Teachers’ Work in Curricular Markets: Conditions of Design and Relations Between the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the Local Curriculum

Abstract

School‐level strategy enabled by neoliberal choice policies can produce internal curricular markets whereby branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate are offered alongside the local government curriculum in the same school. This project investigated how such curricular markets operating in Australian schools impacted on teachers' work. This article reports on teachers work in three case study schools that offered both the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBD) program and the local senior schooling curriculum, then draws on an online survey of 225 teachers in 26 such schools across Australia. The analysis reveals the impact of curricular markets along two dimensions: the curriculum's internal design, and the relational aspects of how schools manage to deliver tandem offerings within institutional constraints. Teachers working in the IBD program were shown to relish its design, despite additional demands, while teachers working in just the local curriculum reported more relational issues. The article argues that these trends suggest that there are winners and losers emerging in the work conditions produced by curricular markets.

Discourses of Global Citizenship Education: The Influence of the Global Middle Classes

“…Various studies have shown that schools teach students the skills and dispositions they perceive to be relevant to their students' respective 'imagined futures' (Ball, 2003;Doherty & Shield, 2012;Goren & Yemini, 2017b). Thus, teachers as critical agents within these spaces are likely to acknowledge and promote cosmopolitanism for children to whom such dispositions are deemed most relevant to their current and anticipated future social status -we see this, for instance, in studies in Israel (Goren & Yemini, 2017b) and Germany (Kotzyba et al, 2018).…”

“…The experience of visiting, working and residing in different countries can lead individuals to form new conceptions of themselves and their national and ethnic identity (Ball & Nikita, 2014;Harvey & Beaverstock, 2017;Maxwell & Aggleton, 2016). Studies of mobile professionals with families note the importance of the "imagined future" that begins to shape motivations and concerns around their mobility (Doherty & Shield, 2012;Favell, 2008). Thus, GMC parents might seek to ensure their children have access to the resources that could facilitate their continued high-status mobility in the future, in their own work lives and to guard their futures against .…”

“…One of the major criticisms levelled at the IB organization and the governments who promote the IB provision in state education systems, is that it is elitist and exclusionary, which in turn will reduce efforts to increase equality through education (Doherty & Shield, 2012;Prosser, 2018). Critics identify, for instance, the direct costs of participation in the IB programs incurred by institutions and therefore local communities (on students' fees, cost of 'buying' the program to the schools and for training teachers to facilitate the curriculum) (Kotzyba, Dreier, Mareke, & Helsper, 2018).…”

Discourses of Global Citizenship Education: The Influence of the Global Middle Classes

“…Maxwell and Aggleton 2016). Studies of mobile professionals with families note the importance of the "imagined future" that begins to shape motivations and concerns around their mobility (Doherty and Shield 2012;Favell 2008). Thus, GMC parents might seek to ensure their children have access to the resources that could facilitate their continued high-status mobility in the future and in their own work lives and to guard their futures against increasing uncertainty.…”

Detecting Teacher Difficulties in Implementing the Local Curriculum Developed by the Local Government

“…Th e purpose of the developed local curriculum is to preserve and develop the uniqueness and culture of a given region, introducing culture through learning activities in an eff ective way. In addition, schools that are trusted to manage the curriculum become more confi dent (Doherty & Shield, 2012). Th e ability and capacity of teachers are better and able to innovate with the emergence of the local curriculum (Sahasewiyon, 2004).…”