The International Baccalaureate: International Sensibilities, Global Mobility & Social Science Textbooks

This article builds upon research related to capital, migration, and education in its analysis of four social science textbooks from the history, economics, and business management courses taught as part of the International Baccalaureate Degree Programme (IBDP) at an international school in India. It illuminates how textbooks fulfill the IBDPs dual purpose of inculcating global-mindedness in students while also giving them the skills necessary to excel educationally and professionally. This article argues that these textbooks represent important sites of cultural and cosmopolitan capital that includes information and activities that facilitate students’ development of global sensibilities, while also enabling them to develop skills in public speaking, writing, literacy, critical thinking, as well as the ability to work as a team and independently. In addition to providing students with important forms of capital, these textbooks also help lead to a credential that helps facilitate students’ transnational mobility to well-resourced western universities, such as those in the United States. Because access to international schools that provide the IBDP in India remains limited to those from relatively affluent families, this article suggests that textbooks represent an important site of social reproduction within India; however, because it provides access to globally renowned universities to those who may otherwise not be able to attend, the IBDP represents an important source of potential social change in terms of educational inequality on a global level.