Education without borders:: forty years of the International Baccalaureate: 1970-2010

by Nigel Bagnall

Education without borders is divided into two sections relating to the International Baccalaureate (IB) over a forty-year-period. The first is a comparative study of the IB Diploma in Australia and Canada. Drawing heavily on the work of Bourdieu, it argues that the IB has become a provider of global cultural capital. It argues that students adopt the IB as much for the cultural capital they acquire as for its use as an entry point qualification to the worlds' most prestigious tertiary institutions. The second section draws on an innovative study on three primary schools in Montreal adopting the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP). This book allows an opportunity for critical reflection on what constitutes an international curriculum and how various schools in Canada and Australia have used this curriculum. It assesses the potential significance of this curriculum model for all schools. Bagnall's innovative research shows how important the choice of curriculum is to all players in the education game. As Bourdieu (1993,p. 5) notes," ... a feel for the game ... is not always ... obedience to rules". The book will appeal to parents, teachers, researchers and students alike.

160 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2010

About the author

Field Marshal Sir Nigel Thomas Bagnall, GCB, CVO, MC (10 February 1927 – 8 April 2002) was a career British Army officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine, from 1983 to 1985, and then as Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the professional head of the British Army, from 1985 to 1988. Early in his military career he saw action during the Palestine Emergency, the Malayan Emergency, the Cyprus Emergency and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and later in his career he provided advice to the British Government on the future role of Britain's nuclear weapons.

In retirement he became a military historian and fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He wrote a history of the Punic wars published in 1990 and, two years after his death, he had a history of the Peloponnesian War published.