As Diploma Programme Coordinator you need to ensure that the school collects evidence against the following IB standards and practices.

• The school develops and promotes international-mindedness and all attributes of the IB learner profile across the school community.
• The written curriculum promotes students’ awareness of individual, local, national and world issues.
• The written curriculum provides opportunities for reflection on human commonality, diversity and multiple perspectives.
• Teaching and learning addresses human commonality, diversity and multiple perspectives.
• Teaching and learning addresses the diversity of student language needs, including those for students learning in a language(s) other than mother tongue.

• Use the indicators from Programme standards and practices (see above in the key issues section on this page) to access how well you are embedding international mindedness in your school.
• Create an action plan to improve the development of international mindedness in your school. Make sure you consider all three aspects: intercultural understanding, global engagement and multilingualism.

Defining international mindedness

In groups of 5-10.

Consider the following facets of ‘international-mindedness’. Organize the statements into a Diamond 9 with the most important aspect being at the top.

• Being open to different outlooks and world views
• Ability to understand different cultural contexts ands viewpoints
• Being able to take yourself away from the center of what is right and acceptable.
• Demonstrating respect for others
• Not to narrow minded
• Multilingual
• Knowing where you stand in relation to cultural relativism – being able to substantiate your cultural position
• Ability to work in diverse teams
• A declining sense of egocentricity
• Ability to adjust communication
• Adapts to different cultures
• The oneness of humanity
• Aware of own culture
• A critical examination of oneself and one’s traditions
• Concern and ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a different person.
• Being globally engaged – a commitment to address humanity’s greatest 21^st century challenges
• Examine the ideas of others that challenge their own beliefs
• Go beyond mere tolerance and acceptance
• Enjoy the complexity of ambiguity
• Nonetheless reach rational conclusions

Reflect

• On what criteria did you decide which statements to include in the 9 and which to leave out?
• How did you order your statements?
• What conclusions did you reach in your discussion?

The danger of the single story

• Listen to this TED Talk in which the Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie warns that we risk culturally misunderstanding people when we forget that everyone's lives and identities are composed of many overlapping stories.
• How does Chimamanda Adichie describe herself?
• As you listen select the most powerful thing she says and share in plenary with your group.
• As you listen pick out essentialist and non-essentialist understandings of culture.

Click here if you would like to access the transcript to this TED Talk.

A good follow-on reflection is to show Our DNA story.

It’s easy to think there are more things dividing us than uniting us. But we actually have much more in common with other nationalities than you’d think.  To celebrate diversity in the world momondo (http://momon.do/Lets.Open.Our.World) presents The DNA Journey: a journey into who we are and how we are all connected as a global family. They asked 67 people from all over the world to take a DNA test, and it turns out they have much more in common with other nationalities than they would ever have thought.

• Watch The DNA Journey.
• Use the  See, Think, Wonder routine for exploring the film:
• What do you see?
• What do you think about what you see?
• What do you wonder? What questions do you want to ask?