Journal of Research in International

Education
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The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the construction of

pedagogic identity: A preliminary study
James Cambridge
Journal of Research in International Education 2010 9: 199
DOI: 10.1177/1475240910383544

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Article JRIE
Journal of Research in
International Education
The International Baccalaureate 9(3) 199–213
© The Author(s) 2010
Diploma Programme and the Reprints and permission: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
construction of pedagogic identity: DOI: 10.1177/1475240910383544
http://jri.sagepub.com
A preliminary study

James Cambridge
International education consultant

Abstract
Bernstein (1999, 2000) proposes that contrasting educational discourses construct contrasting retrospective,
prospective, decentred (market) and decentred (therapeutic) pedagogic identities. In different times and
geographical locations the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) has been projected
onto a variety of pedagogic identities. In its earliest years there appears to have been vacillation between a
weak form of retrospective identity, expressed as nostalgia for a grouped curriculum that prevailed before
the introduction of A level in England, and an educational discourse projecting selected elements of the past
into the future. A ‘progressive’ decentred therapeutic identity, exemplified by the IB Learner Profile, is the
version the IB currently appears to project. However, this article proposes that the IB is assailed by market
forces and that the IB DP is being driven towards a decentred (market) identity.

Keywords
Basil Bernstein, International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, pedagogic identity

Introduction
The International Baccalaureate (IB) is currently experiencing unprecedented levels of expansion
in the markets for its programmes of study. How is this growth in global demand for international
education to be interpreted? The discourses of international education are complex and contradic-
tory, appealing both to demands for cultural reproduction, including the reproduction of division of
labour and its concomitant economic, political and social inequalities, and its disruption. It has
been argued that international education as it is practised is the reconciliation of competing inter-
nationalist and globalist discourses (Cambridge 2003). This article proposes that Basil Bernstein’s
theory of pedagogic identities may be used as a theoretical lens to interpret international education,
as exemplified by the IB Diploma Programme (DP). After a brief explanation of the IB context, it
starts with a brief account of Bernstein’s theories of pedagogic discourse and the pedagogic device.

Corresponding author:
James Cambridge, c/o the Editor, JRIE, Department of Education, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Email: global.education.today@gmail.com

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200 Journal of Research in International Education 9(3)

Four models of pedagogic identity are then described, followed by an attempt to interpret the IB
DP in terms of these models. The article is concluded by a summary discussion.

International Baccalaureate programmes

The IB describes itself as a not-for-profit educational foundation founded in 1968, motivated by its
mission and focused on the student. Its three programmes for students aged 3 to 19 help develop
the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing
world. As of August 2010, there were more than 843,000 students studying IB programmes at 3020
schools in 139 countries (International Baccalaureate, 2010).
The IB Primary Years Programme (MYP) for pupils aged 3 to 12 focuses on the development
of the whole child in the classroom and in the world outside. The IB Middle Years Programme
(MYP) for pupils aged 11 to 16 provides a framework of academic challenge and life skills,
achieved through embracing and transcending traditional school subjects. The IB DP, meanwhile,
for students aged 16 to 19, is a two-year curriculum leading to final examinations and a qualifica-
tion that is recognized by universities around the world. Students study six subjects selected from
subject groups. Normally three subjects are studied at higher level (courses representing 240 teach-
ing hours), and three subjects are studied at standard level (courses representing 150 teaching
hours). All three parts of the core curriculum, consisting of the Extended Essay, Theory of
Knowledge (an interdisciplinary course designed to provide coherence by exploring the nature of
knowledge across disciplines, and encouraging an appreciation of other cultural perspectives) and
Creativity, Action, Service (which encourages students to be involved in artistic pursuits, sports
and community service work, thus fostering awareness and appreciation of life outside the aca-
demic arena), are compulsory and central to the philosophy of the DP.
The IB argues for a continuity of educational values and practices across its programmes. The
IB Learner Profile is described as ‘the IBO mission statement translated into a set of learning out-
comes for the 21st century’ (International Baccalaureate, 2006: 1). This document:

is central to the IB definition of what it means to be internationally minded, and it directs schools to focus
on learning. ... The IB learner profile is based on values that are the embodiment of what the organization
believes about international education. The attributes described in the learner profile are appropriate to and
achievable by all IB students from the ages of 3 to 19. (International Baccalaureate, 2008a: 3)

The IB Learner Profile not only offers a description of the ideal IB learner in 10 domains but is
also presented as a tool for school development, informing classroom practices, assessment and
reporting practices, daily life, management and leadership (International Baccalaureate, 2006).
It is evident that a sociological theory of the selection, distribution and evaluation of pedagogic
knowledge would be of use in the description and analysis of IB programmes. A discussion of Basil
Bernstein’s theoretical perspectives follows.

Pedagogic discourse and the pedagogic device

Two aspects of Bernstein’s sociology of education are relevant to the present discussion. These are,
respectively, his characterization of pedagogic discourse and his theorization of the production of
educational knowledge in terms of the pedagogic device. The production of discourse about the
curriculum is based on relations between and within its contents. In some contexts, there are strong
boundaries insulating the different subjects from each other such that what goes on in the modern

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Cambridge: The IB Diploma and constructions of pedagogic identity 201

foreign languages classroom, for example, is separated from, and unrelated to, what goes on in the
science laboratory. There is strong classification between the subjects. In other contexts, the bound-
aries insulating the different subjects, and hence classification between curriculum contents, are
weak. The internal organization of school subjects, that is to say relations within curriculum con-
tents, is also variable. This is framing in Bernstein’s terms. In some subjects, knowledge is hierar-
chically ordered such that learning needs to be approached in a particular sequence. In other
subjects, learning may not be dependent upon prior knowledge or experience so that content may
be approached in a variety of different sequences. Selection, sequencing and pacing of curriculum
contents are indicators of strong framing. Bernstein (2000) proposes two ideal codes that describe
the curriculum. The ‘collection code’ demonstrates strong classification and strong framing,
whereas the ‘integrated code’ demonstrates weak classification and weak framing. The curricula
implemented in schools may be evaluated in terms of whether they are inscribed by collection or
integrated codes.
The pedagogic device comprises the rules for the distribution, recontextualization and evaluation
(that is, assessment) of knowledge. According to Bernstein (2000) these rules are:

• Distributive rules that distribute different forms of knowledge to different social groups.
• Recontextualizing rules that construct the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of official pedagogic discourse.
• Evaluative rules that provide the criteria and standards for the transmission and acquisition
of knowledge.

Distributive rules distribute access to the ‘unthinkable’ (that is, to the possibility of new knowledge)
and to the ‘thinkable’ (that is, official knowledge). In so doing they distribute different forms of
consciousness to different groups in society. In other words, distributive rules produce division of
labour in society and reproduce economic and social stratification. Selective education systems
that implement sorting policies, often based on psychometric measurement of ‘aptitude’ or ‘ability’,
distribute differential access to knowledge by students. In the British context, Fitz et al. (2006: 87)
illustrate the operation of distributive rules in these terms:

The hierarchy of occupations within the division of labour and the historic scarcity of places in British
higher education has pressured schools to identify and give children credentials with different types and
levels of qualifications. Employers and universities have made it clear that this is the key function of
schools.

Knowledge, as it is created in universities and other places of research and knowledge produc-
tion, must be selected, sequenced and paced in order to be made available to learners in schools.
This process is referred to as the pedagogic recontextualization or pedagogization of knowledge
(Singh, 2002). Curriculum and assessment organizations such as the IB, College Board Advanced
Placement, Cambridge International Examinations and others are centres of pedagogic recontextu-
alization. The recent history of educational reform of national systems in many parts of the world
has traced a shift in control over pedagogic recontextualization, away from decentralized bodies
independent of direct governmental control, such as examination boards, towards increasing cen-
tralization and direct government control (Ball, 1990). Such centralized control of the curriculum
is identified with the ‘Official Recontextualization Field’ (Singh, 2002). It is evident that legisla-
tion has privileged the National Curriculum in England, not only as a body of ‘official’ knowledge
but also as a means of assessing students’ learning and judging the performance of teachers and
schools (Fitz et al., 2006).

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202 Journal of Research in International Education 9(3)

In the US context, No Child Left Behind legislation has led to the creation of an official
pedagogic recontextualization field through the implementation of state-wide standardized assess-
ment tests (Hursh, 2005, 2007). Frey and Whitehead (2009) propose that public school curriculum
in the USA has long been essentially standardized at the national level, despite a strong discourse
of state and local autonomy. The strength of the US official pedagogic recontextualization field is
increasing to the extent that there may even be a lobby developing in favour of moves towards the
introduction of a National Curriculum (Glod, 2009).
As a consequence of policy implementation leading to the centralization of curriculum develop-
ment in many countries, education in an international context is becoming increasingly complex,
particularly with regard to interactions with the multiplicity of Official Pedagogic Fields in differ-
ent national systems, all of which have to be negotiated with in order to gain official recognition
for international programmes of study.

Pedagogic identities
The term pedagogic identity refers to:

the result of embedding a career in a collective base. The career of a student is a knowledge career, a
moral career and a locational career. The collective base of that career is provided by the principle of
social order … expected to be relayed in schools and institutionalised by the state. The local social base of
that career is provided by the orderings of the local social context. (Bernstein, 2000: 66)

Bernstein proposes a fourfold typology comprising retrospective, prospective, decentred (market)

and decentred (therapeutic) pedagogic identities. They constitute ‘an official arena … for the pro-
jecting of pedagogic identities, through the process of educational reform. Any one educational
reform can then be regarded as the outcome of the struggle to produce and institutionalize particu-
lar identities’ (Bernstein, 2000: 66). Retrospective and prospective pedagogic identities are gener-
ated by centring resources managed by the state. Such resources are drawn from centralized, often
considered national, discourses. Conversely, the two decentred pedagogic identities are generated
by institutions with some autonomy over their resources. ‘Decentred resources are drawn from
local contexts or local discourses and focus upon the present, whereas centred discourses focus
upon the past’ (Bernstein, 2000: 66).
Power (2006: 99) suggests that ‘it is difficult to know precisely what Bernstein means when he
argues that decentred identities are based upon “local” identities’. However, a distinction between
centralized direction of education by the state and local autonomy seems fairly clear. In the context
of the implementation of IB programmes, it may be the case that schools that are able to offer them
have greater agency in terms of independence in areas such as governance, policy and curriculum
choice. However, there is a ‘chicken and egg’ ontological problem associated with such an obser-
vation. Does having greater agency empower schools to select particular programmes of study, or
is the ability to select a particular programme indicative of having agency?
Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic identities may be interpreted as a late addition to his oeuvre, having
been introduced in 1995 (Bernstein 1995). Bernstein’s followers appear to have experienced some
difficulty in reconciling this theory with other antecedent aspects of Bernstein’s theory. For example,
Tyler (1999) attempts to interpret pedagogic identities in terms of classification and framing:

• Retrospective (strong classification, strong framing)

• Prospective (weak classification, strong framing)

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Cambridge: The IB Diploma and constructions of pedagogic identity 203

• Decentred market (strong classification, weak framing)

• Decentred therapeutic (weak classification, weak framing)

However, Tyler (1999: 277) comments that ‘at the level of practice where these identities are
realized, Bernstein’s own coding descriptions of specific school reforms appear to elude such a
simplistic and static positioning’. In other words, curriculum and programmes of study are
dynamic and ambiguous and have the potential to appear as ‘an unstable, kaleidoscopic and
anomalous pattern of many points of closure and openness. The rather static and homogeneous
categories of the coding principles may not be able to produce an adequate account of these
internal contradictions’ (Tyler 1999: 277). Tyler proceeds to reinterpret Bernstein’s theory in
terms of Talcott Parsons’ structural functionalism (Parsons, 1953). This will not be pursued
here. Nevertheless, the points made by Tyler about instability and anomaly are salient to the
present discussion. There now follow summary descriptions of Bernstein’s four models of peda-
gogic identity.

Retrospective identities
Retrospective pedagogic identities are restricted, old conservative and ‘shaped by national reli-
gious, cultural grand narratives of the past … stabilizing the past and projecting it into the future’
(Bernstein, 2000: 66–67). Such identities may be found in the official discourse of education sys-
tems in a variety of societies now fragmented or segmented after the collapse of totalizing regimes.
These include theocratic and post-communist states ‘where the past is threatened by secular
change issuing from the West’ (Bernstein, 2000: 67). There is tight control over the discursive
inputs of such education, but less control over its outputs. Hence, retrospective identities are
‘formed by hierarchically ordered, strongly bounded, explicitly stratified and sequenced dis-
courses and practices’ (Bernstein, 2000: 67). However, an important feature of this type of identity
is that the discourse does not enter into an exchange relation with the economy. That is to say, it is
mainly concerned with social and cultural reproduction, and less with economic production and
reproduction.

Prospective identities
Prospective pedagogic identities are neo-conservative identities constructed to deal with cultural,
economic and technological change. They are shaped by the selective recontextualization of fea-
tures of the past in order to defend or raise economic performance. Citing the educational policies
of the Conservative Thatcher governments of the 1980s in England, Bernstein (2000: 68) explains
that features of the past were selected:

which would legitimate, which would motivate, and which would create what were considered to be
appropriate attitudes, dispositions and performances relevant to market culture and reduced state welfare.
A new collective social base was formed by fusing nation, family, individual responsibility and individual
enterprise. Thus prospective identities are formed by recontextualising selected features from the past to
stabilise the future through engaging with contemporary change. Here, unlike retrospective identities
where only the collective base is foregrounded, with prospective identities it is careers (that is dispositions
and economic performances) which are foregrounded and embedded in an especially selected past. The
management of prospective identities, because of the emphasis upon performances which have an
exchange value, requires the state to control both inputs to education and outputs.

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204 Journal of Research in International Education 9(3)

As Ross (2000) argues, educational reform under the Conservatives in England in the 1980s, and
followed by New Labour from 1997, involved an unprecedented centralization of state control
over the curriculum accompanied by strengthening the framework of surveillance of schools and
regulation of teacher education and training. The cultural battles fought over the form and content
of the National Curriculum in England are recounted with wry wit by Graham (1993), but see also
Gammon (1999) for an illuminating account of music education in particular.

Decentred (market) identities

Decentred pedagogic identities are generally produced in sites where the institutions have
some autonomy over their resources. ‘Whereas the centring resources of retrospective and
prospective identities recontextualize the past, although different pasts, decentring resources
construct the present although different “presents”’ (Bernstein, 2000: 68). Decentred (market)
pedagogic identities in particular reflect external contingencies, otherwise known as market
forces. Such identities have exchange value in the market and are the productions of neo-liberal
discourse.

We have here a culture and context to facilitate the survival of the fittest as judged by market demands. The
focus is on the short term rather than the long term, on the extrinsic rather than the intrinsic, upon the
exploration of vocational applications rather than upon exploration of knowledge. The transmission here views
knowledge as money. And like money it should flow easily to where demand calls. There must be no
impediments to this flow. Personal commitment and particular dedication of staff and students are regarded
as resistances, as oppositions to the free circulation of knowledge. And so personal commitments, inner
dedications, not only are not encouraged, but also are regarded as equivalent to monopolies in the market,
and like such monopolies should be dissolved. The [Decentred Market] position constructs an outwardly
responsive identity rather than one driven by inner dedication. Contract replaces covenant. (Bernstein,
2000: 69)

Power (2006) draws attention to how decentred market identities arise out of a projection onto
consumables. That is to say, identity is defined in terms of what goods and services the individual
consumes and how they are consumed. Identity is thus aligned to a form of connoisseurship. In this
context, participation in education is a form of consumption.

Decentred (therapeutic) identities

Power (2006) discusses how decentred (therapeutic) identities are produced by introjection.
This means that ‘the concept of self is crucial and the self is regarded as a personal project’
(Bernstein, 2000: 73). Decentred (therapeutic) pedagogic identities are ‘orientated towards
autonomous, non-specialized, flexible thinking, and socially to team work as an active partici-
pant’ (Bernstein, 2000: 68). They are termed ‘therapeutic’ because they are ‘produced by
complex theories of personal, cognitive and social development, often labelled progressive.
Such theories are the means of a control invisible to the student’ (Bernstein, 2000: 68).
Bernstein (2000: 70) argues that the difference between the two decentred identities is that
whereas the decentred market position ‘projects contingent, differentiated competitive identi-
ties’, the decentred therapeutic position ‘projects stable, integrated identities with adaptable
cooperative practices’. However, decentred (therapeutic) identities are generally in a weak
position because they are expensive to produce and their outputs are not easily amenable to
measurement or testing.

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Cambridge: The IB Diploma and constructions of pedagogic identity 205

Pedagogic identities projected onto IB programmes

Retrospective identities
What pedagogic identities may be produced as an outcome of participation in the IB DP? It may be
argued that such identities are not fixed and immutable, but change over time and according to
context. The history of the IB, as related by Peterson (1972a), locates its origins in the Pedagogic
Recontextualization Field, comprising schools and university departments of education, as opposed
to the Official Recontextualization Field controlled directly by government (Bernstein, 1995,
2000; Singh, 2002). The IB DP grew out of experiments in curriculum development conducted in
a handful of international schools, coupled with academic studies involving comparative education
and the English sixth-form curriculum at the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford
University (Leach, 1969; Peterson, 1965, 1972a, 1972b, 1977, 1987). Peterson (1972a: 12) argued
that the English GCE Advanced level (A level) is ‘out of line with the examination system of other
European countries by exerting pressure on students and teachers alike to concentrate on a nar-
rower range of specialisation than is acceptable anywhere else’. This may be interpreted as being
in opposition to the prevailing Official Recontextualization Field of that time in England because
it was critical of the early subject specialization policy inscribed in GCE A levels introduced in
1951 in the wake of the Education Act 1944. Lucas (2003: 125) points out that ‘the School
Certificate and Higher School Certificates which were replaced by O and A levels in 1951 were
early forms of overarching certificate’.
That may be how the IB DP may be interpreted as a late specialization curriculum that allows
learners to study a wider range of subjects later in their academic careers, as had been the case with
the Higher School Certificate that was abolished when A levels were introduced. Hence, in the con-
text of England and Wales at that time, the political position of the IB DP in its earliest years may be
interpreted in terms of a discourse of conservatism. At first sight, this might suggest that the IB DP
could be construed as a retrospective identity by appealing to a form of educational nostalgia.

Prospective identities
That may be how it appeared to some observers. However, in order to be acceptable as a qualifica-
tion with currency for university entrance, the oppositional character of the IB DP needed to be
tempered by recognition from the Official Recontextualization Field. While they challenged the
status quo, the developers of the IB DP did so by coupling nostalgia (in England and Wales) for a
golden age before the introduction of A levels to the instrumental needs of middle-class students
and their parents. This was achieved by offering a broader alternative to A levels while also facili-
tating university entrance. From this perspective, the IB DP may have been identified with the
production of a neo-conservative prospective pedagogic identity, selecting elements from the past
and projecting them onto the future. Nevertheless, there is a crucial distinction to be made between
the IB DP and the production of a centred prospective identity; the IB DP was not centred on a
particular state or polity. Consequently, elements of the pedagogic identity projected onto the IB
DP may be considered to be decentred.

Decentred (therapeutic) identities

Another interpretation is of the IB DP as a development of English progressive education appeal-
ing to the ‘new’ middle classes by offering a learner-centred curriculum with components of expe-
riential learning (Potts, 2007; Skidelsky, 1969). This reference to the ‘new’ middle classes is
important because the distinction between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ middle classes has ‘contributed to

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206 Journal of Research in International Education 9(3)

oppositional allegiances to traditional and progressive forms of childrearing and schooling which
in turn led to distinctive pedagogical identities’ (Power, 2006: 64). Historically those fractions of
the middle class associated with trade and ‘new’ industries, as opposed to members of the land-
owning classes and the ‘old’ professions such as law, appear to have entertained a particular enthu-
siasm for progressive and international forms of education. This is demonstrated by the account of
the establishment by free trade radicals associated with Richard Cobden (1804–1865) of the Spring
Grove School (the ‘first international school’) near London in the mid-19th century (Sylvester,
2002). Internationally minded education and peace education informed the philosophies of a num-
ber of independent progressive schools between the wars in the middle of the 20th century, particu-
larly those associated with the New Education Fellowship (Brehony, 2004; White, 2001). Watkins
(2007) discusses the internationalist philosophy of Badminton School, a girls’ independent school
in Bristol, England, during the inter-war years. He considers the school as one of many that situated
themselves in opposition to the structures and ethos of the ‘old’ public schools but retained their
class exclusivity and their confidence in education for leadership. He argues that the term ‘progres-
sive education’ has been used to refer to schools that accepted the role of elite schooling in shaping
models of citizenship and national leadership, but aimed to subvert the value-system of the public
school tradition in order to mould new kinds of citizens and leaders.
Educational progressivism may be identified with the development of character. Sennett (1998:
10) proposes that character ‘is expressed by loyalty and mutual commitment, or through the pursuit
of long-term goals, or by the practice of delayed gratification for the sake of a future end …
Character concerns the personal traits which we value in ourselves and for which we seek to be
valued by others.’ Kurt Hahn’s educational philosophy, with its emphasis on experiential learning
and an existentialist appeal to the moral development of the person (Röhrs, 1966, 1970), is salient
in this context. Hahn was the founder of Schule Schloss Salem, Germany, and in Britain ‘he
founded or was instrumental in founding’ Gordonstoun School, the Outward Bound movement, the
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and the United World Colleges (Peterson, 1987: 2). Van Oord (2010:
254) proposes that Hahn ‘embraced elements of both conservative and progressive education’.
Hahn’s vision of education was based on a strong commitment to service, with an emphasis on
experiential learning and ‘character building’ (Price, 1970). Röhrs (1966) identifies the influence
of the American pragmatist philosopher William James (1842–1910) on Hahn’s thought. James
(1906) argued for the institution of a form of service education to build character that could be
regarded ‘a moral equivalent of war’:

A permanently successful peace-economy cannot be a simple pleasure-economy. In the more or less

socialistic future toward which mankind seems drifting we must still subject ourselves collectively to those
severities which answer to our real position upon this only partly hospitable globe. We must make new
energies and hardihoods continue the manliness to which the military mind so faithfully clings. Martial
virtues must be the enduring cement; intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private interest, obedi-
ence to command, must still remain the rock upon which states are built. (James, 1906: n.p.)

Similarly, Hahn was critical of what he considered to be the ‘moral indifference’ that afflicted
modern youth (Röhrs, 1966). He proposed that the remedy was the opportunity to cultivate an
intellectual ‘grand passion’ coupled with physical challenge (James, 2000) – ‘not only the power
to think, but the will to act’ (Peterson, 1987: vii). The presence of the Extended Essay and Creativity
Action Service (CAS) is evidence of the enduring legacy of Kurt Hahn’s educational philosophy in
the IB DP (Thompson et al., 2003).

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Cambridge: The IB Diploma and constructions of pedagogic identity 207

The IB DP may be identified with the production of a decentred (therapeutic) pedagogic iden-
tity; indeed Röhrs (1966) refers to Hahn’s educational philosophy as ‘experience therapy’ directly.
This conclusion is supported by reference to the IB Learner Profile which expresses the ‘values
that should infuse all elements of the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme
(MYP) and Diploma Programme and, therefore, the culture and ethos of all IB World Schools’
(International Baccalaureate, 2006: 1). However, Bernstein (2000) argues that decentred (therapeutic)
pedagogic identities represent a weak position, especially when contrasted with the strength of
centralized state education. This weakness is attributed, at least in part, to cost. Nevertheless, for
those who can afford it, the expense of production of therapeutic identities is no object. However,
as Brooks (1998: 98) expresses it, the foundation in 1962 of the United World College of the
Atlantic (Atlantic College), an institution with a strong emphasis on education for character, may
be interpreted as ‘the final gasp’ of the current of independent progressive education that began
with schools such as Abbotsholme, Bedales, King Alfred’s School and Dartington.

Decentred (market) identities

It has been proposed that the ideological ‘internationalist’ form of international education is ‘the
specialist interest of a minority of enthusiasts’ and that the majority of consumers select interna-
tional education for its ‘globalist’ attributes (Cambridge, 2003: 57). The ‘internationalist’ approach
to the practice of international education is:

founded upon international relations, with aspirations for the promotion of peace and understanding
between nations. It embraces a progressive existential and experiential educational philosophy that values
the moral development of the individual and recognizes the importance of service to the community and
the development of a sense of responsible citizenship. Internationalist international education celebrates
cultural diversity and promotes an international-minded outlook. (Cambridge and Thompson, 2004: 174)

The internationalist perspective may best be identified with Bernstein’s decentred (therapeutic)
pedagogic identities. In contrast to this, the ‘globalist’ approach may best be identified with
Bernstein’s decentred (market) pedagogic identities:

The globalist approach to international education is influenced by and contributes to the global diffusion
of the values of free market economics. These are expressed in international education in terms of an ideol-
ogy of meritocratic competition combined with positional competition with national systems of education.
This is accompanied by quality assurance through international accreditation and the spread of global
quality standards that facilitate educational continuity for the children of the globally mobile clientele.
Globalized international education serves a market that requires the global certification of educational
qualifications. This facilitates educational continuity for the children of the host country clientele with
aspirations towards social and global mobility. An outcome of globalist international education is global
cultural convergence towards the values of the transnational capitalist class. (Cambridge and Thompson,
2004: 173–174)

Decentred (market) pedagogic identities are another set of identities that may be produced as
an outcome of participation in IB programmes. In fact, it may be argued that this is the most
rapidly growing set of identities in the current period. This position is exemplified in the state-
ment about international schools that many parents ‘are prepared to support [them] despite, not

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208 Journal of Research in International Education 9(3)

because of, [their] internationalism. For them the school is a means to an end of obtaining good
educational qualifications that are recognized internationally’ (Cambridge, 1998: 199). Education
is a branch of the consumer economy for such parents, and the exchange value of the IB DP is
expressed in terms of the enhanced quality of university entrance that it can bring. Evidence for this
conclusion can be seen in the quantity of data concerning university recognition of the DP made
available by the IB and other sources (Coates et al., 2007; International Baccalaureate, 2003).
Furthermore, there also appears to be growing evidence for identification of IB programmes
with the preparation of learners for entry into the global knowledge economy. Resnik (2008) exam-
ines the IB Learner Profile as a template for the production of the ideal global citizen, and its rela-
tion to the attributes of the ideal global worker. She identifies cognitive, psycho-emotional,
socio-cultural and ethical predispositions as desirable qualities to be developed for employment in
the global knowledge economy. Cognitive predispositions include capacities for problem-solving,
self-reflection, critical thinking, knowledge applied to production, creativity and innovation, cog-
nitive multiculturalism, self-learning and life-long learning, polyvalence and multitasking. Psycho-
emotional predispositions include capacities for emotional multiculturalism, risk-taking, autonomy
and self-management and the acquisition of a ‘knowledge portfolio’. Socio-cultural predisposi-
tions include capacities for teamwork, communication and cooperation, networking, national iden-
tity and world citizenship. Ethical predispositions include capacities for philanthropy for community
development, safety and health, and care for the environment. Resnik (2008: 163) argues that:

the picture that arises from the juxtaposition of global workers’ predispositions to global citizens’ predis-
positions is strikingly similar. It seems that the IB curriculum is entirely committed to the construction of
the global worker, and with exception of some ethical distinctions, no difference exists between the char-
acteristics of the worker and the characteristics of the citizen in the global era.

As a presentation made by the IB Director General to the 2006 IB North America Regional
Conference (Beard, 2006: 1–5) attests, the preparation of global workers for entry into the global
knowledge economy appears to be a key attribute in the marketing and promotion of the IB.
Resnik (2008: 148) proposes that international education constitutes ‘an additional step for
educational differentiation (national vs. international) [which] further widens the gap between the
level of education provided to lower and higher income families and worsens the probabilities of
class mobility’. Consequently, she argues that ‘because of the highly selective nature of interna-
tional schools and their close match to market demands, international education might contribute
to the reproduction of social inequality. As such, IB schools established in the past in order to
encourage peace and understanding among peoples become today a source of growing inequality
in society’ (Resnik, 2008: 148).
Whitehead (2005) focuses on the growth of the IB DP in South Australia as an aspect of the
marketization of schooling and its implications for social justice in education. The marketization
of the IB DP is studied through an analysis of school advertisements in South Australia’s daily
newspaper, the Advertiser, in 2003. Whitehead’s main conclusion is that schools that featured the
IB in their advertisements are ‘selling social advantage rather than social justice, and the IB was
deployed as a commodity that increased their advantage in the education marketplace rather than a
curriculum with socially just ideals’. This bears a strong resemblance to the point made by Power
(2006) about education as a consumer good, and it may be interpreted as evidence in support of the
argument that, in the Australian context at least, decentred (market) pedagogic identities are pro-
jected onto the IB DP.

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Cambridge: The IB Diploma and constructions of pedagogic identity 209

Also researching in an Australian context, Doherty et al. (2009) describe and analyse the ‘border
artistry’ of students opting to pursue the IB Diploma Programme which combines aspirations to
both social and geographical mobility. They (2009: 759) refer to:

a growing number of international students whose parents trawl the globe looking for the kind of educa-
tional opportunities they want their child to have at a price they are willing to pay. The well-resourced can
now uproot and move to greener pastures in search of transnational advantage.

In Qatar, Kanan and Baker (2006: 263) report that students attending international schools in
that country perceived themselves, and their career choices, differently from students in national
schools:

Students attending international schools showed the widest scope of individual identity. For example, they
tended to perceive their individual identity also in ethnic (Arab) and universal terms, a phenomenon that
was either absent or of negligible value among the students who attended [other] schools.

The valid interpretation of such observations is beset with ontological problems. Does attendance
at an international school produce the specified identities, or are such identities antecedent to the
decision to attend an international school? Nevertheless, Bunnell (2010) cites this source in con-
nection with the development of his argument that IB programmes contribute to the formation of a
global ‘class-for-itself’. He (2010: 351) proposes that participation in IB programmes is producing
two classes of learners with contrasting sets of values:

The ‘agenda for global peace’ desires an irenic class, tolerant and culturally aware. Within the context of
an ‘agenda for global business’ a more inner-directed class might appear, sympathetic to globalization and
the needs of Capital.

It may be argued that Bunnell’s contrasting perspectives represent the therapeutic and market peda-
gogic identities, respectively.

Conclusion
The preceding discussion suggests that the IB DP can be projected onto a variety of pedagogic
identities. Such interpretations are subject to contextual variation, particularly in terms of historical
and geographical circumstances. From its earliest days, the IB DP could be projected onto a form
of educational nostalgia looking back to an era of grouped secondary school qualifications before
the introduction of GCE Advanced Level. The interest of A.D.C. Peterson, the founding IB Director
General, in reform of the English sixth form and as an advocate of alternatives to A levels is well
documented (Peterson, 1965, 1972a, 1972b, 1977, 1987). Hence, an argument can be constructed
for the IB DP being associated with a weak form of retrospective identity. However, the pedagogic
identity projected onto the IB DP may not be considered to be centred because it was not under the
direct control of the Official Pedagogic Recontextualization Field of a particular state or polity.
There appears to have been vacillation between this perspective and a discourse projecting onto a
prospective identity. In order for the IB DP to become established, it had to appeal to middle-class
positional interests by projecting selected elements of the past into the future. This presents a neo-
conservative view of educational reform with an emphasis on instrumental educational values and

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210 Journal of Research in International Education 9(3)

what are considered to be ‘proper subjects’ such as the physical sciences, mathematics and modern
foreign languages in a content-driven curriculum (Ross, 2000).
The influence of Kurt Hahn’s educational philosophy and the establishment of Atlantic College
as a site for piloting the early IB DP (mainly for pragmatic reasons, it may be argued, because
Peterson needed a conveniently situated school in which he could conduct his curriculum experi-
ment) created a context for projecting a discourse of progressive education onto the IB DP. This
educational discourse is decentred in two senses; in the sense that its focus is on the specific devel-
opmental needs of the individual learner rather than the economic and workforce supply needs of
central government, and in the sense that such education developed in schools that were politically
and economically independent of the centralizing state. Hahn’s vision of education may be inter-
preted as being therapeutic because it was offered as a countervailing force in opposition to what
he saw as the decadence of modern society and its toxic effect on youth. The persistence of the
central non-elective dimensions of the IB DP – Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay, Creativity
Action Service (CAS) – is offered as evidence of Hahn’s pedagogical legacy (Thompson et al.,
2003). As Skidelsky (1969) argues, progressive education in the late 19th century began as a reform
of the English Public School, against the Classics, militarism and organized team sports. In the
early to mid-20th century, progressive education became popular among the ‘new’ middle classes
(who made their money in trade and the creative industries, rather than from property and the ‘old’
professions such as law). Progressive education was also infused, in the inter-war years, with
diverse interests such as pacifism, vegetarianism, psychology, psychoanalysis, spiritual and reli-
gious ideas such as theosophy, and educational theories from continental Europe (Brehony, 2004;
Brooks, 1998; Potts, 2007; Watkins, 2007; White, 2001). Some aspects of these perspectives, par-
ticularly an interest in the cultivation of expressive order educational values in learners, carried
over into progressive education in the post-war period. It was among some of these institutions,
including the heirs of the League of Nations approach to education, that the idea of an IB DP took
root (Hill, 2001). However, by the early 1970s progressive education had changed. It had become
mainstreamed in the English state system, following the Plowden report into primary education
(Central Advisory Council for Education (England), 1967), until the tide was turned by the publi-
cation of the ‘Black Papers in Education’ (Cox and Dyson, 1969, 1970) and the Ruskin College
speech by the then Prime Minister, James Callaghan (1976), calling for a ‘great debate’ about
education.
The decentred therapeutic identity is the version that the IB prefers to project at the present
time – the IB Learner Profile is this ideology writ large. However, recalling Tyler’s (1999) com-
ments about the instability and ambiguity of pedagogic identities, the decentred therapeutic iden-
tity is in competition with the decentred market identity. The IB is assailed by market forces. In the
USA, for example, the IB has been identified as an academic programme that serves ‘under-served’
communities with equity (Kugler and Albright, 2005) but it is also promoted as a lever for school
improvement, for enhancing prospects for college entrance, and as a means of effectively imple-
menting No Child Left Behind legislation (International Baccalaureate, 2005). These are examples
of educational instrumentalism. The explicit coupling of participation in IB programmes to prepa-
ration for employment in the global knowledge economy represents a pragmatic, and possibly
opportunistic, move away from projecting a therapeutic identity towards a market driven identity.
Hence, at different times and in different places, promoters of the IB have projected it onto
pedagogic identities in differing (and sometimes conflicting) ways. It is unclear whether or not
students following the IB DP in two different schools are really pursuing the same programme of
study. ‘This is because one school might be non-selective, offering an open access whole-school
programme, whereas another might be selective, offering a restricted access school-within-a-school

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Cambridge: The IB Diploma and constructions of pedagogic identity 211

programme. The values and assumptions underlying the criteria for entry on to the programmes of
study are different in either case’ (International Baccalaureate, 2008b: 22). The non-selective, open
access approach is inscribed with a discourse of weak classification and weak framing, whereas the
restricted access, school-within-a-school represents a discourse of strong classification and strong
framing. At present, the sociology of international education is undeveloped as a discipline. It is
evident that much further case-study research is required in order to understand the implementation
of the IB Diploma programme in different contexts. It is proposed that Bernstein’s theories con-
cerning the projection of pedagogic identities offer an heuristic framework for the development of
further research questions in this field.

Acknowledgement
The author thanks the anonymous peer reviewers who made helpful critical comments on an earlier draft of
this article.

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Biographical note
James Cambridge, PhD, is an independent international education consultant. He was formerly
Head of Research Projects with the International Baccalaureate Research Unit and a visiting
research fellow at the University of Bath, UK. He has worked in Britain, the Middle East and
Southern Africa in a variety of educational contexts including science teaching, assessment,
curriculum development, initial teacher education and continuing professional development. His
research interests include inquiry into international curriculum, international schools, evaluation of
institutions and educational programmes, and intergenerational service learning.

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