eventually Canada will model an education system from that of the IB as BC is trying to and ON seemingly tries to, but to see it as something that would develop without it being done somewhere else seems unlikely to me. To conclude, although I have these feelings based on my own understandings of available information, I came acorss the interesting development of the CIE (Comparative and International Education Society of Canada) wherein Katz called a together a group of like minded scholars to investigate the educational landscape of Canada which led to the invitation of the UNESCO to these discussions to compare and discussion the international educational landscape.

Part 2.1 George Walker, 'Speech at the Biennial Conference of IB Nordic Schools (Stockholm, September 9, 2005): What have I learned about international education?'

ii)

iii)

Part 2.2- Irene Davy, Learners without Borders: A Curriculum for Global Citizenship

On a fundamental level, the ideas presented in page 2 of Davy's Learners without Borders: A Curriculum for Global Citizneship, adheres to the call for international schools to place individuals of different pathways and backgrounds (culturally, academically, and socially) in rooms next to each other in order to develop a picture of what the future could, should and likely will look like for many in the future. Davy's idea shared is that the time period we find ourselves in is the actualization of the curriculum that was initially envisioned by the IB and thus making this global citizenship curriculum extremely relevant. Ultimately, what stands out to me is the sentiments shared, being an international school teacher and having my feelings on experiences in schools overseas teaching, it really resonates me as something I try really hard to bring to the staff, school and students in general through content and experience. I would like to work towards a more "internationally minded" (pg.8) curriculum, however at this stage in my career, I am working more on an internationally minded-department. Unfortauntely I can work with other departments to impart opportunities for international mindedness, but it is not solely up to me nor does our staff often have the resource/accessibility to do as we envision.

ii)

As I mentioned, while reading this perspective on global curriculum by Davy (pg.8-9), my practice currently includes the attributes of an international minded teacher. The idea regarding the future directions of IB educators is still in my distant future as I seek to complete the IBEC-DP qualification. That being said, In my practice, for example, my students are tasked with identifying characteristics of social justice in a text (in the past we studied Twelve Angry Men and Reasonable Doubt). From this base point, students begin to inquire on levels of the text that they feel they either would like to learn more about and/or refine their understanding of to that of an "expert" level. The project is uniformly a podcast unit that requires students to take on the responsibility of building an maintain sustained spoken English and share an interview they took with a relevant voice on the topic they are inquiring about. This project started years ago when I realized that written pen pals were not a feasible endeavour from China as some of our class pen pals were in places like Sengal and Brunei, these places are very inconvenient to recieve and send mail to through China. That being said, with regards to Davy's sentiments on future practice for IB educators, I had a colleague who joined me in teaching ENG4U, together we established what we both thought were reasonable parameters to our classes together and since, have been working together to align as well as explore what projects look like in classrooms beyond our own. These projects have come to a point where we now hold an annual film festival that students are the sole contributors to, students are confidently publishing work to social media and learning how to control their online presence in a professional manner.

Sources:

Davy, Irene. Learners without Borders: A Curriculum for Global Citizenship.

Hill, Ian.International Education as Developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. Sage Handbook of research in international education, Edition: 1st edition, Chapter: 2, Publisher: Sage, London, Editors: In M. Hayden, J. Thompson, J. Levy, pp.25-37

Walker, George. Speech at the Biennial Conference of IB Nordic Schools (Stockholm, September 9, 2005): What have I learned about international education?.

History of Education in Canada

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-education

School Systems, The Canadian Encyclopedia

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/school-systems

A Historical Overview of Education in Canada

https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/robsonsoced/chapter/__unknown__-3/A link to the document can be accessed here:

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