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The International Baccalaureate's Bilingual Diploma: Global trends, pathways, and predictors of attainment

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... The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, which is a rigorous pre-university course of study for highly motivated high school students, fosters multilingualism in addition to multiculturalism and academic experience. IB's Bilingual Diploma has a high potential to provide secondary bilingual education (Halic et al. 2015) and contribute to the academic progress of LM students (Mayer 2012). However, there has not been extensive research on it. ...
... Despite the significant potential for rigorous secondary multi/bilingual education through IB (Halic et al. 2015;Mayer 2012), there are very few studies documenting successful implementation of Bilingual Diploma (BD) programmes in this context. According to a study on international trends in the BD (Halic et al. 2015), students from non-English-speaking countries earn BDs at much higher rates than their peers in English-speaking countries. ...
... Despite the significant potential for rigorous secondary multi/bilingual education through IB (Halic et al. 2015;Mayer 2012), there are very few studies documenting successful implementation of Bilingual Diploma (BD) programmes in this context. According to a study on international trends in the BD (Halic et al. 2015), students from non-English-speaking countries earn BDs at much higher rates than their peers in English-speaking countries. In contrast, BDs awarded in the US constitute only 3% of the total IB Diplomas. ...
Article
Multi/bilingual education has been found to have the potential to provide more equitable education for linguistic minority students; nevertheless, these students have not fully benefitted from it due to unequal power dynamics and Englishdominant language ideologies. While bilingual programmes in secondary schools remain extremely rare in the US, the Bilingual Diploma in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme offers a high school level bilingual curriculum and fosters heritage language education and multiculturalism. This study examines how advanced bilingual education in one International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in a US high school served linguistic minority students’ specific needs by establishing an institutional structure promoting heritage language learning, which significantly empowered those students by overcoming deficit-oriented ideologies.
... These schools comprised mostly expat teachers and students, while keeping distance from local communities in the country, with exception of a few students (Bunnell, 2014;Hayden & Thompson, 2013). Expatriate teachers with higher levels of education were significantly more employed and as well preferred in an international schools than local teachers to help these schools gain status and reputation (Halic et al., 2015;Hrycak, 2015). ...
... In attempt to keep up with the demand for international schools from expatriate parents, schools have continuously updating their curriculum for many years (Lijadi & Van Schalkwyk, 2016). International schools that are based on the American curriculum have incorporated the International Baccalaureate (IB; Corlu, 2014;Fox, 1985, Halic, Bergeron, Kuvaeva & Smith, 2015, Lijadi & Van Schalkwyk, 2016 into their curricula. The ...
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The current study explores the experiences of Third Culture Kids in Thailand. Three female participants who, by definition, meet the required criteria of a traditional Third Culture Kid, of being an individual who as spent a significant amount of his/her formative years accompanying their parent(s) into Thailand was chosen for this study. Additionally, at least one of the participants' parent's passport country is from another country other than Thailand. Furthermore, the participant had moved to Thailand due to their parent’s choice of work or advanced training. The participants were given a demographic questionnaire to fill out, and were asked to take part in a semi-structured interview. After sharing their experiences, the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze and interpret their experience. Overall, findings reveal that each individual’s experience as a Third Culture Kid in Thailand was related to their identity, their appreciation of being a Third Culture Kid, and was related to their sense of belonging. Moreover, results from this study found additional findings in each individuals experience as a Third Culture Kid in Thailand.
... Since the early 1980s and in an attempt to meet the needs of growing numbers of expatriate children, international schools have been continuously revising their curricula. International schools with an American foundation introduced the International Baccalaureate (IB; Corlu, 2014;Fox, 1985;Halic, Bergeron, Kuvaeva & Smith, 2015). The IB curriculum aims to provide socalled 21st-century skills including "cognitive skills (adaptability, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving), interpersonal non-cognitive skills (communication, cultural sensitivity, leadership and teamwork) and intrapersonal non-cognitive skills (persistence, selfefficacy, time management and work ethic)" (Wright & Lee, 2014, p. 200). ...
... Keeling (2015) reports that in 2015 there were more than 8,000 English-medium international schools (up from 4,179 in 2007) serving more than 3.5 million students worldwide. The schools also employ expatriate teachers with often-higher levels of education than local teachers, adding to the prestige of these schools (Halic et al., 2015;Hrycak, 2015). ...
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One of the significant adaptations needed by children of high-mobility families when moving to a new country is adjustment to the education system. This exploratory study reports on the lived experiences and opinions from three cohorts of adult Third Culture Kids (TCK) during their primary and secondary education (N ¼ 33). We explored the school experiences of TCK over the past four decades in view of the rising number of international schools worldwide to meet the demands of internationally mobile families. Field texts were collected using online Facebook asynchronous focus groups, and the narrative analysis revealed the challenges TCK faced regarding accessibility, the introduction of new curricula, and the language of instruction at international schools. For the most part these changes have been made in support of TCK’s education experience after repatriation. However, the changing profiles of school-going students in international schools in the 21st century have seemingly made the international schools not as international as before. We discuss this theme and the challenges young TCK might face attending an international school and adjusting to a new environment after every move, as well as the implications of this study for parents of TCK and school psychologists assisting this unique school-going population worldwide.
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A decisive sociological contribution to the analysis of credential markets is their conceptualisation as historically constituted structures. This chapter traces the international history of the IB Diploma to explain its contemporary position in high school credentialing systems across countries. The historical reconstruction of the IB Diploma’s initial audience—its schools and students—is followed by a dissection of the process by which its value took shape. After examining the social conditions of possibility of emergence of the IB Diploma, I investigate how the parameters of its diffusion made it into a credential liable to being used by socially dominant families for the accumulation of academic capital. Highlighting the problematic nature of arguments appealing to global class formation and failing standards in national credentials, the chapter contends that the intensification of academic competition resulting from the advent of mass secondary schooling is the most decisive factor to explain the historical trajectory of the IB Diploma internationally.
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The academic literature pertaining to the discipline of international education acknowledges that the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme is expanding globally. Given the growing influence of the IB on international schooling, our study seeks to map the field of IB research drawing on a systematic review of 295 documents published from January 1967 through August 2018. Specifically, we conducted a bibliographic coupling analysis on the identified sample of IB-related literature. The results allowed us to unveil the most influential articles, academic outlets, and scholars along with some rankings, networks of collaborators, and bundles of contributions to the specialised literature. Our review uncovered three main research clusters that have formed in the IB field, including “growing the IB brand”, “student success for the IB”, and “the international identity of the IB”. This bibliographic analysis is important for both offering insight into the intellectual structure of the field and assisting with the identification of new research directions within the IB domain that warrant further scholarly consideration.
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This study seeks to identify and explore the sense of place that Third Culture Kids (TCKs) have and the various interpretations that TCKs have regarding their lived reality, as they form part of the international community in Romania. This study contextually explores the sense of belonging to a place. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the role and ways of implementing "Place Based Education" in the context of international and multicultural education systems that serve TCK populations. This was done while trying to understand concepts from the expatriate way of life as expressed by TCKs who attend the American International School of Bucharest. Two main assumptions form the grounds of this study: When an international school combines an International Baccalaureate (IB) system with Place Based Education (PBE) criteria, would it contribute in creating a "Sense of Place" towards the school and contribute in creating a positive foreigner self-identification? This research aims to understand whether and how PBE can be implemented in an international school. Throughout two academic school years, field observations and interviews with students and school staff were conducted. The data analysis resulted in three main findings. The first finding was ambivalent feelings towards the host country that were connected to expressions of place attachment, place dependence and place identity. The second finding was self-identification as a TCK and a sense of belonging to an international community. The third and most surprising finding was a strong sense of place in relation to the school. This process led to comparing Place Based Education criteria to the criteria of the International Baccalaureate program and discovering that these two pedagogical worlds are overlapping and can therefore be easily combined.
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This study seeks to identify and explore the sense of place that Third Culture Kids (TCKs) have and the various interpretations that TCKs have regarding their lived reality, as they form part of the international community in Romania. This study contextually explores the sense of belonging to a place. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the role and ways of implementing "Place Based Education" in the context of international and multicultural education systems that serve TCK populations. This was done while trying to understand concepts from the expatriate way of life as expressed by TCKs who attend the American International School of Bucharest. Two main assumptions form the grounds of this study: When an international school combines an International Baccalaureate (IB) system with Place Based Education (PBE) criteria, would it contribute in creating a "Sense of Place" towards the school and contribute in creating a positive foreigner self-identification? This research aims to understand whether and how PBE can be implemented in an international school. Throughout two academic school years, field observations and interviews with students and school staff were conducted. The data analysis resulted in three main findings. The first finding was ambivalent feelings towards the host country that were connected to expressions of place attachment, place dependence and place identity. The second finding was self-identification as a TCK and a sense of belonging to an international community. The third and most surprising finding was a strong sense of place in relation to the school. This process led to comparing Place Based Education criteria to the criteria of the International Baccalaureate program and discovering that these two pedagogical worlds are overlapping and can therefore be easily combined.
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Problem and goal. The article describes and substantiates the ways of solving the problem of the lack of approaches to the integration of methodical systems for training future teachers for International Baccalaureate programs based on the use of cloud technologies. The need for such integration is due to the fact that the training of teachers for International Baccalaureate schools involves professionals from various fields and organizations, including foreign speakers. The purpose of the described study was to confirm the effectiveness of the developed model of approaches to informatization of the system of training for future teachers of International Baccalaureate schools. Methodology. A pilot study consisting of two stages was conducted. At the first stage, we worked with professors of the pedagogical university who are training future teachers for International Baccalaureate schools. The second stage was carried out based on the formation of two groups of students of the pedagogical university: control group (19 people) and experimental group (17 people). In the experimental group, students were trained in the conditions of integrated methodical systems of disciplines based on a specially developed model of approaches to informatization of training for future teachers of International Baccalaureate schools. Results. The study found that the integration of methodical systems using cloud technology to organize joint work on training future teachers for International Baccalaureate schools contributes to the effectiveness of the formation of professional competence of such teachers. Conclusion. The effectiveness of the developed model of approaches to the integration of methodical disciplines that form the basis for training future teachers for International Baccalaureate schools is experimentally proved.
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This chapter examines differences in metalinguistic development between monolingual and bilingual children in terms of three subcategories: word awareness, syntactic awareness, and phonological awareness. In each case, some studies have reported advantages for bilingual children, but equally, other studies have found either no difference between the groups, or, in some cases, monolingual advantages. In the discussion of each of these areas, the kinds of tasks for which bilingual and monolingual children perform differently are identified. In none of these three subcategories of metalinguistic awareness do bilingual children exhibit a uniform and consistent advantage over monolinguals. An alternate conception of metalinguistic ability is proposed in which two cognitive processes, analysis and control, are directly responsible for task performance. These processes are involved in all metalinguistic tasks but to different degrees. Re-examining the results in this way reveals that bilingual advantages occur reliably on tasks that make high demands on control but are not evident in tasks that make high demands on analysis. The implications of this pattern for metalinguistic ability are considered.
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This chapter shows just how deeply affected English has already been through its unprecedented spread, and the unique function it has as the world language. It argues, however, that it would be premature to launch into a discussion of the teaching of this lingua franca before certain prerequisites have been met. The most important of these are a conceptualization of speakers of lingua franca English as language users in their own right, and the acknowledgment of the legitimacy of, and indeed the need for, a description of salient features of English as a lingua franca (ELF), alongside English as a native language (ENL). The presentation summarizes the empirical research into the lingua franca use of English, which has recently gathered considerable momentum. It sets this research in relation to other relevant work in descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics for language pedagogy. Finally, it discusses the implications of this historically unique situation for potential developments in the pedagogy of English teaching and outlines some research questions that must be addressed if advances in the teaching of English as a lingua franca are to have a secure theoretical and descriptive base.
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  One of the objectives of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) researchers is an account of the unique features of English that they have found in the speech of European users of English. These features, it is argued, describe a variety of English which they label “English as Lingua Franca”. The choice of this particular term is problematic because, as a construct, “lingua franca” generally refers to an overarching function of language, not to any specific set of idiosyncratic forms themselves. However, ELF researchers do not make this distinction. This has resulted in considerable attention being given to a confusing use of linguistic terminology and to the assumptions and theoretical underpinnings guiding ELF research. This paper extends this discussion to an examination of the relationship of ELF studies to English in Europe and the adequacy of “lingua franca” to represent the sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes. It first looks at work written by prominent ELF researchers to determine what they mean by “lingua franca”, outlines the distinction between form and function with illustrations of the role and status of English in Europe, and discusses how the architect's principle that “form follows function” is relevant to an understanding of the notion “lingua franca”.
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Children's early concepts are learned through their verbal experiences, knowledge is codified in a linguistic form, and communication defines every aspect of development. Conducting these interactions and learning about the world through two linguistic systems has no effect on the trajectory of development for bilingual children. This chapter explores one aspect of the potential developmental impact of that experience-the development of metalinguistic and literacy skills. It explores the way that bilingualism may alter the manner or rate at which children develop metalinguistic concepts of language and the background skills and early abilities required for reading. The influence of bilingualism on development may have some of its greatest impact in the development of early literacy skills in young children.
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IntroductionThe term ‘ socio‐political issues’ is a superordinate category in applied linguistics collecting together discussions of power within the discipline. Socio invokes the setting, including culture; political introduces considerations of power, interests and conflict, while issues casts a wide net of applications and problems.Recently, theorists of realpolitik have introduced the term soft power into their descriptions of world affairs and global conflict. In contrast to the more easily recognised hard power, which suggests coercion (revealing its origins in economic might or military force), soft power operates through persuasion to attract the neutral and neutralise the hostile (Nye, 2004). Because language in society performs multiple functions socio‐political issues involve applied linguists in the complex ‘ discourses of power’ (Hindess, 1996) that have occupied political philosophy from ancient times. Bilingual education involves both soft and hard p ...
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The purpose of this review is to provide a balanced description of important aspects of language policy in the U.S. as they relate, either directly or indirectly, to educational practices in the United States. Language policies derive from the following sources: official enactments of governing bodies or authorities, such as legislation, executive directives, judicial orders or decrees, or policy statements; and non-official institutional or individual practices or customs. Policies may also evolve as a consequence of actions governments do not take, for example, by not providing support for the teaching or learning of a particular language, or language variety, or by designating and promoting an official language and ignoring other languages, or by failing to provide adequate resources to ensure all groups have equal opportunities to acquire the official language in educational settings. Policies may also evolve from grass roots movements and become formalized through laws, practices, or some combination of both. In this review, theoretical perspectives on language policy and education will be addressed only briefly (for background information, see Wiley 1996a; also see reviews by Christian & Rhodes in Volume 4; and by McCarty and by Faltis in Volume 5).
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IntroductionThe importance of being able to communicate effectively has been seen traditionally as a necessary outcome of the educational process. Much of this relates to the fact that literacy, language and communication represent a potent form of cultural capital, which can be exchanged within the labour market. Language in education plays a significant role in individual development whilst, at the same time, also providing a vehicle for economic and social development (cf. Grin, The Economics of Language Education, Volume 1). As the medium through which teaching and learning takes place, language plays an important role also in the transmission of culture through the literary canons and knowledge base sanctioned by educational policy. As such, it has potent hegemonic cultural value. In having the potential to provide the linguistic skills and knowledge that underpin democratic society it also has significant cultural power (cf. Hall
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Two studies are reported in which monolingual and bilingual children, approximately 6 years old, attempted to identify the alternative image in a reversible figure. In both studies, bilingual children were more successful than monolinguals in seeing the other meaning in the images. In the first study, there was no relation between the ability to reverse the interpretation and performance on the children's embedded figures task, a task that superficially appeared to involve similar processes. The second study replicated this finding but showed that performance was strongly related to success in the post-switch phase of the dimensional change card sort task. In both cases, the meaning of an image must be reassigned, and bilinguals were better in both these tasks.
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Advanced inhibitory control skills have been found in bilingual speakers as compared to monolingual controls (Bialystok, 1999). We examined whether this effect is generalized to an unstudied language group (Spanish-English bilingual) and multiple measures of executive function by administering a battery of tasks to 50 kindergarten children drawn from three language groups: native bilinguals, monolinguals (English), and English speakers enrolled in second-language immersion kindergarten. Despite having significantly lower verbal scores and parent education/income level, Spanish-English bilingual children's raw scores did not differ from their peers. After statistically controlling for these factors and age, native bilingual children performed significantly better on the executive function battery than both other groups. Importantly, the relative advantage was significant for tasks that appear to call for managing conflicting attentional demands (Conflict tasks); there was no advantage on impulse-control (Delay tasks). These results advance our understanding of both the generalizability and specificity of the compensatory effects of bilingual experience for children's cognitive development.
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Language policy and education in the European Union
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Philipson, R. (2008). Language policy and education in the European Union. In S. May & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education, 2nd Edition, Volume 1: Language policy and political issues in education (pp. 255-267). New York, NY: Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.
Key concepts in bilingual education: Ideological historical, epistemological, and empirical foundations Encyclopedia of language and education Youth Bilingualism in Canada Linguistic characteristics of Canadians Decolonization
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