Comparative Education and the Training of Teachers in International Baccalaureate Schools

• In Event: Teaching Comparative and International Education (CIE): Pedagogical Aspects of CIE and CIE Guiding Pedagogies

Abstract

In the United States, International Baccalaureate (IB) has expanded from a niche program in elite high schools to an increasingly popular approach to provide rigorous, globally oriented instruction to students in diverse urban public schools. Given IB’s global emphasis and the increasing diversity of students attending IB programs in the United States, the field of comparative education (CE) offers rich material for the preparation of IB teachers. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper are to identify parallels between CE and IB, and to offer lessons from CE that could be incorporated in the preparation of IB teachers in the United States.
We draw on Arnove, Torres, and Franz’s (2013) discussion of the “dialectic of the global and the local,” whereby global processes are confronted, modified, and transformed by local actors and contexts. This dialectic represents a key facet of debates and questions in CE, and mirrors the process of introducing and implementing IB in the United States. According to Conner (2008), IB has enjoyed popularity in the United States because it has reconciled the competing US educational traditions of standards-based reform and pedagogical progressivism. Interpreted through a CE lens, IB’s initial encounter with the unique traditions of US schooling illustrates the dialectic of the global and the local, as well as one important link between CE and IB.
To further establish and illustrate links between CE and IB, we draw on academic literature and IB-generated materials to provide: (1) an overview of the growth and status of IB in the United States, including a discussion of how teachers are prepared to work in IB schools; (2) an introduction to the field of CE and its applications for US teachers; (3) an examination of parallels between CE and IB; and (4) recommendations for incorporating CE approaches and theories in the training of IB teachers in the United States.
We argue that knowledge of CE is essential for IB teachers. Specifically, the work of IB teachers will be enriched if their professional development includes more explicit preparation in: origins of and key debates in CE; evidence from cross-national CE research on effective policies, practices, and processes to raise student achievement; efforts by CE researchers to understand and integrate Indigenous and other ways of knowing in current research; evidence from studies of civic engagement, human rights, and peace education related to promoting and achieving global understanding and peaceful social interaction; and in-depth understanding of current global issues in education.
We conclude with a call for mutual learning between CE and IB, including suggestions for future CE research related to IB and its expansion across the globe. More generally, we argue that understanding the dialectic of the global and the local is important for any teacher attempting to prepare students for a fast-changing world. Further, according to Hayhoe, Manion, and Mundy (2017), one of the greatest values of CE for classroom teachers is the idea inherent in comparison: by examining others, we can understand and improve our own educational approaches.

Authors

• Thomas F. Luschei, Claremont Graduate University

• Amoreena Nancy Castaneda, Claremont Graduate University