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Abstract
Over the last four decades, International Baccalaureate (IB) schools have become increasingly important in the global market of international education. This is especially evident in Asia Pacific, which has evidenced the fastest growth in IB schools, as well as international schools more generally, across the world over the last decade. Despite this dramatic growth of international education in Asia Pacific, empirical research examining leadership in this context is scarce. This paper addresses this gap through the analysis of case study data collected in five International Baccalaureate Schools in East Asia. The purposes of the report are to explore key challenges facing IB school leaders in the region, and identify implications for researchers and IB school leaders.
Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the funding support of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) for our research. We appreciate research assistance from Dongyu Li and Fang Li for collecting descriptive statistics about international schools. We also greatly appreciate insightful comments of three anonymous reviewers for the International Journal of Leadership in Education. Finally, special thanks must go to students, teachers and administrators in the participating schools for this study.
Notes
aAll information based on the year of 2009. For the anonymity of interview participants, some school information such as location, country and mission statement is not presented in the table. For the same purpose, the exact year each school was founded is not provided.
bThe average subject grade in IB schools around the world in 2009 was 4.69.
1. Primary Years Programme (PYP) is offered for pupils aged 3–12 which focuses on the development of the whole child, Middle Years Programme (MYP) is designed for students aged 11–16 which emphasizes academic challenge and life skills, and Diploma Programme (DP) is offered for students aged 16–19 which leads to an IB diploma recognized by universities around the world.
2. Gehring (Citation2001) discusses the branding and meaning of the IB brand as it evolved in the USA with respect to the DP.
3. In this context, high growth refers both to growth in school-age population as well as economic development.
4. Notably, the number of the case studies (i.e. the unit of case is each school) is regarded as sufficient for multi-site sample cases, as long as our findings from the subsequent case studies ‘provide compelling support for the initial set of propositions’ that emerged from the survey analysis and the initial case study (Yin 1994: 46).
5. See Garton’s study (Citation2002) for discussions about wider contextual factors influencing international schools.
6. The percentage presented here is based on archival data from the school in Hong Kong. We note that studies conducted in Hong Kong (e.g. AmCham Citation2007, Jabal Citation2010) showed even higher percentages of local student populations enrolled in some international schools in Hong Kong. For example, according to a survey of English Schools Foundation (ESF) conducted in Hong Kong, 70% of ESF students’ parents are permanent residents as of 2005 (cited in Jabal Citation2010). We also note that the percentage of local students vs. children of expatriate professionals varied widely among the schools and was based upon a variety of local factors such as relevant policies, age of the school and the school’s ability to attract non-local students.
7. DP students are required to take three subjects at a higher level (HL) and another three subjects at standard level (SL). In general, 240 hours and 150 hours are required for three HL and three SL courses, respectively. In addition to these six courses, DP candidates have to take one transdisciplinary subject, Extended Essay, Community, Action, Service and Theory of Knowledge (IBO Citation2006).
8. See Cambridge (2002) for more information about the issues of recruitment and staff deployment in international school settings.
9. Another more technical reason for school staff’s perceptions of the lack of linkages among the three programmes was because of different terminologies embedded in different programmes.
10. At the same time, however, we wish to note that the Personal Project is designed to encourage MYP students to take serious ownership in their inquiry-based learning.
11. The main principle of backwards mapping emphasized by the schools was that it should be based on ‘skills and knowledge’ that students are expected to obtain when they reach the final stage of the IB programme.
