International Baccalaureate Language and Culture Course
In 2025, Ivanhoe Grammar School became the first school in Australia to pilot the International Baccalaureate Language and Culture course for Year 11 and 12. In April 2026, the inaugural cohort completed their final IB examinations in the subject.
The IB Diploma Programme Language and Culture course is an interdisciplinary subject that explores the dynamic relationship between language, culture, identity and power. At Ivanhoe, the course is delivered through a distinctive pedagogical model grounded in experiential, inquiry-based learning. Rather than approaching language as an abstract system, students engage with it as a lived cultural practice, shaped through immersion, reflection and intercultural exchange.
At the centre of the programme is a four-month learning sequence culminating in a major fieldwork experience. For many students, this takes the form of an on-Country immersion in the Dampier Peninsula in the west Kimberley, where they spend time with Bardi-Jawi people and engage directly with language, culture and Country. Alternatively, students may undertake other fieldwork opportunities, including participation in the Cambodia Service Trip or the design of independent, student-led inquiries. Across all opportunities, the emphasis remains on direct engagement, ethical intercultural exchange and learning through experience.
As an educational offering, Language and Culture is distinguished by its integration of rigorous academic study with transformative, real-world learning. The work of Ivanhoe’s Language and Culture students has received international recognition. Senior Manager IB World Schools, Rémy Lamon, presented Ivanhoe student work at the IB Global Conferences in New Orleans and The Hague. In addition, Nicholas Mercer, Language and Culture teacher, presented on the programme at the ReimaginED Conference 2025 in Melbourne, further highlighting the innovation and impact of student learning within the course.
Nicholas Mercer
IB Coordinator, Language and Culture Teacher
Student reflections
Before taking Language and Culture, I had very little knowledge of what linguistic anthropology even was, now I feel like I’ve gained a completely new perspective on how something as mundane as language shapes people, communities, music, education and power dynamics within our daily lives. That’s why writing the autoethnography was the highlight of the course for me, as going on the Cambodia trip with my Language and Culture knowledge reframed my experience entirely.
Language and Culture provided me with an insightful understanding of cultures and perspectives that I may not have otherwise encountered. The course’s in-depth exploration of Indigenous Australian communities, such as the Yanyuwa and Bardi, deepened my cultural awareness and broadened my understanding of how different communities perceive, connect with and interpret the land on which they live.
Completing the Language and Culture course was a unique and rewarding experience. I particularly enjoyed learning about translanguaging and bicultural identity, as it allowed me to apply the concepts we learned in class to my own personal cultural experiences.
The Language and Culture course has deepened my understanding of how language shapes identity and power in ways I hadn’t previously considered. Exploring texts like The Yield and In My Blood It Runs using terms such as ‘hegemony’ and ‘symbolic power’ has given me a new understanding of certain power structures in Australian society.
The Language and Culture course challenged many of the ways in which I viewed language and the social hierarchies which constrain our power within the contemporary world. It was a breath of fresh air compared to my other courses, and it quickly became one of my favourite subjects in the IB Programme.
