Localisation of Educational Innovations:The Case of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

Abstract

This paper explores how localisation of educational innovations occurs by examining the adoption and implementation of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in local school contexts. The literature on the delivery of the three IB programmes (the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme and the Diploma Programme) suggests that school leaders would modify them in terms of educational content and curriculum delivery even though the IB organisation (IBO) provides schools with the same curriculum frameworks of international education. The findings of the research on the IBDP schools in New Zealand conducted by the author corroborated the literature. The study indicates that there were significant organisational variations among IBDP schools with regards to the modification of curriculum delivery structures. Four types of IBDP schools identified in the research were dual-pathway , modified dualpathway , add-on and IB-only schools. These distinctions in school types seem to be linked closely to how school leaders value, re-define and/or recontextualise the programme in terms of purpose and student selection, which may be illuminating the culture of each school community.