Core: The Knower

The core theme—knowledge and the knower—provides an opportunity for students to reflect on what shapes their perspective as a knower, where their values come from, and how they make sense of, and navigate, the world around them. Importantly, this theme does not focus exclusively on the individual knower.

It also considers aspects such as the impact of the different communities of knowers to which we belong, and how knowledge is constructed, critically examined, evaluated and renewed by communities and individuals. This includes reflection on how our interactions with others and with the material world shape our knowledge. This theme encourages careful and critical consideration of claims, provoking students to reflect on how we distinguish between claims that are contestable and claims that are not. It highlights the importance of not simply accepting claims at face value, and then explores how this can be reconciled with a recognition that many situations require us to make decisions without possessing absolute certainty.

The core theme has been explicitly designed to provide rich opportunities for teachers and students to make links to the IB learner profile. Students are encouraged to consider both the power and the limitations of the tools that they have at their disposal as knowers and thinkers, and to become more aware of their own biases and assumptions. They could also consider what it really means to be open-minded or consider the importance of caring about how knowledge is used and controlled.