World-mindedness of students and their geography education at international (IB-DP) and regular schools in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study conducted to gain insight into the worldmindedness of young people living in the Netherlands. Two groups are compared: students attending 'regular' Dutch schools and students attending international schools. A questionnaire measured the students' world-mindedness and their evaluation of their geography education in terms of global content and pedagogy. In our limited study, international school students were overall more world-minded than young people attending Dutch conventional schools. However, similarities were also seen: both groups were positive about values such as respect, diversity, and sustainability, and less positive about values such as solidarity and equality. International schools aimed more towards global learning than did Dutch schools, because of the experiential learning of students exposed to an international educational environment. In the opinion of the students, geography education at Dutch schools was often limited to learning about global issues and perspectives, while at international schools it seemed also to encompass learning for a global perspective.