International elite, or global citizens? Equity, distinction and power: the International Baccalaureate and the rise of the South

Abstract

The 2013 UN Human Development report predicts the middle classes of ‘The South’ a five-fold increase by 2030. Globalisation has resulted in national conceptions of business: education and identity being in flux. Emerging middle classes of the South are already embracing international forms of education for instrumental reasons of advantage and distinction. The International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum continues to experience a strong growth in this area and appears to offer a globalised and international form of education, which may offer the chance of educating a global citizen, despite the fact that it is much valued for the relative advantage it may offer. This article reviews the data surrounding the rise of the South and explores the identity of the IB, as it exists in international schools, particularly the dilemma between its internationalist and the globalist outlook. The theory of Pierre Bourdieu facilitates a critical examination of the role of global citizenship education in this paradigm, and the instrumental role it may play in conferring symbolic capital and distinction on this form of social reproduction. Finally, Global Citizenship Education in IB curricula represents a pastoral (religious) component as is common in elite school systems, yet in its globalised form: secular and inclusive whilst equitable and distinct.