Shrewd marketization: the impact of internationalization policies on curricula practices in a Singaporean and an Australian school

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of two schools – an international school in Singapore and an independent school in Australia – and their engagement with and processes of internationalization with a focus on Global Citizenship Education (GCE). These schools have adopted international education models, the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) and the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB) blended with the local curricula to generate hybridized internationally minded education programmes that forward the global agenda. This paper specifically explores the shrewd marketization of the respective schools’ curricula, looking at how a distinct market ideology had shaped the key curricula in the two case study schools, which were situated within varied contexts and different school markets. Results from the study highlighted the prominent role of the neo-liberal market agenda and its effects on each school’s curricula and practices. The evidence illustrates the schools as market players in their respective schooling markets. The analysis in this paper provides a comparative illustration of “cosmopolitan nationalism” enacted at school levels, as each school seeks to “promote internationalization and a global gaze”, while responding to their locally defined markets and national education policy agendas (Maxwell et al., 2020).