Geopolitics in the IB Programme

Year 12 and Year 13 IB students participated in a valuable lesson on geopolitics, developing an understanding of current global events and learning how to analyse information from various sources. One of the most important aspects of being a successful geographer is the ability to make links between the theories studied in the classroom and the events going on in the real world. Our geography teachers always seek to encourage students to develop themselves as global citizens by being aware of ‘the geography in the news’.

In Higher Level IB Geography, students have been learning about recent events in Russia and Ukraine. These lessons aimed to enhance students’ understanding of the roots of the current conflict by exploring how the unique geography of the region has shaped its history. Students developed their critical thinking, analysis and evaluation skills by examining a range of different sources including infographics, maps and graphs. They further identified short-term and long-term impacts, also determining whether these impacts were social, economic, or political and discussed the likely consequences of the conflict, both locally and globally.

The students were encouraged to develop their ability to synthesise topics by making links between the current conflict and other areas of the IB syllabus previously studied, such as forced migration and food insecurity. The students also examined some of the diplomatic, economic and civil society responses to the conflict. Throughout the lessons, students were reminded of the importance of treating all sources of information with a critical eye, assessing their reliability and potential biases. These skills are something students are encouraged to develop throughout the whole of the IB Geography course.