The aspirations and expectations of the Individuals and Societies programme at CIS are:

• To connect with, and openly approach the world we live in as a means of developing empathy, understanding, and appreciation of diversity.
• To explore and evaluate a range of perspectives in order to understand ourselves as individuals and the implications of our interactions with the human and physical environment.
• To develop an understanding of the past, its influences on the present, and the implications for the future.
• To provide opportunities for students to look at, and think about, human behaviour and activity realistically, objectively, and with sensitivity.
• To foster agency and socially responsible action by allowing learners to experience the impact of their choices and opinions.

How do we teach Individuals and Societies?

Teaching and learning in Individuals and Societies is most powerful when:

• It inspires action, purpose and celebration.
• It draws upon learners’ prior knowledge and experience.
• It fosters transfer between disciplines and the real world.
• It models and develops the skills of questioning, research, reflection and effective communication.
• It engages learners in understanding the interdependence of individuals, societies and the environment.
• It is responsive to pivotal moments and evolving social, political and cultural developments, causes and movements.

The experience of Individuals and Societies at CIS is one which:

• Develops learners who are equipped and willing to take action to make a difference.
• Enables learners to be flexible, independent thinkers, capable of understanding and evaluating a diversity of world views.
• Fosters a mindset that promotes justice and equity.
• Challenges learners to think critically about the source of their knowledge and themselves as contributors to the bank of knowledge.
• Cultivates ethical learners, empowered to identify and consider innovative resolutions to ‘wicked problems’.