The Global Imaginary of International School Communities

This book offers a new perspective into the world of international schools and the lucrative industry that accompanies it. It examines how the notion of the 'global' becomes a successful commodity, an important social imaginary and a valuable identity marker for these communities of privileged migrants and host country nationals. The author invites the reader on an ethnographic journey through an international school community located in Germany illuminating the central features that define and maintain the sector, including its emphasis on 'globality', engagement with the concept of 'Third Culture Kid', and its wider contentious relationship with the 'local'. While much attention is placed on 'global citizenship', international school communities experience degrees of isolation, limited mobility, over-protection and dependency on the school community impacting their everyday lives, inside and outside the school. This book is guided by larger questions pertaining to the educationand mobilities of 'migrant' youths and young adults, as well as the notion of what it means to be 'global' today.

Provides a deliberate, systematic review of the vast international school sector Uses the term, 'Global Imaginary' in a new way to understand and advance the international school sector Contextualises how the idea of 'the global' is systematically constructed as both an inclusive and exclusive concept that benefits the sector and impacts the communities it serves

Autorentext

Heather A. Meyer is a Teaching Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning at Warwick University, UK. She specialises in interdisciplinary research and education and has worked in various educational contexts in the United States, Austria, Kuwait, Germany and the U.K.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Constructing the Global Imaginary.- 3. Boundaries and the Exclusion of the 'Local'.- 4. Mapping the Culture of International Schools.- 5. A Global Network.- 6. Transitioning Through the International School System.- 7. Moving Forward: Reconstructing the Global Imaginary.