The Internationalisation of School-level Education: International Schools and the Global Nomad

1. The Internationalisation of School-level Education: International Schools and the Global Nomad Dr Mary Hayden, University of Bath

2. International Schools • Some Issues in International Schools • Teachers, curriculum, students in international schools

3. Background and Context • Exact origins unclear, depending on definitions (eg Spring Grove School 1866, Yokohama International School & International School of Geneva 1924) • Largely post-WW1: League of Nations • Growth largely since WW2 with increasing global mobility of, eg, large multi-national organisations, aid agencies, diplomatic communities (Jonietz and Harris, 1991)

4. Decreasing interest in boarding schools/desire to move as a family • Origins of many international schools (eg Washington International School 1965, Alice Smith School Kuala Lumpur 1946) catering for expatriates, as parent-instigated cooperatives

5. Matthews (1989) estimated that approximately 1,000 schools were in existence at that time, employing 50,000 teachers and catering for around half a million students, with about 90% going on to higher education. • More recent estimates (Brummitt, 2007) suggest current numbers around 4,000 international schools worldwide

6. International Schools to end 20th century Growth in numbers of international schools: • Generally parent-run, expatriate clientele • Mostly individual ‘one off’ institutions, responding to local needs of globally-mobile families • Private, fee-paying, mostly not-for-profit • Fees often paid by parent’s employer • Mostly English-medium • Increasingly also including ‘host country national’ students (where permitted by law) • Often highly multicultural student population (40+ nationalities)

7. Large variation in types of school • Size (very small to very large) • National affiliation (eg British International School of Bangkok) or ‘international’ (non-national affiliation) • Student population largely from one expatriate national base vs multicultural • Curriculum offered • Governance (eg board or single owner)

8. International schools early 21st century • Still large number of parent cooperatives • Some clusters of schools sharing aims/values (eg United World Colleges, European Schools) • ‘Ideology drive’ vs ‘market driven’ • Some employer-sponsored (eg Shell Schools) • Some state-funded (eg Netherlands: DISS & DIPS) • ‘Franchises’ of English public schools (eg Dulwich, Shrewsbury, Harrow, Repton) • ‘Commercial’ groupings: eg GEMS, Nord Anglia • Increasing market for socio-economically advantaged host country nationals (cf Thailand)

9. Some Issues re International Schools • Lack of central international ‘control’/ authorisation • Essentially self-regulated • Lack of consistency • Accreditation/authorisation voluntary • Changing nature: from essentially ‘one off’ parent cooperatives for expatriates, to more commercially oriented groups of schools aimed at socio-economically privileged host country nationals • Growing impact of globalisation; English as main global language; credentialism; desire for competitive edge (access to Western universities etc)

10. Teachers in International Schools • (often) transient short-term nature of contracts • initial training for international school context? • preference among parents for native English speakers • short-term ‘seeing the world’ vs career international school teachers • returning to ‘home’ context

11. Curriculum in International Schools • Originally entirely ‘exportation’ (Thompson, 1998) of national programmes • Followed by ‘adaptation’ (eg International GCSE, US Advanced Placement International Diploma) • Increasingly ‘creation’: eg International Baccalaureate Diploma (1960s); IB Middle Years and Primary Years Programmes (1990s); International Primary Curriculum (2000)

12. ‘Reverse’ effect: international programmes increasingly being offered in national systems (eg IB Diploma in UK independent and maintained sectors, and US high schools; IGCSE in UK independent sector; IPC in maintained English primary schools)

13. Students in International Schools Broadly now two main groups: • Host country nationals • Globally mobile expatriates

14. Host country nationals attracted by: • English-medium education • International curriculum, recognised worldwide • Desire for competitive edge • Aspirations to HE in, eg, US and UK

15. Global Nomads/‘Third Culture Kids’ • Expatriates • Mix of native and non-native English speakers • Often very transient student population • Often move with very little notice • Relatively materially privileged, but possibly psychologically disadvantaged • Unresolved grief etc (Pollock and Van Reken)

16. Rootlessness: lack of geographical sense of ‘home’ or belonging • Now 2nd, 3rd, 4th generations of TCKs, where neither children, parents nor grandparents have a sense of ‘belonging’ to a national context • Adult TCKs • How can schools best support such students?

17. Possible further reading Hayden M C and Thompson J J (2008) International Schools: Growth and Influence, in UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) Fundamentals of Educational Planning series, Paris: UNESCO can be downloaded from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001803/180396e.pdf#xml=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?database=ged&set=4A1EC006_1_464&hits_rec=16&hits_lng=eng

18. Dr Mary Hayden Centre for the study of Education in an International Context (CEIC) Department of Education University of Bath Email: m.c.hayden@bath.ac.uk www.bath.ac.uk/ceic