IB Community Theme: Sharing our humanity

The IB community now includes more than 2370 schools, 644,000 students, teachers, parents, staff and examiners and other colleagues in 128 countries.

In an effort to strengthen this large and growing community and the IB mission, which we share, the IB has initiated an exciting new project— the IB community theme. The idea of a community theme was conceived in 2006 and the first theme: sharing our humanity, was officially launched in April 2007 at the annual general meeting. The theme, lasting three years, is intended to serve as a focus for the IB and IB World Schools, to capture the excellent initiatives that are already underway in many schools and encourage and inspire new activities, in and out of the classroom, around the following topics:

• Global poverty
• Peace and conflict
• Education for all
• Global infectious diseases
• Digital divide - uneven access to information and communication technologies
• Disasters and emergencies

(Adapted from "High Noon” by J.F Rischard, 2002)

While participation is entirely voluntary, the IB encourages all IB World Schools to become involved, as the aim of the project is to engage the whole IB community, including parents, students, and all those working in schools, or working with or for the IB. IB World Schools can explore and address the IB community theme individually or with other IB World Schools. This can be done through:

• regular classroom teaching—by adjusting the focus of normal classroom work within the existing curriculum framework
• special projects
• community service.

The IB community theme provides IB World Schools with opportunities to bring together two or three IB programmes, engaging all students on a common topic, for example, global poverty. It also gives IB World Schools the opportunity to involve non-IB students in the school in an IB-related activity.

It is suggested that schools approach the topics of the IB community theme through guiding questions, pitched to the level of students, for example:

• What do we mean by poverty?
• What are the causes of poverty?
• Does it matter that some people are much poorer than others?
• Why do countries fight?
• How do conflicts arise?
• How are conflicts resolved?
• What can we learn from our everyday experience of resolving conflicts within our own lives?
• Can we apply our experience of resolving conflicts within our own lives to resolving large-scale conflicts (for instance, between countries or warring groups within countries)?
• What is terrorism?
• Terrorist or freedom-fighter – is there a real difference between the two or is it just perception?
• Is education for all a right?
• Does improved education help to remove people from poverty?
• What are the implications of uneven access to digital technology?
• Is a “natural disaster” only a disaster if it affects people?
• How can the effects of natural disasters be mitigated?
• What are the links between disease and poverty?
• Why are some diseases common in some parts of the world and eradicated elsewhere?
• What actions are being taken to address the global issues of the theme?
• What can we do, individually, to play our part in responding to these issues?

This site has been developed to help schools to integrate activities around this theme into school life … and to share results, successes and stories with the global IB community.

The IB will do the same, for example through conference themes, articles in IB World and in the Online Curriculum Centre. Our aim is to focus and direct our collective efforts in a way that unites our work and builds connections across the whole IB community as we engage with these important global issues.

Two introductory Powerpoint presentations on the IB community theme for use in schools are attached.

Presentation 24 June 08 is a longer version, and requires a presenter to click to move slides.

Stand alone July 08 is a shorter version with fewer slides and built-in slide changes and lasts 8 minutes.