IB MYP Individuals and Societies: Global contexts in MYP Individuals and Societies – Study Guide

This study guide is for IB MYP Individuals and Societies and follows the IB MYP Individuals and societies guide (for use from September 2014/January 2015; published May 2014, updated April 2021). It teaches the six global contexts, the example statements of inquiry the guide gives, and how a global context frames a unit and an investigation. It suits MYP years 4 and 5; there is no SL/HL split in the MYP.

MYP has no prescribed content list. Schools design their own units; what every school shares is the framework of key concepts, related concepts and the six global contexts.

Use this guide with the revision notes and the practice questions. The MYP Individuals and Societies hub lists every page for the course, and the printable checklist helps you track progress.

What this unit covers

Area	What you should be able to do
The six global contexts	Name all six and explain what each one asks you to think about
What the guide requires	Say what teachers must do with a global context, and which context most I&S inquiries use
Statements of inquiry	Identify the key concept, related concepts and global context in a statement, and write your own
Framing a unit	Show how the same topic changes when you change the context
Criterion B	Use the global context to justify why a research question matters

What a global context is

A global context is the real-world angle of a unit. The key concept tells you which big idea you are thinking with (for example, change). The global context tells you why the inquiry matters to people and to the planet. The guide says global contexts point learning towards our common humanity and “shared guardianship of the planet”.

The guide lists six global contexts for Individuals and Societies:

1. identities and relationships
2. orientation in space and time
3. personal and cultural expression
4. scientific and technical innovation
5. globalization and sustainability
6. fairness and development

Three rules from the guide matter for you:

• Every unit has one. Teachers must identify a global context for a unit, or develop an additional context of their own. Its job is to show the relevance of the inquiry – why it matters.
• One context is the usual home of I&S. The guide notes that many inquiries in this subject focus on orientation in space and time.
• The others are encouraged. Teachers are encouraged to give you units in the other five contexts too.

The guide does not give a set list of I&S topics for each context; the plain-language descriptions below are ours. The guide’s own examples come from its table of example statements of inquiry, and each of the six contexts appears in that table once.

The six contexts, one at a time

Identities and relationships

In plain terms: who people are, what they believe and value, and how individuals, groups and nations relate to one another.

The guide’s example: a statement about nations forming alliances to protect their military, cultural and economic interests. It pairs the key concept systems with the related concepts conflict and cooperation. Possible studies include the League of Nations and the United Nations, and peace and conflict from the Pax Romana to 20th-century wars.

Unit ideas:

• History: German unification, completed when the German Empire was proclaimed in January 1871. How did a shared language and culture help build a national identity, and who was left out?
• Geography: how a neighbourhood’s identity changes when new residents arrive and old businesses close.
• Economics: how friends, family and social media shape what teenagers buy – you as an economic agent.

Alliances sound like a “politics” topic, yet the guide frames them through identity. The context is the angle, not the topic.

Orientation in space and time

In plain terms: where and when things happen, turning points, and how people and places are connected across eras and distances.

The guide’s example: a statement about governments, communities and individuals developing strategies, over time, for living in hazardous environments and responding to disasters. It pairs the key concept global interactions with sustainability and management and intervention. Possible studies include risk assessment, duty of care, and rescue and reconstruction.

Unit ideas:

• History: the first transcontinental railroad in the United States, completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, in May 1869. A crossing that took months by wagon now took days. Who gained, and whose lands did it cross?
• Geography: the Dust Bowl on the US Great Plains in the 1930s. How did farming methods and drought combine over time?
• Economics: the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and the depression that followed. How did a crisis in one place spread to others?

Personal and cultural expression

In plain terms: how people express ideas, beliefs, values and identity, and how ideas spread, are adapted or are resisted.

The guide’s example: a statement that societies can adopt, adapt or resist significant ideas. It pairs the key concept change with power, innovation and revolution and significance. Possible studies include Lenin and Stalin, protest movements, the Green Revolution, consumer culture, and political and economic ideologies.

Unit ideas:

• History: patronage of art and architecture by the Medici family in Renaissance Florence. What did buildings and paintings say about power?
• Geography: murals, festivals and street names as ways a community claims a place.
• Economics: advertising and consumer culture. How do brands sell an identity as well as a product?

Scientific and technical innovation

In plain terms: how people use science and technology to change their environments, economies and societies, and who gains or loses.

The guide’s example: a statement that advances in communication and transport technology bring opportunities and challenges for cultural and ethnic minorities. It pairs the key concept change with culture and diversity. Possible studies include social media, advertising, human migration and how languages are distributed.

Unit ideas:

• History: the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable, completed in 1866. News that had taken weeks by ship could now get a reply the same day. Who gained from faster news?
• Geography: satellite images and digital mapping. How do they change the way we monitor floods or forests?
• Economics: automation in a factory or supermarket. Which jobs disappear, which appear, and who decides?

The industrialization and technology page is a full unit that fits this context.

Globalization and sustainability

In plain terms: how local and global systems are linked, and the effects of human decisions on people and the environment, now and in the future.

The guide’s example: a statement that people’s views of globalization reflect their local circumstances and values. It pairs the key concept global interactions with relationships and power. Possible studies include multinational corporations, wealth and poverty, cultural imperialism and the World Bank.

Unit ideas:

• Geography: palm oil in Indonesia, which supplies about half of the world’s palm oil. Rainforest on Sumatra and Borneo has been cleared for plantations. Who gained, and who paid?
• Economics: the supply chain of a cotton T-shirt, from farm to shop. Where is value added, and where are the environmental costs?
• History: the Hanseatic League, a medieval trading network of northern European towns. What made early “global” trade work?

Fairness and development

In plain terms: rights and responsibilities, access to opportunity, inequality, and how societies share resources and settle disputes.

The guide’s example: a statement that absolute and relative location affect human and economic development. It pairs the key concept time, place and space with scale and disparity. Possible studies include latitude and longitude, GPS, population and the UN Human Development Index.

Unit ideas:

• History: Britain’s Slave Trade Act of 1807 and Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Who campaigned, who resisted, and why did abolition take so long?
• Geography: access to clean water in rural and urban areas of one country.
• Economics: how income inequality is measured, and whether a minimum wage reduces it.

For a full unit in this context, see rights and social protest.

How a global context frames a unit

The same topic can sit in different contexts. The context changes the questions you ask.

Topic: a coastal city after a major flood	Main question the context invites
Orientation in space and time	How has the city’s response to flooding changed over decades?
Fairness and development	Which neighbourhoods were hit hardest, and why were they less protected?
Scientific and technical innovation	Did new defences or warning systems reduce the damage?
Globalization and sustainability	How do rising sea levels link this city to choices made elsewhere?

A unit is built from three parts. Together they make a statement of inquiry – one sentence that sets the key concept and related concepts in the global context.

Worked example: building a statement of inquiry

Topic: the Wall Street Crash and the depression that followed.

1. Choose the key concept. Change – the economy moved from boom to slump.
2. Choose related concepts. Causality and interdependence – one market’s collapse caused others to fall.
3. Choose the global context. Orientation in space and time – the crisis is a turning point that spread across places.
4. Write one sentence that links them without naming the topic. “A crisis in one economy can spread across borders and change ordinary lives for years.”

Step 4 matters. A good statement is transferable: it could guide a unit on a different crisis too. If your sentence only makes sense for 1929, it is a fact, not a statement of inquiry.

Global contexts and Criterion B (Investigating)

By year 5, Criterion B has four strands. In our words, you:

• i. write a clear, focused research question and show why it is relevant
• ii. plan the investigation and stick to the plan
• iii. use suitable research methods to gather and record varied, relevant information
• iv. evaluate how the investigation went and what it found.

The global context does most of its work in strand i. The guide’s wording is to “justify its relevance”, which means saying why the question matters, and that is exactly what the context is for. The guide lists points to weigh when you judge a research question: relevance, manageability, originality, whether it can be assessed, availability of resources, your own interest and its link to the discipline.

Example (fairness and development, geography):

• Weak: “Is water access fair?” Too broad, with no place or measure.
• Better: “How far does access to piped water differ between two districts of my city, and what explains the gap?”
• Relevance, justified through the context: the question tests whether location affects access to a basic need – a fairness issue. Census tables and a short survey can answer it in the time allowed.

The context also guides strand iii. A fairness question needs data that compares groups. An orientation-in-space-and-time question needs evidence across dates. An identities question may need interviews. The criteria in practice guide shows what each criterion level looks like in full.

Common errors

• Naming the context but not using it. Writing “Global context: fairness and development” at the top and never asking a fairness question.
• Confusing the context with the key concept. Change is a key concept; orientation in space and time is a global context.
• A statement of inquiry that is just a fact. “Indonesia supplies about half of the world’s palm oil” is not transferable.
• Assuming one topic has one context. The guide’s own examples put alliances under identities and hazards under orientation in space and time.
• Thinking every I&S unit must be orientation in space and time. The guide says many are, and encourages the others.
• Relevance stated as personal interest only. “I find it interesting” is one of the guide’s points, but not a full justification.

Next steps

Test your recall with the revision notes, then try the practice questions. The subject guide gives the course overview.

Official syllabus

This page is aligned to the IB MYP Individuals and societies guide (for use from September 2014/January 2015; published May 2014, updated April 2021), published by the International Baccalaureate Organization. It draws on the guide’s sections on global contexts, statements of inquiry and the year 5 objectives and Criterion B descriptors.