Nationally organized education systems are the accepted model of public education worldwide, which however is challenged by transnational practices and institutions. (Adick 2005, p. 245). Since World War II and especially since the 1990s, an international education market has emerged in general education, where numerous education providers offer their services, amongst others the development and organization of curricula, teaching resources, consulting and certification of schools (Hornberg, 2012). One of these education providers is the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), which offers K1-12 education programs and with the International Baccalaureate (IB) a university entrance examination, which neither evolved from a national education system nor are they based on an international agreement.
The focus of the IBO educational objective is a school-leaving qualification and respective educational programs which are approved across national borders. Students attending IB classes are encouraged to adopt a global perspective and to engage in developing intercultural competencies for lifelong learning. The IB and IB programs can be completed in English, Spanish, French and parts of it also in German and Chinese. In January 2019, 5,271 schools in 143 countries worldwide offered the IB (cf. International Baccalaureate Organization 2019). In Germany there were 84 schools overall, of which 29 were public and 55 were private schools. The education courses of the IBO are fee required and can be completed at private as well as public schools. Schools wanting to provide the IB and IB programs for their students have to complete a cost-intensive certification process under the authority of the IBO.
Against the background of the concept “transnational educational spaces” (comp. Adick, 2008; Hornberg, 2010; 2012; 2014) the IB and IB education programs represent transnational educational spaces. Today the IB and IB Programs are not only present in the private education sector, but also in public education systems worldwide, and in Germany as well (Hornberg 2012). They function on already existing transnational convergences, are non-governmental, but always in some way privately financed, and imply national border-transcending education processes. Thus, with the International Baccalaureate, a private, non-public organization is interfering with the public school system, wanting to serve the same “customers” as the state education system. This has implications for the public school system, because with the IB in addition to the nation state a transnational organization takes on tasks that the nation state itself would normally take care of (Hornberg, 2012). The perspective of transnationalism referred to in this context deals with educational spaces that “on the one hand exceed the borders of national states and national societies, but on the other hand are not simply global in the sense of ubiquitous or >present in all important world regions<.” (Pries 2001, p. 49).
Educational research has dealt comparatively little with the IB and IB education programs. Corresponding topics were examined primarily by organizations close to the IBO. Due to the absence of respective empirical research, the project „Requirements for and Implementation of the International Baccalaureate in Germany - a Case Study at a Grammar School in North Rhine-Westphalia” aims at analyzing the outset and requirements identified for integrating the IB in a public school, the implementation process as well as advantages and shortcomings of this process. Aims and first results of the project will be presented and the following research questions discussed: Can and if so, in how far can transnational practices and institutions challenge the monopoly position of the state in organizing public education and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of transnational educational programs for a single school?
