Tensions with international mindedness: teaching in the international baccalaureate program

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Fran Chernoff
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
International Baccalaureate ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Core Element ◽  
History Teachers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
History Curriculum ◽  
School History ◽  
Diploma Program

PurposeInternational mindedness (IM) is a core element of International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Implementation of IM varies with the type of international school and where the IB school is situated. This article seeks to understand the tensions that three teachers experienced while teaching the IB Diploma Program history curriculum.Design/methodology/approachFor this study, three IB teachers examined their experiences teaching the history curriculum. This article offers relevant research on the difficulties in implementing IM and the following tensions: (1) situating the IB curriculum; (2) with hegemonic privilege and (3) in high-stakes testing.FindingsIM can be integrated into the history curriculum to make the history curriculum relevant for the global community. While each interviewee enjoys teaching in the IB program and believes the IB history curriculum offers opportunity for IM, they also feel the history curriculum would benefit from modification. Each interviewee's points of view bring a relevancy and an authenticity for why tensions exist when teaching IB diploma history.Originality/valueThere is a gap of research in how and to what extent teachers implement IM into the IB high school history curriculum. Further, teachers' views regarding the IB history curriculum and whether the history curriculum facilitates one's teaching IM is largely anecdotal. Thus, this study is unique in its offering three interviews by IB high school history teachers on IM and the tensions they feel when teaching about and attempting to implement IM.

scholarly journals Curriculum Reform and the Teaching of History in High Schools during the Ma Ying-jeou Presidency

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-130
Author(s):  
Vladimir Stolojan
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
History Curriculum ◽  
School History ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time ◽  
Taiwan Independence

The last two years of Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yingjiu) presidency saw the eruption of a controversy surrounding proposed revisions to the high school history curriculum. Although not the first time that the subject of history has exacerbated the tensions between holders of a China-centred view of Taiwan's history and those favouring a more Taiwan-centred approach, this crisis, which took place mainly between 2014 and 2015, was undoubtedly the fiercest witnessed by the Taiwanese society in the sphere of educational issues. By putting the 2014–2015 dispute into perspective through a review of the different attempts made by the pro-Taiwan independence Chen Shui-bian (Chen Shuibian) and the pro-unification Ma Ying-jeou governments to edit the history curriculum, this article will underline the specificities of this particular controversy. This contribution will, therefore, help to shed new light not only on the perception of Taiwan's history promoted by the Ma administration, but also the policy-making process which characterised the last years of Ma's presidency.

Does External Accountability Affect Student Outcomes? A Cross-State Analysis

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Carnoy ◽  
Susanna Loeb
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
High School Completion ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
School Completion ◽  
9Th Grade ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Math Test

We developed a zero-to-five index of the strength of accountability in 50 states based on the use of high-stakes testing to sanction and reward schools, and analyzed whether that index is related to student gains on the NAEP mathematics test in 1996–2000. The study also relates the index to changes in student retention in the 9th grade and to changes in high school completion rates over the same period. The results show that students in high-accountability states averaged significantly greater gains on the NAEP 8th-grade math test than students in states with little or no state measures to improve student performance. Furthermore, students in high-accountability states do not have significantly higher retention or lower high school completion rates.

Community responsive literacies: the development of the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward R. Curammeng ◽  
Daisy D. Lopez ◽  
Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Educational Partnerships ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Arts Teachers ◽  
K 12

Purpose Momentum around the institutionalization of Ethnic Studies in US K-12 classrooms is increasing. Opponents have argued that Ethnic Studies does not challenge students academically and prepare them for high stakes testing (Planas, 2012; Sanchez, 2007). Conversely, research continues to show ways Ethnic Studies contribute to students’ academic achievement, especially for students from marginalized and vulnerable communities (Cabrera et al., 2014; Halagao, 2010; Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 2015). This study aims to demonstrate the possibilities and potential of Ethnic Studies-framed tools for English and Language arts teachers. This moment concerning Ethnic Studies in schools illuminates an important opportunity to demonstrate how Ethnic Studies-framed tools positively affect learning mainstream school content, namely, English and Language Arts. The authors consider the following point: To what extent can Ethnic Studies-framed tools affect approaches for learning English, writing and reading while simultaneously being responsive to a community’s needs? The authors maintain the importance of such tools that exist in how they support the development of community responsive literacies (CRLs). Design/methodology/approach This paper examines CRLs through the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot (ESPSP). The authors begin by exploring the development of the ESPSP, first used in Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), an innovative K-college Ethnic Studies teaching pipeline. Next, the authors examine each coordinate of the ESPSP, examining their purpose, theoretical underpinnings and ways the ESPSP offers nuanced approaches for learning literacies. Findings The authors then discuss how CRLs emerged to support PEP teachers and students’ reading and writing skills using the ESPSP. Originality/value Finally, the authors learn from students’ experiences with the ESPSP and offer implications for English and Language Arts teachers in the pursuit of teaching and serving students in more socially just and community responsive ways.

scholarly journals History teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and the dynamics of classroom implementation in Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Boadu ◽  
Debra Donnelly ◽  
Heather Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Grand Narrative ◽  
History Teachers ◽  
Classroom Implementation ◽  
Pedagogical Reasoning ◽  
History Curriculum ◽  
School History ◽  
Depth Interviews

The Ghanaian senior high-school history curriculum encourages teachers to guide students to explore, question and construct historical interpretations, rather than accept established historical narratives. This study investigates how those teachers conceive and implement the curriculum intent by exploring their pedagogical reasoning and classroom practices. The project described in this paper draws from a range of investigative instruments including in-depth interviews, classroom observations, post-lesson interviews and teachers’ planning paperwork from 15 public senior high schools in Ghana’s Central Region. This research found that teachers’ pedagogical reasoning was consistent with constructivist educational theory as well as responsive to the history curriculum, but that their stated understandings did not align with classroom practice. The findings indicate limited constructivist strategies in history lessons, as most teachers were didactic in approach and tended to teach history as a grand narrative.

Reclaiming Our Freedom to Teach: Education Reform in the Obama Era

2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Behrent
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
High School Teacher ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
School Students ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Public School Students ◽  
High School Classroom ◽  
The Impact

High school teacher Megan Behrent reflects on the impact of Obama's election on the students in her high school classroom. Obliged to temper her students' joyful exuberance on the morning of November 5, 2008, Behrent found that the election fervor highlighted for her the ways that schooling under NCLB has constrained both educators and students, taking away teachers' freedom to teach and students' freedom to learn. In this essay, she examines the many ways in which the high-stakes testing industry punishes public school students and teachers, continually disenfranchising those who struggle to learn without adequate resources. While Obama's election may bring hope to learners of all ages, Behrent advises skepticism toward the changes education secretary Arne Duncan might bring, and she calls on teachers, families, and unions to collaborate in demanding the freedom to nurture true learning.

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