International Baccalaureate · IB Diploma
Social and Cultural Anthropology · HL
Papers, samples and curriculum documents for this course.
Course units and learning goals
These lessons teach selected course objectives. Check the remaining coverage gaps; the material is not a complete preparation programme.
Engaging with anthropology · Concepts, culture and reflexivity
- Distinguish emic and etic interpretations
- Use concepts to analyse ethnographic evidence and reflect on the observer
- emic
- Understanding social life through participants' meanings.
- reflexivity
- Examining how the researcher's position influences knowledge.
Inquiry groups 1–3 · Reading and comparing ethnographies
- Connect a key concept, inquiry area and contemporary issue
- Compare ethnographic arguments with attention to context, method and ethics
- ethnography
- A research-based account and analysis of social life.
- reciprocity
- Exchange understood through ongoing social obligations.
Anthropological practice · Ethical fieldwork and analysis
- Design a focused observation with consent and privacy
- Separate description, interpretation and critical reflection in SL limited fieldwork or HL inquiry
- fieldwork
- Research conducted in the social setting being studied.
- informed consent
- Voluntary agreement based on understanding the research.
HL extension · Theory and competing interpretations
- Apply and evaluate anthropological theories
- Compare interpretations using ethnographic evidence and researcher position
- theory
- An explanatory framework used to interpret evidence.
- power
- Capacity to influence actions, relationships or outcomes.
Preparing for this qualification
- SL: unseen-text Paper 1 90 min 40%, ethnography Paper 2 90 min 40%, limited fieldwork 20%. HL: Paper 1 120 min 30%, Paper 2 150 min 45%, fieldwork 25%.
- Select one inquiry area from each of three groups at SL; HL adds a fourth and theory extension. Teacher selects real ethnographies; classroom vignettes below are original teaching cases, not ethnographic publications.
Teaching coverage still needed
- School-selected ethnographies and three/four inquiry areas need complete teaching, source-based practice and full-guide theory/fieldwork verification.
- Reviewed runtime bank remains unavailable; no practice registry promotion.
Specifications and sample documents
- Social and Cultural Anthropology — Subject brief · 2019 ↗
First assessment: 2019
Course materials
Course preparation
Documents are available. Board-specific notes, assessments and interactive past-paper practice are not yet available for every course.
Lessons →