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Mike Allan, who tragically died in January after a very long battle with cancer, was an extraordinary man. Born in the UK, making his home later in Brazil and the Netherlands, he was a teacher of unique warmth and perception. His writings about International Education were impeccably argued and presented, his workshops for the IB and for ECIS were stimulating and inspiring, and his personal charisma opened eyes and hearts wherever he worked. Illness made him value time, and he retired with his wife, Graciete, to Brazil. In the years he was granted his lucid thinking and the warmth he shared with his friends have left marks which will not be forgotten. This article is reprinted in his memory...
Richard Pearce
In reading the mission statements of most international schools, we are likely to find, as well as their academic philosophy, what might be called an international ideology, ideas such as encouraging international understanding, world-mindedness, cultural flexibility and so on. We would be very surprised to find the lack of a monitoring and evaluation system for stated academic aims, but our author's researches have found very little evidence of coherent policy and evaluation for ideological outcomes.
As McCabe says, 'It is troubling to find that the existing literature is quick to extol the virtues of a "global perspective" without discussing how such a perspective is established' (McCabe, 1997 p44). Intercultural learning seems to be left to chance, in the belief that it will occur in the exposure students receive to the 'international environment' of the host culture and the different national cultures of students and teachers. Intercultural learning, however, does not just happen when different cultural groups are put together. Indeed, various societies around the world give us discouraging examples of just the opposite.
School effectiveness and improvement theory has been used to examine inputs, compare outcomes, and more recently, to examine the process involved in academic learning. In trying to determine the school effect in this, the inputs and outcomes of intercultural learning are much less easy to define and evaluate. An examination of the process involved would be more productive and, in view of the myriad and differing natures of international schools and their populations, more valid.
This article describes such an investigation...