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INTERCOM 11

INTERNATIONAL INTO NATIONAL DOES GO
A personal view by Bora Rancic

What exactly constitutes British society and culture? This question sprang to mind on encountering the article on 'Globalisation and International Education' by Jim Cambridge in Intercom 10 which contrasted the educational views of Professor George Walker, Director General of the International Baccalaureate Organisation and Visiting Professor at the University of Bath, and Dr Nick Tate of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Professor Walker had commented that, in a world in which national as well as international schools are increasingly operating in an international environment, the IB is no longer seen as the preserve of the latter. By contrast, Dr Tate had felt that the IB is inappropriate for widespread adoption in maintained schools in England and Wales because it is an international qualification not devised with (British) society and culture in mind. He argued that in the IB Diploma Programme programme, for instance, English is very much about world literature. Presumably Dr Tate fears that the widespread adoption of the IB in English and Welsh maintained schools could lead to the creation of generations of young people without a clear sense of what it means to be British.


'Cultural heritage' view of curriculum

This view fails to take into account, I believe, the perception held by many of Britain as a plural, multicultural society in which its members simultaneously belong to the national culture and to a variety of subcultures. A 'cultural heritage' view of curriculum, where the choice of texts is limited to the finest in the language, as prescribed by the great and the good of the national culture, does not serve the best interests of all students, particularly those who choose to identify more strongly with a particular subculture. Similarly, it fails to take account of the fundamental principles underpinning the IBO.


Fundamental Principles

Whilst the IB offers an international curriculum, this does not mean that it is designed to eradicate a student's sense of national and personal identity. On the contrary, as the former IBO Director General Roger Peel emphasised, 'the honesty of the IB stems from the fact that we require all students to relate first to their own national identity - their own language, literature and cultural heritage ... this process requires a high level of first language competence, and being able to speak a second language competently enables not only face to face communication with people across national and cultural barriers, but also access to the accumulated records of a culture'.


Thus Groups 1 and 2 (Languages) are at the heart of the IB Diploma. Dr Tate's comment that IB English is about world literature fails to recognise the way in which the IB Diploma languages programme is designed to meet the needs of students all around the world. Given that 67 of the 165 texts/writers on the Prescribed Book List are 'British', and would not appear incongruous on even the most traditional University degree programme, and given that the remainder represent the greatest names in world literature, it is difficult to understand how the IB programme could not be considered appropriate for students in the maintained sector of England and Wales.

Notwithstanding the fact that IB languages A2, B and ab initio are as appropriate for students in British state schools as they are for their counterparts in international schools, the A1 programme allows students to relate not only to their own culture and language, thus reinforcing personal and national identity, but also to other cultures and languages. Thus it facilitates the promotion of an international perspective, a key educational goal in a world that is becoming ever more globalised and interdependent.


Living and working in a globalised world

As Jim Cambridge notes, it is a misconception to think of globalisation 'as a single discrete phenomenon', but few would doubt that the world is becoming an ever more interconnected place. Spending at least part of one's life on an assignment in a foreign country will soon exceed the probability, a century ago, of ever stepping out of the town where one was born. As interconnection speeds up, more and more people will be faced with the challenge of living and working in a foreign culture. In this context, whatever usefulness ethnocentrism might once have yielded will be redundant. Some might argue that innate human acculturation skills will enable those faced with cross-cultural challenges to adapt to and successfully complete their overseas assignments, but the reality is different. Many consider would argue that intercultural sensitivity is not natural and that respect for lifestyles other than one's own is not the norm. In the light of this, it is no surprise that the difficulty of successfully meeting the international managerial challenge is reflected by an observation that only about 20% of international workers perform highly effectively and that 15-40% of American business personnel return home before their contracts run their full course. Furthermore, one study has found that nearly ten per cent of employees returning from overseas postings left their companies within two years, at an estimated cost of £1.2 billion annually. One may speculate that ethnocentrism, where people make judgements about culturally diverse others using the standards with which they are familiar from their own socialisation, is a root cause for the failure of so many people to successfully negotiate cross-cultural experiences, and to complete professional assignments.

Ethnorelativism

Which brings us back to Dr Nick Tate and Professor George Walker, for when the latter talks about convincing those who are not international of the importance of this kind of education he is really talking about an education that will develop life long learners who have a high degree of international understanding and a consciousness of the shared humanity that binds all people together. In other words, learners who are able to take an ethnorelativist, rather than an ethnocentric, view of the world.
There is a growing belief that a useful approach to the understanding of international education lies in the concept of 'crossing frontiers'. 'Crossing Borders' is the sub-title of Fennes & Hapgood's book on Intercultural Learning In The Classroom. This implies a movement away from ethnocentrism towards ethnorelativism, for which the design of the IB English A1 programme allows. Those people who fear that the adoption of the IB into a national system might lead to a wholesale loss of personal and national identity may be unaware of recent research which suggests that the development of a national and international identity are not mutually exclusive. Cynthia Wong contends that when one gains international understanding in an international education, one also tends to appreciate one's roots more. This view is supported by my own research; being international does not mean giving up one's strongly held beliefs and drifting into a kind of 'international normlessness'.


The Imperative of International Education

Despite the enthusiasm shown in some UK quarters for the IB, notably by the Secretary of State for Education himself (TES March 10 2000), there are no plans to replace A Levels, in the short term at least. The newly revised A Levels requiring students to take at least 4 subjects in the first year before cutting back to 3 in the second, are to be introduced this year. Thus, the imperative of international education in the UK, which surely must begin with internationalising the curriculum, remains unrecognised. The new A Levels may provide more breadth but there is nothing to suggest that they will provide the kind of intercultural literacy encouraged by the IB Diploma.


A broad, national/ international course, such as English A1 outlined above, coupled with the academic rigour of Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay, and the cross-cultural experiences possible in CAS allow for the development of the perspectives of young adults away from ethnocentrism towards ethnorelativism in a way that the traditional A Level, and now the new A Level, do not. Finally, the IB Diploma leaves students better equipped to operate in a world becoming ever more globalised and interdependent. Unfortunately, it will remain the preserve of the few, until our educational leaders realise that international into national does go.

Bora Rancic has been a teacher of English since 1978. He taught A Level in London and Barbados before moving to the Solomon Islands where, as Form 6 Tutor, he worked on the establishment of the Pacific Senior Schools Certificate and the National Form 7 examinations. More recently, he was a full time Masters student at the University of Bath where he developed a research interest in student perceptions of international education. He has since been Head of English at an international school in Bahrain where he taught IB English Language A1 and A2, and is currently employed by the Centre For British Teachers in Brunei where he teaches senior English at SOAS College.

 

 



 

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