What are the beliefs and values that drive the PYP?

What do we believe international education to be?

A driving force behind the PYP is a deeply held philosophy about the nature of international education, a philosophy expressed in the statements that follow. Firstly, the mission statement of the IBO expresses the IBO's overall purpose as an organization promoting and developing programmes of international education. Secondly, the section "International-mindedness: the PYP perspective" sets out our beliefs and values as defined by the outcomes of student learning in PYP schools. The IBO defines this learning through a learner profile that encompasses the aims of the curriculum.

Additionally, this section goes on to identify policies and practices within our schools that are worth examining and developing further as we strive to become ever more internationally minded communities of learners.

The Mission Statement of the International Baccalaureate Organization

The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

International-mindedness: the PYP perspective

In the PYP, the attempt to define international-mindedness in increasingly clear terms, and the struggle to move closer to that ideal in practice, are central to the mission of PYP schools.

Given the variety and complexity of PYP schools, and the elusive nature of the concept itself, it would be naive to propose any simple definition and expect it to stand up to rigorous examination. Rather, the IBO would suggest that the definition is compound, reflecting a range of interrelated factors that are discussed throughout this document.

However, in examining these factors during the years since the inception of the PYP, one aspect of PYP schools emerges, not only as the most compelling, but also as the common ground on which PYP schools stand, the essence of what they are about. This is the kind of student we hope will graduate from a PYP school, the kind of student who, in the struggle to establish a personal set of values, will be laying the foundation upon which international-mindedness will develop and flourish. The attributes of such a learner are listed in the learner profile. The learner profile is central to the PYP definition of what it means to be internationally minded, and it directs schools to focus on the learning. IB World Schools should be proud to send out into the world students who exemplify the attributes expressed in this profile.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007