The Reasons Why Schools Adopt the International Baccalaureate Programmes: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review literature on the reasons for the adoption of the International Baccalaureate (hereafter called IB) programmes by school leaders around the world. The result of this literature review suggests that there are significant variations among IB schools in the world with regard to why they decided to use the IB programmes. School leaders seem to adopt the IB programmes for various reasons beyond the IB foundersʼ original intentions, which include: fostering internationalism in a school community; being accountable to stakeholders and local authorities; and gaining competitive advantage in an education (or a quasi-education) market. The findings of this study should remind researchers, as well as parents and other stakeholders, that discussing the IB programmes by putting all IB schools in one basket may lead to misunderstanding. School leaders of each IB schools have their own motives as well as strategies for using the IB programmes that reflect the social, political and economic circumstances in the regions where the schools are situated.