This paper is an exploration of how inquiry learning is enacted in different cultural contexts across contrasting national settings in international schools in China, Mexico, Russia, Kenya and England. This paper’s exploration of inquiry-led learning is based on data collected from a research project examining the impact of the ‘Exhibition’ of the International Baccalaureate Organisation’s (IBO) Primary Years Programme (PYP). The PYP is implemented in 1266 primary schools in 106 countries (IBO, 2013), and culminates in the PYP Exhibition, an extended piece of inquiry-led learning conducted by 10-12 year olds on an issue of their choice.

The notion of ‘inquiry’ is central to the pedagogical approach and curriculum articulated in the IB but it is currently a very controversial approach to student learning and curriculum construction. The policy background of many countries is currently influenced by the PISA, PIRLs and TIMSS results, leading to a rise in accountability and assessment, which has had a “washback effect” on curriculum. This has included increased specification of knowledge to be learnt. Many jurisdictions appear to have retreated during this early part of the 21^st century to a reductionist model of a knowledge-centred curriculum, often drawing inspiration from such theorists as Hirsch (1987), whose ‘cultural literacy’ approach is centred around a centralised definition of what counts as knowledge for students, rather than a more organic conception of knowledge led by student interest.

The power of an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning lies in its potential to increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of a hands-on, minds-on and ‘research-based disposition’ towards learning. IB students learn to use this approach to develop as knowledgeable inquirers, thinkers and risk takers. An approach through inquiry recognises the complex, interconnected nature of knowledge construction, and provides opportunities for both teachers and students to collaboratively build, test and reflect on their learning (Lüddecke, 2015).

It has also been argued that the ‘knowledge society’ that we now live in requires new thinking about what constitutes effective and engaging teaching and learning (Cho et al., 2015). We would also argue that, especially in the context of rapid growth of international schools, contemporary education demands an international perspective. Teachers are now faced with the challenge that “former conceptions of knowledge, minds and learning no longer serve a world where what we know is less important that what we are able to do with knowledge in different contexts.” (Friesen, 2009, p.3). The IB programmes represent one of the few, current, centrally-sanctioned attempts to put student inquiry at the heart of the teaching-learning process.

Drawing on a conception of inquiry-led learning as collaborative and constructive of knowledge (Bacon & Matthews, 2014; Lüddecke, 2015), and Thomas and Brown’s (2011) suggestion that it is particularly relevant in our fast-evolving world, this paper asks to what extent inquiry-led learning is embedded in Western ‘cultures of learning’ (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006), and examines the ways in which it is enacted in “international” schools.

This paper reports on the factors that facilitate and inhibit this form of learning in four different countries across four continents – Kenya, Russia, China, England and Mexico. The data collected for this study include a survey of students following the PYP in six case-study schools, as well as focus groups with 8-10 students in each school. Interviews with parents, teachers and curriculum leaders complement this student data to enable the contrasting views of different stakeholders about inquiry-led learning to be explored. 

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