This paper will report on a project investigating the learner attribute of 'caring' in teaching and learning at eight international schools in Europe, the Middle East, and Far East Asia. The project is framed around the work of Noddings (2002), who argues that an aim of a morally ethical curriculum is to develop a disposition of caring amongst young people. Her argument is that in order achieve this, schools must adopt practices that promote caring and provide opportunities for young people to demonstrate caring, and that this is best accomplished through the actions of modelling, dialogue, practice and confirmation. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from contrasting cultural settings, the paper will consider the ways in which ‘caring’ is articulated at school and classroom level, and how the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme allow teachers and students to make sense of caring. Comparisons will be drawn between the three IB programmes, and between the ‘large’ and ‘small’ cultures (Holliday, 1999) manifest in the study.