International Schooling Research Articles

Do you speak Français? The hidden social structures of bilingualism at an international boarding school

This article investigates linguistic practices related to students’ social and academic lives – something that has been overlooked in the research literature on international schooling and elite boarding schools. Pierre Bourdieu reminds us that language has a social dimension linked to relations of symbolic power. Boarding schools serve as excellent case studies on how language structures social life due to their closed social space. Drawing on Bourdieu’s relational sociology, an ethnography was carried out at the College of Europe, an international private boarding school. Findings show that the practice of bilingual code-switching was endowing the institution with social distinction while hierarchically dividing its students. Three modes of student attitudes towards bilingualism were identified. While students’ bilingual attitudes and strategies were correlated to their social positions, socioeconomic origins and previous trajectories, the former were not deterministically an effect of said social position, evidenced by an observed case of habitus transformation.

The internationally-facing school: a heuristic for reimagining the international school amidst unsettled globalisations?

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper critically examines the evolving landscape of international schooling against a complex backdrop of competing globalisations, one of which is post-globalisation, which we frame in terms of a modality of globalisation. Post-globalisation and the post-global foreground renewed interest in the nation state and the relationship between the nation and the global. In so doing, this paper challenges the conventional use of the adjective ‘international’ and instead proposes the ‘internationally-facing school’ as a more nuanced alternative. The notion of the ‘internationally-facing school’ reflects the unsettled nature of globalisation as encompassing post-global tendencies and elucidates the complex relationship between the global and the national in international school systems. The paper ends by suggesting that the internationally-facing school heuristic has the potential to transcend the context of international schooling and become a mobile concept applicable to various educational contexts. The paper also advocates for further research to explore the practical implications of the ‘internationally-facing school’ and its relevance to both international and non-international school contexts.

Localising international schools in multilingual Switzerland: from parental strategies to institutional dual-language programmes

ABSTRACT This article aims to complexify the linguistic dimension of international schooling in light of the increasing diversification of the field but also as a result of the ‘banalisation’ of English and the growing ‘added’ value of multilingual competence in the knowledge economy. Drawing on data from focus groups with mobile families and institutional documents from an international school in Switzerland, we claim that the value of English-medium education to facilitate worldwide mobility is simultaneously conceived by parents as an obstacle for their children’s acquisition of certain linguistic capitals in the locality. This engenders constant family (re-)evaluations of school choice and the development of strategies for children to acquire locally-available linguistic competences. The Swiss context activates the multilingual imagination of global middle-class families who demand that the school help their children maximise their chances of local linguistic capitalisation. In our case study, the current educational shift responds to parental desires for elite multilingualism with French and materialises in an optional dual-language programme to attract an increasing number of Swiss and established transnational families in a competitive eduscape.

International Schools and De-globalisation: Exploring the tensions during the Covid-19 crisis

This paper explores the thesis of de-globalisation in relation to international education. Through interrogating accounts of international school leadership during the Covid-19 crisis, the tension between international expectations and localised realities is charted, with four central tenets of internationalism undermined by the pandemic experience. It is argued that the Covid-19 crisis, ostensibly a single global event, resulted in the fractalisation of international education; the conceptualisation of unified internationalism was undermined by the inherently localised material effects of the pandemic. In place of an internationalism that is unified, transcendent, inclusive and connected, international school leaders’ accounts of leading through the pandemic focused on their sense that their schools were fractured, rooted, privileged and isolated. It is suggested that this international crisis demonstrates the precarious nature of the respatialising of the global that is intrinsic to international schooling.

The proliferation of international schools: implications for educational stratification

ABSTRACT This article applies positional conflict theory to investigate how the proliferation of international schools can create a new layer of educational stratification and deepen inequality of opportunity. Data from five international schools in metropolitan centres across southern China were collected through interviews, school visits, and a survey. The findings demonstrate how international schooling can enable local middle-class students to accumulate distinctive forms of positional advantages that are geared towards global higher education and careers in the global economy. The implications are threefold: (1) demonstrating how international schools can exacerbate educational divides, (2) revealing the nature of advantages created by international schooling, and (3) illuminating how international schooling can reposition students in a global class structure while potentially creating barriers within local/national contexts. The article concludes by calling for more critical attention to the ongoing expansion of international schools.

International Mindedness in Emerging Contexts of International Schooling. Cyprus, A Case Study

ABSTRACT International Mindedness (IM) has become an underpinning philosophy of the International Baccalaureate and schools which adopt its programmes. However, the concept of IM is relevant to any school that offers international education given its potential and importance to drive the school’s mindset and mission. The international school market has grown significantly in terms of the number of schools and their diversity. Increasing in popularity are schools that follow the British-based International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and A-level programmes. Moreover, the dgreatest expansion of international schools is now occurring in local markets, in which students are no longer predominantly expatriates but come from the host countries. This study explores the concept of international mindedness in six international schools in Cyprus. Based on data collected from headteachers and teachers, we argue that international mindedness is applicable in various contexts of international schooling and that factors other than the curriculum can affect its development within a school.

Starting from Lagos: International Schooling and the Diverse Transnational Status‐Making Projects of ‘Middling’ and ‘Elite’ Nigerians

AbstractThis paper examines the diverse Lagos international school sector as an arena in which Nigerian families are attempting to (re)produce status and good lives that work transnationally. ‘Elite’ international schools focus on securing entry into Anglo‐American universities and distinguish themselves via discourses of ‘modern Britishness’, yet also emphasize the special value of schooling in Nigeria and seek to reproduce circulatory lives. There is also a competitive landscape of ‘mid‐range’ international schools that do not simply serve ‘aspirant locals’ but have broad international horizons and are central to transnational family strategies. Lagos schools across the spectrum receive students ‘sent’ from the diaspora, demonstrating they are valued stations in the transnational social field to protect as well as accumulate. The paper contributes to understanding international schools in the ‘global South’ not simply as a backstage to Anglo‐American centres but as offering unique resources for families navigating hierarchies at home and abroad.

Nationalising the international in China: A phenomenological study on the purpose of international schooling in an era of regulation

AbstractRecent policy changes to the regulation of international schooling for Chinese nationals in China have seen restrictions on curriculum, admissions and ownership. While there is evidence of the impact of these changes at the institutional level, it is not clear how recent regulation has impacted the actors at the phenomenological level. In order to address this gap, we situate recent regulation within the concept of cosmopolitan nationalism, which highlights the interplay of local and global forces and places lived experience at the forefront of analysis. We also draw on qualitative survey and in‐depth interview data with teachers from an international school in China that explored their understandings of international schooling. By analysing the teachers’ understandings of international schooling, we were able to gain an insight into the impact of regulation at the level of lived experience. Overall, we found little evidence that regulation had impacted the teachers’ beliefs about international schooling, suggesting either the normalisation of regulation or a lag between its implementation and internalisation. Our findings also suggested two main configurations of cosmopolitan nationalism held by the teachers. The first, which we refer to as ‘cosmopolitanism with national characteristics’, positions international schools as a more diverse and care‐free alternative to domestic schooling. The second configuration of cosmopolitan nationalism, which we refer to as ‘nationalism with cosmopolitan characteristics’, positions the nation as the foundation and cosmopolitan‐related aspects as peripheral.

Diluting, decoupling, and dovetailing: Considering new metaphors for understanding the changing international school landscape in China

A major development in recent years concerning the growth of ‘private English-speaking international schooling’ has been the transition from a ‘traditional’ mode of activity towards a ‘non-traditional’ context. This is especially the case in Asia, where the majority of international schools now reside. Moreover, we find that in Mainland China two-thirds of the (approximately) 900 schools that might be thought of as international schools are now perhaps better classified as ‘international ised schools’, catering largely for Chinese nationals and being taught by a largely local teaching force whilst delivering a fusion of international and national curricula in a profit-driven paradigm. A major challenge is to picture and theorise this changing, and increasingly very different, landscape. This paper offers a new imagery for discussion by using metaphor. Building upon the conflicting ‘diluting’ and ‘decoupling’ metaphors that have been recently introduced in the international schooling literature, we present here a conciliatory new imagery: that of ‘dovetailing’. This alternative, third metaphor suggests that the changing landscape of international schooling in places including mainland China involves models of private bilingual international schooling that are pragmatically ‘dovetailed’ with national forms of schooling, fusing cosmopolitan sensitivities with the nationalist needs of the state. This metaphor is now ready to be developed and adapted in China and beyond.

Belongingness and identity of international school students in Hong Kong: A case study

This study explores international school students’ sense of belonging and sense of identity to and in relation to Hong Kong. The interviewing of students from both Chinese speaking and non-Chinese speaking backgrounds offered greater insight as to how international school students position themselves in Hong Kong society and the manner in which they do so. It finds that international school students’ perceived lack of proficiency in Cantonese, diverse ethnic, cultural and national background, as well as upbringing and education in an international school encourage them to conceptualise their belongingness identity beyond the physical borders of Hong Kong. It also finds that, despite a sense of difference to Hong Kong society albeit to differing degrees, these students view home as where they had grown up, made memories and established relationships; for many of them, it was Hong Kong. The implications for local cultural education and intermingling between students of different school systems are also explored. The findings of this study contributes to the limited literature on the impacts of international schooling on youth’s ideation of identity in relation to their host societies.

‘I’ve Become a Lot Tougher’: Expatriate Teachers’ Experiences of Precarity and Resilience in Non-Traditional International Schools in China

Abstract The arena of education known as ‘international schooling’ has grown enormously, from a body of 2,500 schools in 2000 to almost 13,500 by 2022. By 2019, China had emerged as having the most schools delivering a non-national curriculum in English outside of an English-speaking nation. The arena continues to be dominated by British and North American educators. One enduring aspect of workplace reality is the short-term contract, normally of between two and three years. The field is acknowledged to be inherently precarious and insecure, with high levels of turnover, and a bleak ‘negative’ lens of imagination has always persisted. This paper focuses attention on the lived experiences of expatriate teachers among the growing body of ‘non-traditional international schools’ that might be best termed ‘Chinese Internationalised Schools’. Through in-depth phenomenological interviewing of six expatriate teachers, the reality of ‘short-termism’ was examined. Whilst the findings highlighted, as expected, the negative aspects of short-term employment, the findings also identify many positive outcomes. These include opportunities for developing resilience, agency, and reinvention. This offers scope for a new vision, based upon the accumulation of ‘resilience’, which helps to explain the continuous growth of the arena despite the presence of precarity.

Will the Harry Potter Magic Last? Cultural Commodification and Its Contradictions in the Franchising of British Private Schools in China

Abstract Transnational education has attained increasing significance at the K-12 school level. This trend is seen in China with the recent expansion of offshore branch campuses that are exported from major Anglophone countries, most notably the UK. In recent years, many British private schools have set up franchised branches in China’s international school market. This paper investigates how these franchised schools manage to forge a distinctive institutional identity in China, using document analysis of 28 British school brands and case studies of two schools. Informed by the theories of the experience economy and commodity-sign, this paper explores how a “British school experience” is created through the reproduction of particular cultural objects and rituals, and is transformed into a new form of commodity prized for its sign value. I argue that this phenomenon represents an advanced stage of commodification in international schooling. This paper also discusses the internal contradictions between cultural commodification and education, as well as the external challenges that have emerged as the schools confront a changing policy context in China’s private education sector.

Expanding flexible citizenship: Chinese international school students and global mobilities for higher education

PurposeThis study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding international school sector.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with international school students and their parents in Shenzhen, covering their motivations for overseas higher education, experience with international schooling, self-perceived identities and imagined futures.FindingsThe participants aspired to overseas higher education for both symbolic capital attainment and embodied cultural cultivation to thrive in a globalised world. They expressed confidence that international schooling experiences prepared students for mobility to Western higher education and cultivated globally-oriented identities while not undermining their Chinese roots. They imagined their futures in terms of considerable flexibility, with a rising China viewed as an attractive and feasible option for career development.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides an enriched understanding of a new generation of globally mobile Chinese students. The participants held distinctively different outlooks, aspirations and attitudes than depicted in the flexible citizenship framework, which emphasised a one-dimensional and instrumentalist portrayal of Chinese international students. This study discusses cross-generational changes in the desire for overseas education and a global-national outlook among young people in the context of significant social transformations in urban China.Originality/valueThe originality of this study is in expanding the flexible citizenship framework with reference to the emergent identities and pathways of students in the international schooling sector in China.

The turning tide of the International Baccalaureate in China: when global dreams meet national priorities

ABSTRACT This article investigates how the International Baccalaureate’s ‘global dream’ for education interacts with the national priorities of governments. In mainland China, a thriving international school market has been met with tightened government control. We draw on the analytical lens of ‘cosmopolitan nationalism’ to demonstrate how a cosmopolitan openness to international schooling was subject to reversal when deemed to counter national interests. Through content analysis of government documents and state media, we discuss how representations of the International Baccalaureate were in tension with national agendas of the ‘China dream’ and ‘common prosperity’. Finally, we reflect on the malleability of the International Baccalaureate across diverse national contexts.

The united world college experience and its framing: the evidence from a residential short course

ABSTRACT The continuously growing field of private English-speaking international schooling has always involved a dichotomy of approach. The marginal ‘internationalist’ approach, ideologically committed to nurturing unity and global peace, is exemplified by the cadre of United World Colleges (UWC). The UWCs began in 1962 and now number 18 globally educating 10,500 young people yet have largely evaded empirical research inquiry into their processes and experience. The inter-linked UWC 10-day residential ‘Short Course’ is a particularly strong unit of potential inquiry. By utilising Erving Goffman’s Frame Analysis we will investigate the UWC experience, as metaphorically told by participants. The course is framed as a ‘safe space’ whereby the participants can act out their thoughts and emotions, whilst also helping to bring them closely together as a ‘mini society’. This immersion, as a community of similarly minded yet privileged young people, seems to be a strongly inter-connecting experience.

Examining “precarious privilege” in international schooling: white male teachers negotiating contract non-renewal

ABSTRACT Although international school teachers have always been hired on short-term contracts (usually from two to three years in duration), there has been relatively little research examining this aspect of international schooling. Whilst short-term contracts may appear to be a positive feature of international schooling, particularly for younger teachers who are keen to be mobile, recent studies have begun to examine the short-term as a feature of precarity and the precaritisation of international schooling. This paper adds to this small but growing body of scholarship by focusing on contract non-renewal as a form of international school precarity. In order to explore this issue, this paper utilises autoethnography, drawing on the author’s experiences of contract renewal in an internationalised school in Shanghai, as well as interviews with two participants. Whilst the author’s experiences of precarity as a foreign teacher in China were characterised by vulnerability and discrimination, his positionality as a white, British male teacher enabled him to negotiate contract non-renewal relatively easily, something that women teachers or minority groups might be unable to do due to the differential nature of precarity. Despite being privileged, white male international school teachers must still negotiate contractual employment and diminished white-skin privilege. This paper goes some way to bringing into focus white male teachers’ “precarious privilege”.

Precarious privilege in the time of pandemic: A hybrid (auto)ethnographic perspective on COVID-19 and international schooling in China.

Although the impact of the global COVID‐19 pandemic in terms of school closure and the sudden shift to online learning has started to be explored, little has so far been written about the impact on teachers. This paper addresses this gap by drawing on the first author's autoethnographic experiences of working in the growing body of ‘non‐traditional’ international schooling in Shanghai, China, during the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020. These experiences are complemented by insights from other teachers from the author's school site, leading to a hybrid (auto)ethnographic perspective. By utilising and developing the emergent concept of ‘precarious privilege’, we can see that whilst the pandemic has restricted teachers' movements and agency in a physical sense through lockdowns and travel restrictions, this immobility also fosters new symbolic and physical spaces, which in turn give rise to new forms of privilege. The privilege in this context is not financial, as is often the case, but rather existential (reclaiming a more authentic self) and spatial (the school offers teachers security) in nature. This fresh, nuanced approach to discussing precarity is timely and necessary. Given the novelty of the situation we now find ourselves in, new positionings are required to orient the individual and the researcher to a post‐pandemic world. This paper offers one such positioning in the form of autoethnography for (re)imagining precarity and privilege in international schooling within the context of an emerging new world.

REINING IN THE INTERNATIONAL: HOW STATE AND SOCIETY LOCALISED INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLING IN CHINA

ABSTRACT There is a growing literature studying the ‘non-traditional’ type of international schools. However, a less explored and under-theorised area is the changing dynamics of the global-local interactions in the way these international schools are being redefined and shaped by local processes, regimes of control, and mechanisms. Drawing on empirical evidence from sixteen ‘non-traditional’ international schools in urban China, our paper contributes to the literature in three ways. Theoretically, we developed the notion of ‘reining in the international’ to draw analytic attention to the state power and social agency in controlling and directing the global flows of international schooling. Empirically, our paper provides concrete evidence to show the disjuncture occurring when the global/international is interrupted and transformed by local/national conditions. Third, we argue that in the case of China, the local has taken charge as the ‘content supplier and negotiator’ in the global-local confluence of forms adopted by international schools.

(Re)Considering “precarious privilege” within international schooling: expatriate teachers’ perceptions in China of being marginalised and undervalued

ABSTRACT The number of schools delivering a curriculum in English outside an English-speaking nation is growing both in scale and importance, reaching 12,000 by 2021. Such schools are traditionally staffed by expatriate teachers and mainly from Britain and North America. In recent years, a newer arena of commercially driven “non-traditional” international schools serving mainly local parents has emerged. We report on the reality of being an expatriate teacher in a remote part of China where they are numerically a minority grouping within the school. Through interviews with four teachers, we will begin to further investigate and (re)consider the notion of “precarious privilege”. The expatriate teachers felt they enjoy status for their “whiteness” or “ethnic capital” yet perceived themselves to be professionally marginalised and undervalued. A challenging thesis emerges that this minority grouping potentially represents a pragmatic opportunity for the “non-traditional” school to assert its legitimacy, as an “international” or “internationalised” institution.

Constructing international schools as postcolonial sites

ABSTRACT This paper explores the discursive construction of race in Malaysian international schools and its relationship with postcolonialism. In response to the expansion of international schooling, it analyses data from a study of international school leadership in Malaysia, a former colony, through a postcolonial lens. It draws on face-to-face interviews with twelve international school leaders, and discourse analysis of sample websites from Malaysian international schools. Malaysia is an ethnocracy, with three distinct racial groups, and ethnicity affects many aspects of life, including education, and it is suggested that international schools offer no exception to this. The data indicate four emergent themes, these being constructions of: school identity; educational expertise; leadership; and Malaysia itself. The authors posit that international schools in Malaysia operate as postcolonial sites. Despite the origins of international schools lying within a movement committed to equality, these institutions are implicated in the construction and replication of racial divisions.