To sing alone, to sing in chorus: mediating education for International Baccalaureate international mindedness and neo-liberal subjectivity

ABSTRACT

The concept of international mindedness (IM) underscores international baccalaureate (IB) programmes and acts as a universal principle for teaching and learning. Despite its prioritisation, it is unclear how practitioners, parents, and students enact IM in schools individually and collectively. In this article, I present research highlighting the development of IM in an IB school. The research findings prioritise an international approach to education reliant on the distillation of values, the rationalisation of transparency and overcoming self-determinism. These findings are further analysed through Jürgen Habermas’ (1991) theory of communicative action illustrating the breadth and depth of IM application, including its emancipatory potential. My analysis shows that while the international school community members agree with the fundamentals of the IB’s frameworks, they note the challenges of IM practice influenced by the steering powers of IB corporatism. This article will interest educators, leaders and policymakers seeking penetrative interpretations of international education and critical praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• International Baccalaureate
• international mindedness
• Jürgen Habermas
• neo-liberalism
• communicative action
• global citizenship education

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 This research was conducted as part of a wider study on Global Citizenship Education. Participants indicated that in the International School contexts, for their purposes, international mindedness and global citizenship education were considered synonymous. However, Hill (2012), for example, has made distinction between the two concepts.