Abstract
Abstract
While Singapore’s education system claims to implement meritocratic ideals, official statistics indicate that Malay students in Singapore have been underperforming when compared to other ethnic groups (MOE 2012). This statistical representation raises the possibility of a politically induced, systemic inequality as a point of investigation. To investigate this seeming contradiction between the rhetoric and practice of equal educational opportunity, this paper proposes a philosophical and analytical synthesis for examining the 1979 policy report that provides the fundamental basis for Singapore’s streaming education system. In examining this policy development, the analysis draws upon a combination of Foucault’s archaeological method and Critical Discourse Analysis as a way of understanding conditions that made possible the continuous re-construction of new but unequal representation of learners. The findings suggest that complex relations between capability identification, justice, and ethics set the conditions for the appearance and transformation of subject positions necessary to legitimise unequal structural access.
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Article metrics loading...
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.18070.tal
2019-06-25
2024-03-29
-
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.18070.tal
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
-contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
Full text loading...
References
-
Barr, Michael D. and Zlatko Skrbiš
2008 Constructing Singapore: elitism, ethnicity and the nation-building project. Copenhagen: NIAS.
[Google Scholar]
-
Bohm, David
1994 Thought as a system. London: Routledge.
[Google Scholar]
-
Chomsky, Noam
2013 On anarchism. New York: New Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Fairclough, Norman
1992 Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Fairclough, Norman
2001 Language and power (2nd ed.). Harlow: Longman.
[Google Scholar]
-
Feder, Ellen K.
2011 “Power/knowledge.” InMichel Foucault: key concepts, edited byDianna Taylor, 55–68. Durham: Acumen.
[Google Scholar]
-
Fairclough, Norman, Philip Graham, Jay Lemke, and Ruth Wodak
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405900410001674489
[Google Scholar]
-
Foucault, Michel
1972 The archaeology of knowledge; and The discourse on language. New York: Pantheon Books.
[Google Scholar]
-
Foucault, Michel
[Google Scholar]
-
Foucault, Michel
[Google Scholar]
-
Foucault, Michel
1991 “Politics and the study of discourse.” InThe Foucault effect: studies in governmentality: with two lectures and an interview with Michel Foucault, edited byGraham Burchell, Collin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 53–72. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Foucault, M.
2002 Archaeology of knowledge. New York: Routledge.
[Google Scholar]
-
General information
-
Gopinathan, Saravanan
1996 “Globalisation, the State and education policy in Singapore.”
Asia Pacific Journal of Education16 (1): 74–87. doi:
10.1080/02188799608542612
https://doi.org/10.1080/02188799608542612
[Google Scholar]
-
Graham, Linda J.
2011 “The product of text and ‘Other’ statements: Discourse analysis and the critical use of Foucault.”
Educational Philosophy and Theory43 (6): 663–674. doi:
10.1111/j.1469‑5812.2010.00698.x
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00698.x
[Google Scholar]
-
Hamilton, Mary and Kathy Pitt
2011 “Changing policy discourses: Constructing literacy inequalities.”
International Journal of Educational Development31 (6): 596–605. doi:
10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.02.011
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.02.011
[Google Scholar]
-
Krzyżanowski, Michal
2016 “Recontextualisations of neoliberalism and the increasingly conceptual nature of discourse: Challenges for critical discourse studies.”
Discourse and Society27 (3): 308–321. doi:
10.1177/0957926516630901
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926516630901
[Google Scholar]
-
Krzyżanowski, Michal and Ruth Wodak
2011 “Political strategies and language policies: The ‘rise and fall’ of the EU Lisbon strategy and its implications for the union’s multilingualism policy.”
Language Policy10 (2): 115–136. doi:
10.1007/s10993‑011‑9196‑5
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-011-9196-5
[Google Scholar]
-
Marshall, James D.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8662-7
[Google Scholar]
-
Mckee, Kim
2009 “Post-Foucauldian governmentality: What does it offer critical social policy analysis?”
Critical Social Policy29 (3): 465–486. doi:
10.1177/0261018309105180
https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018309105180
[Google Scholar]
-
Medina, José and David Wood
2005 “General Introduction.” In
Truth: Engagements across philosophical traditions, edited by
Medina, José and David Wood, 1–6. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
10.1002/9780470776407.part1
https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470776407.part1
[Google Scholar]
-
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education 1979 Report on the Ministry of Education 1978, prepared by Goh Keng Swee and the Education Study Team. Singapore: Singapore National Printers.
[Google Scholar]
-
Ministry of Education
[Google Scholar]
-
Ministry of Education
[Google Scholar]
-
Normal course curriculum
-
Ng, Eng Hen
2008 Educating the next generation. Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, at the 4th Anniversary Public Lecture at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, 14 August. Accessed
May 15, 2018.
www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/20080814992.pdf
[Google Scholar]
-
Ong, Ye Kung
[Google Scholar]
-
Ong, Ye Kung
[Google Scholar]
-
Peters, S.J.
(2007) “‘Education for all?’ A historical analysis of international inclusive education policy and individuals with disabilities”. Journal of Disability Policy Studies18(2): 98–108.
[Google Scholar]
-
Rahim, Lily Zubaidah
1998 The Singapore dilemma: The political and educational marginality of the Malay community. New York: Oxford University Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Rouse, Joseph
2005 “Power/knowledge.” In
The Cambridge companion to Foucault (2nd ed.), edited by
Gary Gutting, 95–122. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.1017/CCOL0521840821.005
https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521840821.005
[Google Scholar]
-
Secondary education
-
Soon, Teck Wong
1988 Singapore’s New Education System. Education reform for national development. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
[Google Scholar]
-
Talib, Nadira
2016 “Inequality as meritocracy: A critical discourse analysis of the metaphors of flexibility, diversity, and choice, and the value of truth in Singapore’s education policies, 1979 to 2012.” PhD diss., The University of Queensland.
-
Talib, Nadira and Richard Fitzgerald
2015 “Inequality as meritocracy. The use of the metaphor of diversity and the value of inequality within Singapore’s meritocratic education system.”
Critical Discourse Studies12 (4): 445–462. doi:
10.1080/17405904.2015.1034740
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2015.1034740
[Google Scholar]
-
Talib, Nadira and Richard Fitzgerald
2016 “Micro-meso-macro movements; A multi-level critical discourse analysis framework to examine metaphors and the value of truth in policy texts.”
Critical Discourse Studies13 (5): 531–547. doi:
10.1080/17405904.2016.1182932
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2016.1182932
[Google Scholar]
-
Talib, Nadira and Richard Fitzgerald
2018 “Putting philosophy back to work in critical discourse analysis.”
Critical Discourse Studies15 (2): 123–139. doi:
10.1080/17405904.2017.1421242
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2017.1421242
[Google Scholar]
-
Tan, Kenneth Paul
2008 “Meritocracy and elitism in a Global City: Ideological shifts in Singapore.”
International Political Science Review29 (1): 7–27. doi:
10.1177/0192512107083445
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512107083445
[Google Scholar]
-
Taylor, Sandra
2004 “Researching educational policy and change in ‘new times’: using critical discourse analysis.”
Journal of Education Policy19 (4): 433–451. doi:
10.1080/0268093042000227483
https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093042000227483
[Google Scholar]
-
Trew, Tony
1979 “ ‘What the papers say’: linguistic variation and ideological difference.” InLanguage and control, edited byRoger Fowler, Bob Hodge, Gunther Kress, and Tony Trew, 117–156. London: Routledge.
[Google Scholar]
-
van Dijk, Teun Adrianus
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006
[Google Scholar]
-
Walshaw, Margaret
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789087903145
[Google Scholar]
-
Wong, Aline
2000 Keynote address by Dr Aline Wong, Senior Minister of State for Education, Ministry of Education, Singapore, at the International Baccalaureate (IB) Asia-Pacific 16th annual regional conference on curriculum, assessment and cultural equity to be held on Friday, 24 November 2000, at 9.15 am at the Raffles City Convention Centre: Education in a multicultural setting–The Singapore experience. Accessed
Jan 15, 2019.
www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/speeches/view-html?filename=2000112401.htm
[Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.18070.tal