Session Information
23 SES 06 C, New Modes of Governing HE and Their Effects
Paper Session
Contribution
International education and schooling is a new burgeoning area of research and global citizenship education is one of the key markers in schools’ response towards providing an internationally minded curriculum. Moreover, in a more market driven competitive schooling environment, global citizenship education is also at times linked to branding and has resulted in the demarcation of schools’ positioning in the market. International and independent non-government schools in their quest towards attaining an internationally minded curriculum have adopted international programs like the International Baccalaureate (IB) and International Primary Curriculum (IPC). These programmes have also become more popular and have been taken up in some non-international school settings.
This study is located within the domains of ‘comparative education’ and ‘international education' which, to date, have elicited researchers’ interest in these two fields because of the growth of international schools globally and the existence of schools that fall under the “umbrella term” (Hayden, 2006; Hayden & Thompson, 2016) of international schools. It has been reported by ISC Research (Keeling, 2015), that 8000 ‘English-medium international schools’ exist globally, catering to 4.26 million students (Hayden & Thompson, 2016). This is a 200% increase since 2000 (Brummitt & Keeling, 2013, p. 27). An internationally minded curriculum evokes notions of inter-culturalism, transnational connectivity, global sensitivity in its design of curriculum, pedagogical approaches, assessment practices and research knowledge and skills (Matthews, 2002). It is believed that embedded within such a curriculum is a distinctive set of knowledge and skills, relevant to both the global and national landscapes (Joseph, 2012). For schools in Europe, which are facing mass migration, one of the key challenges is catering to such a diversified population and allowing for different groups to co-exist harmoniously with a common sense of identity. Historically the initiative has focused on multiculturalism. It now focuses on global citizenship education. Adoption of an internationally minded curriculum is aligned with the practices of international schools and providers, which have faced myriad issues catering to diverse school populations (Hayden & Thompson, 2016). As a result, numerous schools in the United Kingdom, Australia & Singapore, have crafted school mission statements that cite the use of ‘cosmopolitanism’ or ‘global citizenship’, adopting a more internationally minded curriculum (Schattle, 2008).
This particular study focuses on schools’ response to the ‘demands of a twenty-first century global knowledge society’ (Fielding & Vidovich, 2016, p.3). The issues that I have researched are relevant to schooling in the European context as part of the uptake of attempts to internationalise schools and to encourage global citizenship. Specifically, this paper focuses on a comparative analysis of global citizenship education in two schools, one international school in Singapore and an independent school in Australia and how these two schools have engaged in the process of internationalization of their education through the adoption of international education models within the two schools, generating insights from the International Primary Curriculum and the IB Primary Year Programme. Central to this research is the examination of educational policies which address global citizenship education in each of the two schools .
The study is framed against the theory of post-multiculturalism and Vertovec’s (2007b, p. 91) notion of super-diversity, a state of existence that defines the heightened level of diverse cultural complexity that the world and nations are currently experiencing. Drawing on various theoretical resources on global education, global citizenship education, international education, as well as the post multicultural reality of diversity and inclusiveness, this research seeks to examine the extent to which ‘international-mindedness’ is embedded into the practices and culture of the two research schools. International-mindedness is the promotion of ‘intercultural understanding’ and encouragement of an ‘international outlook’.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Brummitt, N., & Keeling, A. (2013). Charting the growth of international schools. International Education and Schools: Moving Beyond the First, 40, 25-36. Crowe, S., Cresswell, K., Robertson, A., Huby, G., Avery, A., & Sheikh, A. (2011). The case study approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 11(1), 100. Fielding, M., & Vidovich, L. (2016). Internationalisation in practice in Australian independent secondary schools: a global-local nexus?. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1-15. Hayden, M. (2006). Introduction to international education: International schools and their communities. London: United Kingdom, London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Hayden, M., & Thompson, J. (2016). International schools: Current issues and future prospects. United Kingdom: Symposium books. Joseph, C. (2012). Internationalizing the curriculum: Pedagogy for social justice. Current Sociology, 60(2), 239-257. doi: 10.1177/0011392111429225 Keeling, A. (2015). International school market expands to 8000 schools. Relocatemagazine.com MacDonald, J. (2006). The international school industry: Examining international schools through an economic lens. Journal of Research in International Education, 5(2), 191-213. Matthews, J. (2002). International education and internationalisation are not the same as globalisation: Emerging issues for secondary schools. Journal of Studies in International Education, 6(4), 369-390. Phillips, D., & Schweisfurth, M. (2014). Comparative and international education: An introduction to theory, method, and practice. New York; London: Bloomsbury Academic. Schattle, H. (2008). Education for global citizenship: Illustrations of ideological pluralism and adaptation. Journal of Political Ideologies, 13(1), 73-94. doi: 10.1080/13569310701822263 Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024-1054. doi: 10.1080/01419870701599465 Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon;New York;: Routledge. Walker, G. (2016). International schools and International curricula, in Fielding, M., & Vidovich, L. (2016). Internationalisation in practice in Australian independent secondary schools: a global-local nexus?. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1-15. Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: design and methods. Los Angeles: SAGE.
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