International Schools Offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in Asia: A Catalyst for a New Elite Education System
摘要
Since the 2000s, there has been a rapid increase in schools adopting the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) as their curriculum in Asia. This chapter focuses on “international schools” that implement the IBDP to illustrate how they have emerged as a new elite system, serving as feeder schools for globally prestigious universities. It also seeks to explore how the rise of these international schools in the region is complicating the existing educational stratification and to discuss the educational implications of this phenomenon. Specifically, this chapter covers the following: First, it demonstrates how quickly these schools have been growing in the region. Second, it analyzes why these schools are preferred in the region, despite their high cost. Third, it demonstrates that the schools have paved a pathway to global prestigious universities but questions the effectiveness of these schools. Fourth, it discusses educational implications that these schools are considerably inaccessible to ordinary people with average financial capital, emphasizing that these schools have appropriated the IBDP with an elitist character and a commodified educational service. Finally, it critically reviews the educational practices of these schools and their oligopolistic status in the process of “difference production” in the global education market.