International Education, Methodological Nationalism and the Formation of Student Civic Identities: A postcolonial exploration of an IB World School in Lebanon - PhDData

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International Education, Methodological Nationalism and the Formation of Student Civic Identities: A postcolonial exploration of an IB World School in Lebanon

The thesis was published by Azzi, Iman, in June 2023, UCL (University College London).

Abstract:

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is both a major producer of, and a dominant influence in, International Education (IE). The IB’s approach to IE reflects methodological nationalism, which positions the nation state as a natural and central focus for study. Additionally, this approach, conceived while colonial rule was being challenged and physically dismantled, positions IE as promoting global citizenship, including the IB’s flagship, yet contested, concept of international mindedness (IM). This thesis explores how such a model of IE is interpreted by teachers and how it informs conversations about the local, national, and international. It also investigates how students enact, reproduce, re-contextualise, and challenge civic identities ascribed by IB programming.
Using ethnographically informed data collection methods, including classroom observations and creative interview techniques, this two-year single case study followed teachers and secondary students at an elite international school in Lebanon. Data was analysed through a postcolonial lens, inspired by Edward Said.
This thesis finds that the IB model of IE compartmentalises states into self-contained units. Further, the school’s interpretation of IM encourages international examples at the expense of local ones. These approaches not only perpetuate methodological nationalism but also reinforce a hierarchy that prioritises certain nations’ knowledge and perspectives as more central to IE. Therefore, a disconnect exists between the IB’s ideals of global citizenship, which purport to be equally accessible to any student regardless of nationality or class, and how IB is practised at the case study school. Despite past claims that international schools are isolated from Host countries, this thesis argues that the local is present daily within classrooms. This postcolonial exploration highlights the distorting effects of methodological nationalism within IB programming and discusses how students negotiate these limitations of formal instruction and desire opportunities to develop localised civic identities alongside lessons on elite global citizenship.



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