International Schooling Research Articles

How an Antipodean Perspective of International Schooling Challenges Third Culture Kid (TCK) Conceptualisation

This article recounts the story of Jack’s primary and secondary schooling career across several countries and eventual relocation and tertiary education in Victoria, Australia. His narrative is described here as an antipodean educational trajectory. What is meant by antipodean education is contrasted to the long established concept of the third culture kid (TCK). There are overlaps in these concepts. The argument is made, however, that Jack’s travelling and multiple education cultural mix gives him a different sense of himself that is not fully accounted for in the TCK literature. Global movement of people for employment and other reasons such as politics, governmental or service professions, continues today, Taking children with working and mobile parents has long been characterised as creating third culture kids who do not belong to either originating or hosting societies. Today, however, it is less the case that this can be adequately described as travel ‘out from’ and ‘back to’ the geo-political centres. This changing socio-cultural reality means re-examining what kinds of educational opportunities and experiences children are exposed to and the effects of these on young people.

An investigation into how a globalised lifestyle, international capital and an international schooling experience influence the identities and aspirations of young people

An investigation into how a globalised lifestyle, international capital and an international schooling experience influence the identities and aspirations of young people

Transnational secondary schooling and im/mobile international students

Schools and school education systems within nations are vying to increase international student enrolments in secondary schools. This analysis of the change over a decade in the enrolment of international secondary students in Victoria, Australia, indicates how the processes of internationalisation and commercialisation of education have affected both public and private school sectors. Four factors have impacted on international senior student enrolments over a decade: global economic fluctuations; the growth of international schools globally targeting home country students; the emergence of overseas campuses for elite private schools and policies encouraging internationalisation. We propose that these forces, among others, are working in concert to reshape the nature of international student populations and international schooling in both home and host countries. These factors, together with an overarching instrumentalist policy approach underpinning the engagement of Australian schools with the international education market, provide new opportunities for less socio-economically advantaged schools to enter the international education market. It argues that the common idea of international students attending only elite schools no longer captures the phenomenon and raises questions as to how we understand what it means to be an ‘international’ school or student.

Governing schooling through ‘what works’: the OECD’s PISA for Schools

This paper explores Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Schools, a local variant of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD’s) influential PISA that not only assesses an individual school’s performance in reading, mathematics and science against international schooling systems, but also promotes 17 identical examples of ‘best practice’ from ‘world class’ schooling systems (e.g. Shanghai-China, Singapore). Informed by 33 semi-structured interviews with actors across the PISA for Schools policy cycle, and supplemented by the analysis of relevant documents, the paper provides an account of how these concrete examples of best practice are represented in the report received by participating schools. Drawing upon thinking around processes of commensuration and the notion of ‘governing by examples’, the paper argues that PISA for Schools discursively positions participating schools as somehow being commensurable with successful schooling systems, eliding any sense that certain cultural and historical factors – or ‘out of school’ factors – are inexorably linked to student performance. Beyond encouraging the problematic school-level borrowing of policies and practices from contextually distinct schooling systems, I argue that this positions the OECD as both the global expert on education policy and now, with PISA for Schools, the local expert on ‘what works’.

Why offer the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme? A comparison between schools in Asia-Pacific and other regions

The International Baccalaureate (IB) has become a powerful educational brand by developing a reputation for combining progressive approaches with academic rigour. This can be identified by the growing number of schools adopting IB programmes globally and especially in the IB Asia-Pacific region. As part of this trend, the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), aimed at students between 11 and 16 years old, has expanded significantly in recent years. However, in Asia-Pacific, the MYP remains less popular relative to the IB’s Primary Years Programme and pre-university Diploma Programme (DP). This article compares the motivations of IB MYP and DP Coordinators for choosing the MYP in Asia-Pacific with their counterparts in other parts of the world. To achieve this, 175 IB Coordinators across 54 countries were surveyed. Findings revealed that IB pedagogy, holistic approach, philosophy and global citizenship were the most popular reasons to offer the MYP. Yet, IB Coordinators in Asia-Pacific put relatively greater weight on marketing, the MYP Certificate and external validation of school-based assessments. This article argues that this emphasis may stem from a high concentration of schools operating in the private international schooling sector and discusses the potential for the MYP to continue to expand across the Asia-Pacific region.

Teacher beliefs in ‘testing’ times: a lesson from Singapore

International benchmarking and national testing of students at all levels of schooling have provoked teachers to critically reflect on their place in this endeavour. Many of the curriculum and pedagogical approaches associated with this type of assessment and accountability conflict with long-held beliefs about the role of teachers and the work of schooling. Singapore is recognised for significant achievement in the international schooling arena and also has a long history of national testing. This study draws specifically on positioning theory to investigate teacher beliefs and positioning in these times. A large qualitative research project located in Singapore sought the ways experienced teachers positioned themselves and their work as they negotiated multiple and sometimes conflicting discourses of teaching. A rigorous process was used to elicit teacher beliefs and resultant teacher positions.

The experiences of host country nationals in international schools: A case-study from Malaysia

Although there has been considerable research into expatriate children attending international schools, there has been little investigation into children who attend international schools within their own nation. Seeking to redress this imbalance, this article analyses interview data from a small-scale study of host country nationals attending an international school in Malaysia, in order to examine the significance attached by them to international schooling, and contrasts these accounts with interviews conducted with their expatriate teachers.

How are we approaching data-informed practice? Development of the Survey of Data Use and Professional Learning

As in international schooling contexts, talk about data-driven practice has become ubiquitous in schooling dialogues in the USA, and with the pending reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (the main driver of increased data use in American schools), educators in the USA should expect even greater calls for formalized data use. Yet, the field lacks readily accessible tools that allow school district leaders and evaluators to examine educator perceptions related to data-informed practice. This paper outlines the process used in the development, testing, and validation of one instrument that district leaders and evaluators may use to learn more about the ways in which data are used and perceived in their respective contexts. Potential applications as well as limitations of the instrument are outlined.

Book review: The changing landscape of international schooling: Implications for theory and practice

Book review: The changing landscape of international schooling: Implications for theory and practice

‘The whole world is my home’: An investigation into how a globalised lifestyle, international capital and an international schooling experience influence the identities and aspirations of young people

This article discusses the findings of a study involving the aspirations of students in an international school in Belgium. Aspirations are framed and formed via the interaction and interrelationship of self and social context. The originality of this work is in its emphasis on students’ own perceptions of the influences on their aspirations, within a new geographical arena and the social sub-culture of a fluid, semi-transient international group. The findings will add to our understandings of international schooling and might usefully inform pedagogical practices and programmes of professional development for staff in order to better serve students.

Professional educator or professional manager? The contested role of the for-profit international school Principal

For-profit education is increasingly prevalent within international schooling. The language of client, customer and consumer may not yet be embedded in the classroom, but international school leaders, particularly those operating in for-profit contexts, are having to respond not only to the needs of educational stakeholders but also to the commercial demands of the ‘bottom line’. This article examines the occupational tensions facing international school leaders (specifically Principals and senior managers) as they attempt to master this plural for-profit context. The role of Principals within for-profit school contexts, this article finds, is changing. Principals may define their role in educational terms but this article highlights an emerging commercial narrative, concluding that (for-profit) international school leaders are increasingly required to be personally, philosophically and ontologically at ease with simultaneous educational–commercial discourses, as well versed in the patois of commerce as they are those of education.

South African teachers’ exposure to workplace bullying

Research on workplace bullying (WPB) in occupations, identified teaching as a high risk job. Yet there is a dearth of research on WPB among teachers. The aim of this study is to contribute to the limited body of knowledge on the prevalence of WPB within an international and South African schooling context. This article reports on results from an exploratory study on South African teachers’ exposure to WPB. Self-reporting questionnaires were completed by a convenient, voluntary sample of teachers (n=999). The respondents had to indicate their exposure to 43 pre-defined acts of WPB clustered into four categories. This study exposes the commonness of WPB among participating teachers: 90.8% of them were victims of WPB during the 12 months that preceded the study, and 89.1% of the victims had been exposed to at least two different categories of WPB. The perpetrators tried especially to undermine the victims’ professional status and isolate them. The study identified the constant evaluation of victims’ performance as the most common of the 43 negative acts. The results are discussed with reference to other studies. It is concluded that WPB is a serious problem in South African schools and needs to be addressed on policy and institutional levels.

Perceptions of Educators of Reading Literacy; A Case Study of the Intermediate Phase in South African Primary Schools

The achievement of worldwide participation in education is essentially determined by the quality of education available. How well learners are instructed and how much they learn determines how regularly learners attend schools. Sound education is further affected by the following factors: time spent learning by learners, assessment methods for monitoring learner progress, styles of teaching, education spending, the language of instruction, and classroom organisation strategies (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005). However, the development of learners’ literacy in South Africa as a developing country is accentuated by several challenges. Many learners in South Africa have difficulty understanding the language in which they are taught which is English, as they are not taught in their mother tongue. However, the language of instruction is not solely responsible for the poor performance in international reading tests and schooling in general. Learners are also faced with socio-economic issues, very little or hardly any parental supervision and educators are faced with the challenge of finding reading methods and strategies suitable to improving reading. Learners in the foundation phase are explicitly taught reading skills. In the intermediate phase, learners are expected to apply the skills acquired in the foundation phase to access the curriculum. In reality, this is difficult to achieve. The purpose of this article is to determine educator perceptions of reading literacy in the intermediate phase with the aim of enhancing reading literacy in the intermediate phase.

Quality‐Consistent Estimates of International Schooling and Skill Gradients

Mincer wage equations focus on the earnings premium associated with additional schooling for a cross section of individuals of different ages but generally fail to account for changes in education quality over time. More fundamentally, school attainment is an inadequate proxy of individual skills, when both family inputs and ability affect cognitive skills. We combine quality‐adjusted measures of schooling and international literacy test information to estimate skill gradients for 13 countries. The premiums to quality‐adjusted education are considerably higher than the traditional Mincer estimate for most countries, but this bias is more than offset by consideration of other factors affecting skills and earnings.

Family involvement in PSE: international schools easing the transition of mobile families

The impact of family mobility from domestic or international moves can be challenging for families. Some families adjust and other families experience crisis. For some families, relocation may be due to a job promotion and transfer, while for other families moving may be due to divorce, loss of employment or other stressful circumstances. Regardless of whether the family perceives relocation as positive or negative, moving places demands on families and consequently families experience varying degrees of transience. This article is based upon a qualitative research study about internationally mobile (IM) families managing relocation and transience and the place of international schooling in that process. 90 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 45 (IM) families at an international school in southern England. The study included an intervention that consisted of implementing a personal and social education (PSE) programme for families with adolescent children. Family involvement in PSE facilitated parent‐adolescent communication at a critical transitional stage as IM teenagers who grow up ‘on the move’ were experiencing complex emotional and social upheavals in relationships with their peers and their families. Although the focus of this study explored the experiences of a small sample of IM families, there are wider implications from the study. Family mobility presents an opportunity for schools to also work with families who experience domestic moves to ease the transition of children through pastoral care.

Peer Effects, Social Multipliers and Migrants at School: An International Comparison

This article analyses the school performance of migrants dependent on peer groups in different international schooling environments. Using data from the international OECD PISA test, we consider social interaction within and between groups of natives and migrants. Results based on social multipliers (Glaeser et al. 2000, 2003) suggest that both native-to-native and migrant-to-migrant peer effects are higher in ability-differencing school systems than in comprehensive schools. Thus, non-comprehensive school systems seem to magnify the prevailing educational inequality between students with a low parental socioeconomic migration background and children from more privileged families.

Peer Effects, Social Multipliers and Migrants at School: An International Comparison

This article analyses the school performance of migrants dependent on peer groups in different international schooling environments. Using data from the international OECD PISA test, we consider social interaction within and between groups of natives and migrants. Results based on social multipliers (Glaeser et al. 2000, 2003) suggest that both native-tonative and migrant-to-migrant peer effects are higher in ability-differencing school systems than in comprehensive schools. Thus, non-comprehensive school systems seem to magnify the already existing educational inequality between students with a low parental socioeconomic migration background and children from more privileged families. Students with a migration background and a disadvantageous parental status would benefit from higher diversity within schools.

International migration, remittances, and schooling: evidence from El Salvador

We examine the effect of remittances from abroad on households' schooling decisions using data for El Salvador. Following the massive war-related emigration of the 1980s, remittances became a significant source of household income throughout the 1990s. We use the Cox proportional hazard model to examine the determinants of school attendance. Measuring income from a source that is uncorrelated with parental schooling—remittances—, we find that remittances have a large, significant effect on school retention. We estimate that while household income net of remittances has a small, though significant, impact on the hazard of leaving school in rural and urban areas, remittances have a much larger impact on the hazard of leaving school. In urban areas, the effect of remittances is, at its smallest, 10 times the size of the effect of other income. In rural areas, the effect of remittances is about 2.6 times that of other income. Our finding is of interest in that it suggests that subsidizing school attendance, particularly in poor areas, may have a large impact on school attendance and retention, even if parents have low levels of schooling.

Learning from Schools

Many of the problems faced by those concernedto improve learning, teaching, assessment andcurriculum have also troubled the compulsoryeducation sector. This paper argues that thehigher education sector can learn from theextensive archive of international researchabout schooling. This is illustrated by briefcommentaries on five facets of school-centredresearch: subject departments; schooleffectiveness and school improvement; teachers'thinking and planning; assessment; andprofessional learning. It is claimed thatresearch into schooling can illuminate thinkingabout quality and curriculum in highereducation and that it can inspire better changepractices.