IB English A Lang & Lit Choosing Your Global Issue Notes

Step-by-Step: How to Craft a Strong Global Issue

1. Crafting a strong global issue matters because it’s the anchor of your entire IO.
   1. If it’s vague or weak, your analysis won’t hold up.
   2. Examiners want to see depth and real-world relevance, your issue should clearly connect your texts to something meaningful.
2. It also helps keep your presentation focused.
   1. A solid issue gives your analysis direction, so you don’t go off track.
   2. When the global issue is well thought out and specific, it makes extract selection, technique analysis, and point structure easier.

3. A precise global issue makes the rest of the IO more manageable.

Step 1: Understand the IB Definition

1. A global issue must:
   1. Be relevant across multiple regions or societies
   2. Significantly impact individuals or communities
   3. Arise in everyday or familiar contexts, not just extreme cases
2. IB's Five Categories
   1. Culture, identity & community
   2. Beliefs, values & education
   3. Politics, power & justice
   4. Art, creativity & imagination
   5. Science, technology & the environment

3. A global issue does not have to come from one of the IB's five categories and many strong IOs do not use them.

Step 2: Start Broad, Then Refine

1. Begin with a general theme, then narrow it down:
   1. Broad: Censorship
   2. Refined: The psychological consequences of state censorship on personal identity

Step 3: Link to Both Texts

1. Check that the issue is clearly present in both texts.
2. Check that techniques and authorial choices can be analysed through the issue.
3. Check whether the representations are comparable or contrasting.

Step 4: Phrase It Effectively

1. Frame the global issue as a specific, insightful topic:
   1. Strong: The impact of trauma on female agency in patriarchal societies
   2. Weak: Trauma

Step 5: Test for Depth

1. A strong global issue should allow for:
   1. Multiple perspectives (e.g. oppressed vs oppressor)
   2. Thematic nuance (e.g. control, resistance, moral ambiguity)
   3. Literary technique analysis (e.g. structure, symbolism, voice)

70 Global Issue Ideas

1. Culture, Identity & Community

1. Loss of cultural identity through assimilation
2. Generational conflict in migrant families
3. Identity fragmentation in diasporic communities
4. Social exclusion due to language and accent
5. Cultural erasure through colonisation
6. Stigma against hybrid or mixed identities
7. Displacement and identity crisis in refugees
8. Cultural rituals as a source of resistance
9. The commodification of minority traditions
10. Tension between national and ethnic identity

2. Beliefs, Values & Education

1. Indoctrination in authoritarian education systems
2. Conflicts between traditional values and modern ethics
3. Education as a tool of social mobility or control
4. Suppression of dissenting ideas in academic institutions
5. Generational shifts in moral belief systems
6. The role of literature in shaping ethical worldviews
7. The impact of moral relativism on social cohesion
8. The manipulation of faith for political gain
9. Value formation through trauma and survival
10. The effect of silence and taboo in moral education

3. Politics, Power & Justice

1. Normalisation of surveillance and loss of privacy
2. Political propaganda and historical revisionism
3. Legal discrimination based on race or gender
4. Censorship as a tool of authoritarian control
5. The moral ambiguity of revolutionary violence
6. The role of power in shaping justice systems
7. The fragility of truth in political discourse
8. Public apathy in the face of injustice
9. Structural violence against marginalised groups
10. The collapse of democracy through fear and manipulation

4. Art, Creativity & Imagination

1. The tension between art and censorship
2. The weaponisation of narrative in propaganda
3. The role of art in preserving cultural memory
4. Ethical dilemmas in representing trauma
5. The romanticisation of suffering in art
6. The artist's struggle between expression and responsibility
7. Narratives as tools of resistance under oppression
8. The commodification of creativity in capitalist societies
9. Marginalised voices in mainstream art
10. Art as a vehicle for reclaiming identity

5. Science, Technology & the Environment

1. The psychological impact of digital surveillance
2. Displacement caused by climate change
3. The ethical limits of scientific experimentation
4. Inequality in access to digital infrastructure
5. Loss of privacy in the age of social media
6. The use of AI in reinforcing social bias
7. Technological progress versus environmental sustainability
8. Climate injustice in the Global South
9. Exploitation of natural resources in postcolonial regions
10. Technology's role in shaping modern relationships

Here are additional examples beyond the five categories. Use them to generate more specific global issues.

6. Work, Class & Economic Inequality

1. The invisibility of working-class struggles in literature
2. Emotional labour and unpaid domestic work
3. The impact of economic precarity on mental health
4. Class barriers in accessing education and opportunity
5. Exploitation in global supply chains
6. Wealth as a determinant of social legitimacy
7. Class-based discrimination in the legal system
8. The glamorisation of wealth and consumption
9. Generational poverty and systemic barriers
10. Urban poverty and identity fragmentation

7. Gender, Bodies & Sexuality

1. Gendered expectations and emotional repression
2. The objectification of female bodies in literature and media
3. The erasure of non-binary identities in traditional narratives
4. Sexual violence and societal silence
5. The commodification of beauty standards
6. Patriarchy and the denial of female autonomy
7. Homophobia embedded in cultural norms
8. Sexual agency versus social control
9. Toxic masculinity and its consequences
10. Female sexuality as a threat to societal norms