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Significant on a large scale, daily impact, world-wide
Throughout your course, you will explore global issues. Units of inquiry may encourage you to explore a global issue and your learner portfolio may be organised by global issues. Furthermore, you will explore how a global issue is represented in both a literary work and a non-literary text on your individual oral.
But what, exactly, is a global issue? A global issue has three qualities:
transnational
significant
relevant to local contexts
Many issues meet these three criteria, from 'coming of age' to 'climate change'.
The IB has outlined 5 'fields of inquiry' under which global issues should fall. These are broad areas of study and rather abstract in nature.
Fields of inquiry
Fields of inquiry
Culture, identity and community
Family, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender and sexuality, and the way these impact on individuals and societies. Students might also focus on issues concerning migration, colonialism and nationalism.
Beliefs, values and education
Beliefs and values nurtured in particular societies and the ways they shape individuals, communities and educational systems. Tensions that arise when there are conflicts of beliefs and values, and ethics.
Politics, power and justice
Rights and responsibilities, the workings and structures of governments and institutions. Hierarchies of power, the distribution of wealth and resources, the limits of justice and the law, equality and inequality, human rights and peace and conflict.
Art, creativity and the imagination
Aesthetic inspiration, creation, craft, and beauty. The shaping and challenging of perceptions through art, and the function, value and effects of art in society.
Science, technology and the environment
The relationship between humans and the environment and the implications of technology and media for society. Scientific development and progress.
In selecting the global issue for their oral, students must be careful not simply to select from the broad fields of inquiry above, but to determine a specific issue for discussion that can be reasonably explored.
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