Branding an ‘Inter’national school: Fusing ‘Indian values’ with a global diploma

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an ethnographic account of how Golden Harvest International School in Bengaluru branded itself as both ‘International’ and ‘Indian’, by elaborating discursive practices within the school. Drawing upon scholarship that has sought to delineate the ways in which globally hyper-mobile Indians construct a distinctive cultural identity, the paper shows how a fusion of national and international allowed the school to cater to a particular set of elite parents, who were globally hyper-mobile even as they sought to be ‘appropriately Indian’. The paper pays attention to how cultural practices and resources in the school operated within a forward caste-Hindu ethos that was presented as ‘Indian’, while also responsibilising teachers, students, and even parents to ensure the school acquired and retained globally valued credentials such as accreditation for the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalaureate.

KEYWORDS:

• International schools
• global middle-classes
• appropriately Indian
• school branding
• elite distinction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The ‘mantras’, learning from Gandhi: satyagraha (the path of truth), swadesh(self-sufficiency), swaraj(self-control), sarvodaya(universal welfare) and swadharma(congruency in thoughts and actions).

2. Some of the habits were as follows: Being an: enquirer, knowledgeable, thinker, communicator, open-minded, principled and caring.

3. This is not a general representation of international schools in Bengaluru. The claims we make in this paper are specific to GHIS.

4. IB schools have historically been seen from an ‘ideology-driven’ or ‘market-driven’ framework (Bunnell, 2008, p. 410). Some other scholars have viewed the IB as ‘internationalist’ and ‘globalist’ (Bunnell, 2008, p. 41). More than five decades after its inception many schools today the world over have adopted the IB curriculum to make their own unique mark in education, recognising that IB has global market appeal (Bunnell, 2008).

5. In writing about an international school in India we are particularly cognisant of the politics of words such as ‘international’ and how they tend to naturally reference the global north.

6. The Primary Year Programme within the IB is for children ranging from the ages of 3 to 12. This programme seeks to develop the whole child by instilling an thirst for learning, creating curiosity in the world around them and become lifelong learners. (Programmes, n.d.).

7. The Middle-Years Programme is for children between 11 to 16 years. The MYP intends to experientially teach children to connect with nature and are encouraged to think of how academic disciplines frame the world around them. This programme in inclusive as students of various interests and abilities are advantaged by participating in it (Programmes, n.d.)

8. Another word for lunch boxes.

9. The IB Middle-Years Programme identifies 16 key concepts, ranging from aesthetics to logic and perspective, to name a few. These concepts which teachers use from their own subjects and at times borrow from other subject groups are meant to help them provide frameworks to establish purposes of inquiry while planning a lesson. (MYP Key Concepts, n.d.) Given this, it was highly unlikely that students would be asked to ‘recall’ these concepts.

10. The IB learner profile is a broad-ranging set of attributes that a student graduating from the board is expected to have, moving beyond the academic requirements. It aims to make its graduating students, ‘inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective (The IB learner profile, n.d.). While these are largely agreed-upon education ideals within scholarship, note how they can be rendered into ‘learnable’ facts that teachers and students could be tested on.

11. Design students are expected to think of a problem and suggest a solution. This project is assessed on the basis of its analysis, conceptual design, development of a detailed design and testing. (Design technology, n.d.).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Savitha Suresh Babu

Savitha Suresh Babu, having recently completed her doctoral studies from National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, now works as the convener of the Kanaja Youth Research Centre, Samvada, Bengaluru [www.samvadabaduku.org].

Anupama Mahajan

Anupama Mahajan is a PhD Scholar with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal.