El producto y/o servicio

Understanding the mission of the IBDP is an essential first step in understanding the role the IBDP plays in Ontario public schools. The IBDP is governed by the International

Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), and therefore subscribes to the following mission statement of the IBO:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.(IBO, 2013)

22

Though the IBO mission is universal to all schools who subscribe to its curriculum, how that mission plays out in local settings may not be universal.

To truly understand the IBDP experience, one must also have a sense of the curricular requirements of the program. The IBDP curriculum draws heavily from liberal arts principles, and stresses “student-centred instruction, dialogue, independent learning, an ethic of service and philosophic reflection on the world, aesthetics and knowledge,” while also consisting of

substantive content which “provides a more traditional focus on canonical scientific, literary and cultural texts and knowledge” (Doherty et al., 2012, p. 313). The IBDP requires students to complete a total of six subjects (one from each of the humanities, sciences, mathematics, arts, first language, and second language), and complete three ‘core’ components which include an extended essay on a topic of their choice, participation in the ‘Creativity, Action, Service’ (CAS) program, and the ‘Theory of Knowledge’ (TOK) course (IBO, 2013).

The International Baccalaureate (2012) explains that the assessment procedures for the IBDP come in the form of written examinations taken at the end of the program which are marked by external IB examiners. There are also assessment pieces which are conducted throughout the program that are either initially marked by teachers and then moderated by external moderators, or sent directly to external examiners. The IBDP scoring system awards marks for each course on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest). There are also up to three additional points available for students’ combined results on TOK and the extended essay. IB diplomas are awarded to students who gain at least 24 points and have met minimum levels of performance across the whole program and have satisfactorily participated in the CAS requirement. The highest total that a Diploma Programme student can be awarded is 45 points. Assessment of IB courses is criterion related, which means that “student performance is measured against pre-

23

specified assessment criteria based on the aims and objectives of each subject curriculum, rather than the performance of other students taking the same examinations” (International

Baccalaureate, 2013, p. 4).

Another important element of the IBDP curriculum, which is intended to be woven throughout the whole program, is the Learner Profile—a 10 point attribute list which suggests IB students should strive to be “inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers balanced and reflexive” (IBO, 2013). Seefried (cited in Bunnell, 2010) characterizes the Learner Profile as creating two sets of skills in IBDP students:

The ‘IB Learner Profile’ combines the attributes students will need to develop a business school brain: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers and communicators with a social worker heart: principled, open-minded, caring and balanced, attributes enabled by the capacity to be at the same time reflective and risk ‘takers’. (p. 359)

Thus, the IBDP curriculum has the ambitious goal of melding “liberal values, rights and responsibilities with a commitment to a new internationalism which values cultural exchange, intercultural communication, multi-lingualism, active global citizenship and mutual

understanding” (Doherty et al., 2012, p. 313).

An irony that surrounds the IBDP is that the mission of the IB may not be coming to fruition in schools due to the design of the program which satisfies both neoliberal and neoconservative political agendas. The use of ‘agendas’ is not meant to imply a conspiracy theory, but instead to show that the development of the IB, both historically and currently, can be seen to follow two different paths (Bunnell, 2010, p. 358). This can result in the program being adopted by governments, organizations, and schools to fulfill a variety of needs—some of which may match the IB vision and some of which may not.

24

For Apple (2001), the current style of neoliberalism exists symbiotically, yet contradictorily, with neoconservativism. The neoliberal agenda is satisfied by the IB as it “discursively serves as a symbol and archetype ‘alternative’ for ‘choice’ advocates which resonates with neo-liberal values” (Doherty, 2009, p. 85). Neoconservative advocates, however, may oppose the student-centred pedagogy and philosophic enquiry embodied by the IBDP—an example being the US Conservative action group, Edwatch, going as far as to put the IB on notice as a “dangerous form of internationalism unacceptable to ‘patriotic Americans’” (Doherty et al., p. 316). At the same time, the IB resonates with neoconservative approaches to curriculum due to the highly prescriptive courses of study in traditional disciplines, and high stakes external examinations (Doherty et al., 2012). Doherty (2009) proposes that the current appeal of the IB is based more on its “opportunistic fulfillment” of these political agendas than the actual

curriculum (p. 86). Therefore, the IB exists within a reality where the resultant perception and uptake of the program may stem more from forces outside the IB than from the curriculum itself. The following section outlines the literature which attempts to understand the IBDP, and

international education more generally, from a theoretical standpoint.