The silent expansion of internationalisation: exploring the adoption of the International Baccalaureate in Madrid

ABSTRACT

The growth of the International Baccalaureate (IB) worldwide is part of a global trend towards the internationalisation of education (IE). Its implementation, nonetheless, takes different forms depending on national and local contexts. This paper examines the recent expansion of the IB in Madrid, drawing upon the sociology of education policy enactments and recontextualisations and the Cultural Political Economy approach. Combining in-depth interviews, document analysis and secondary quantitative data, this paper shows why Madrid has led the expansion of IB schools in Spain in the last decade, an expansion, which has nonetheless remained relatively unnoticed. Our findings suggest that the growth and penetration of private international education initiatives such as the IB may be related to particular social factors, education system characteristics and education policy ensembles, with a particularly intense manifestation in decentralised systems where neoliberal and neoconservative policies foster autonomy, competition, internationalisation and ‘excellence’.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalisation of education
• international education
• International Baccalaureate
• policy enactment
• Cultural Political Economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Unfortunately, the lack of research on the adoption of IB in other Spanish regions from an educational policy approach limits the possibilities of comparative analysis.

2. Source: IBO, Find an IB World School [website], https://www.ibo.org/programmes/find-an-ib-school/ (accessed 17 December 2020).

3. Since 2012, the IBO has provided a fourth programme: the Career-related Programme (CP), especially designed for students aged 16–19 interested in a career-related education programme in the final two years of secondary school. This has only been implemented in one school in Madrid.

4. Source: Spanish Ministry of Education, Registro Estatal de Centros Docentes no Universitarios (RCD). https://www.educacion.gob.es/centros/home.do. Consulted on 15 October 2020.

5. Source: Spanish Ministry of Education, Level of education completed by the 25–64 year-old population. Year 2019.

6. In Spain, the national Baccalaureate consists of a two-year programme. After the Baccalaureate, students willing to access university must pass a national examination called the university entrance exam (EBAU). Their grades for the Baccalaureate and their results in this exam determine their chance of accessing particular degrees in different universities.

7. One of the main reforms is the implementation of an external test named Basic Knowledge and Skills Test (CDI for its acronym in Spanish). In 2005, the CDI was designed as a census-based evaluation for students in 6^th Grade of primary education, ‘with clear learning standards attached’.

8. First, the Organic Law of Education (LOE) passed in 2006 allowed IB students to access Spanish universities without having to take the EBAU. Secondly, in the 310/2016 Decree, the Ministry of Education, in an agreement with the National Distance Education University (UNED), created a system for weighting marks from the IB Programme.