regulars

are now defended by a militancy which has encouraged witch hunts against anybody who may not have used the correct jargon or who may choose to adopt a wider perspective. Lecturers can even be called out for failing to immunise their students against opposing views, and may be forced by student protest to change their teaching content where facts are deemed to be offensive or upsetting. The individual right to take offence is now paramount on some campuses and the right to give offence is being outlawed by new academic rules.

Meanwhile, in schools and particularly those schools which teach a form of critical thinking, the opposite trend can be observed. Rather than allowing school students to become victims of the new offence culture, teachers can use incidents of it where it is seen to occur both as a warning and as a tool. The Theory of Knowledge (ToK) core component of the IB Diploma programme rewards students not only for understanding and examining why they have chosen a particular perspective, but also for taking the perspectives of others into account. It seeks to separate opinion based on prejudice and ignorance from informed opinion based on full review of facts from a variety of media. It aspires to identify the truth as the most plausible explanation, not the most popular or most loudly held one. It holds up to the spotlight fallacy, invalidity and falsehood, and demolishes them by using the full array of tools passed down in the forms of logic, structured argument, experiment, reflection and empirical observation. It recognises the centrality of belief but notes that both truth and justification need to be added to it in order to elevate it to the status of knowledge. Most important of all, it treats all knowledge claims with a reasoned scepticism based on a hierarchy of reliability.

So what happens when the IB student graduates to a university where safe spaces, no-platforming and intellectual mob rule prevail? Does it become an opportunity to put into practice what had previously been a mere classroom exercise, or do fear and natural desire to conform take precedence? The answer of course is that it will vary from student to student.

Of equal importance is what voice the International Baccalaureate will bring to this debate. In seeking quite rightly to nurture a generation of open-minded and inquisitive students prepared for the rigours of a university education, how can it ensure that its own values are not subsequently undermined? Firstly, there should be a call for research to determine how critical thinking is continued and encouraged at universities, and how much the university authorities actually value it as a criterion for effective learning and positive thought. Secondly, the IB should endeavour to highlight academic practice wherever it seems to go against freedom of thought and expression. And thirdly, it should be challenging such practices wherever they occur as inimical to a moral and fact-based modern education.

In addition to its core component (Theory of Knowledge (ToK), Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) and the Extended Essay), the IB Diploma programme boasts of its Learner Profile, an Aristotelian list of virtues for right action and a moral life. Amongst other attributes, risk–taking and open–mindedness are regarded as essential. In fact, these two qualities are becoming largely absent from the expectations that some universities now have of their own students. It is a strange possibility that our school leavers may have something useful to impart to the university departments they are joining. They might become the new ambassadors to ensure that the light of reason is not extinguished, and that the spirit of Voltaire and the Enlightenment is kept alive. The IB should watch this space.

Paul Regan has worked as a headteacher in countries including Kenya, Ukraine, Bosnia Herzegovina and India. He is also a teacher of Theory of Knowledge in the IB Diploma Programme. Email: paul.regan@oaktree.ac.in

Forthcoming Conferences

May 6-8, COBIS Annual Conference, London, UK. May 28-June 2, NAFSA Annual Conference, Los Angeles, US. July 20-23, IB Americas Regional Conference, Orlando, US. July 30-August 5, IB World Student Conference, Rochester, US. August 6-12, IB World Student Conference, London, UK. October 6-8, Alliance for International Education World Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands (see pages 52-53). October 26-28, IB Global Conference, The Hague, Netherlands. October 26-28, EARCOS Leadership Conference, Bangkok, Thailand.