Internationalising national schools: the incorporation of International Baccalaureate in Argentina, Costa Rica and Ecuador

Government initiatives to adopt the International Baccalaureate (IB) in public secondary schools signal an intensifying process of both internationalisation and privatisation within Latin American education systems. This article examines how bureaucratic and centralised education systems, shaped by New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG) agendas, incorporate an international programme as a strategy to improve educational outcomes and/or democratise access to high-quality education. Using a global comparative approach and actor-network theory, we analyse how the IB is translated and embedded into national structures and curricula in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Based on documentary analysis and 72 interviews with governmental officials, IBO representatives, IB association members, and school staff, the study traces the construction of national IB networks and shows how their strength or fragility shapes the integration of the Diploma Programme in public schools. The findings demonstrate that the pathways of IB incorporation vary according to each country’s socio-political context and prevailing modes of governance: a bureaucratic-professional and anti-neoliberal mode in Buenos Aires, a post-bureaucratic NGO-ising mode in Costa Rica, and a post-bureaucratic evaluative mode in Ecuador.