Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 33

Full-Text Articles in Education

Public Policy Education In India: Promises And Pitfalls Of An Emerging Disciplinary Identity, Ishani Mukherjee, Dayashankar Maurya Jan 2023

Public Policy Education In India: Promises And Pitfalls Of An Emerging Disciplinary Identity, Ishani Mukherjee, Dayashankar Maurya

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite the surge in global demand over the last few decades, the supply and design of public policy education has been notably concentrated within western and developed country contexts. The same era has not seen a comparable rise in public policy education and accreditation emerging from developing countries that are still unable to fully meet the existing domestic needs for these skills. In India, core public policy education is in its emerging, albeit promising stages. Drawing on several rounds of discussions with academic and administrative Heads of the Department for public policy in tertiary education institutes of India, this paper …


Universities In And Beyond A Pandemic, Lily Kong, Sovan Patra Jul 2022

Universities In And Beyond A Pandemic, Lily Kong, Sovan Patra

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The impact of the COVID pandemic, and concomitant public health interventions, on university operations and finances is unprecedented in its scope and scale. This chapter provides, firstly, a panorama of the challenges of tertiary teaching and learning in a socially distanced world as well as of the fiscal impact of the pandemic on universities. Secondly, it is an experience-informed personal reflection on the lessons that university instructors, researchers, and leaders can learn from the events of the past year to be more effective in sub-optimal environments, both as individuals and as members of the larger society. Finally, it presents an …


The (De)Territorialised Appeal Of International Schools In China: Forging Brands, Boundaries And Inter-Belonging In Segregated Urban Space, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods, Hong Zhu Jan 2022

The (De)Territorialised Appeal Of International Schools In China: Forging Brands, Boundaries And Inter-Belonging In Segregated Urban Space, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods, Hong Zhu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how the (de)territorialised appeal of international schools in China can reflect, enforce and expand pre-existing patterns of urban segregation. Whilst exploration of the effects of educational marketplaces on urban environments has become a focus of scholarly research, the recent expansion in the supply of, and demand for, international education has caused these effects to become more nuanced. As (de)territorialised entities, international schools can cause multiple forms of spatial and psycho-social distinction and (dis)association to become intertwined, the effects of which start from the school and radiate out from there. International schools can therefore cause segregation to become …


The Challenges Faced By University Educators In Singapore When Referring Students To Counsellors: An Instrumental Case Study, Poh Yaip, Steven Ng, Yee Lin Chung Nov 2021

The Challenges Faced By University Educators In Singapore When Referring Students To Counsellors: An Instrumental Case Study, Poh Yaip, Steven Ng, Yee Lin Chung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines the difficulties faced by two university professors working in a public, autonomous university in Singapore, when referring students to counselling services. Educators typically observe how students interact and behave in class, and may refer students to counselling services. However, there is little research into how educators experience and view this role, particularly in higher education in Asia. Two university professors who had referred students to their university’s counselling centre took part in semi-structured interviews for the study. From these interviews, the study revealed educators can face a range of challenges in their referral role, such as lack …


Teachers Who Complain About Burnout Are Not Bad Teachers, Bek Wuay Tang, Jacinth Jia Xin Tan Oct 2021

Teachers Who Complain About Burnout Are Not Bad Teachers, Bek Wuay Tang, Jacinth Jia Xin Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Psychology tells us it’s natural but wrong to assume teachers aren’t coping well with stress due to their own inability to manage time or be tough, say SMU’s Tang Bek Wuay and Jacinth Tan. A worrying spotlight was recently shone on burnout among teachers. In a Ministry of Education (MOE) engagement survey conducted in June, three in 10 teachers said they could not cope with stress at work.


A Design Thinking Odyssey: Measuring And Documenting Graduate Learning Outcomes In The Co-Curricular Space, Alvin Sim, Paulin Tay Straughan Jul 2021

A Design Thinking Odyssey: Measuring And Documenting Graduate Learning Outcomes In The Co-Curricular Space, Alvin Sim, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Co-curricular experiences should be warranted a fair amount of attention in higher education, particularly for their ability to help students develop real-world employability skills and a platform for them to critically reflect upon and expand their perspectives. These are crucial in developing the future-ready graduate – the type of graduate the Singapore Management University (SMU) strives to nurture. Yet, the authors have discovered that many students go from one activity to another without understanding what they can actually be getting out of these activities and how each activity connects to life after university. This has led the authors to seek …


The Influence Of Tertiary Education Disciplines On Self-Construals And Conflict Management Tendencies, Sheila Xi Rui Wee, Wan Yee Choo, Chi-Ying Cheng Jun 2021

The Influence Of Tertiary Education Disciplines On Self-Construals And Conflict Management Tendencies, Sheila Xi Rui Wee, Wan Yee Choo, Chi-Ying Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While cultural difference on self-construal are well-documented, how acculturation to a new cultural environment could change an individual’s self-construal remains under-explored. In this research, how tertiary education disciplines could be associated with the endorsement of self-construals which, in turn, affect students’ conflict management tendencies were explored. Study 1 revealed that across the United States and Singapore, college students from business and social science disciplines exhibited the trend of endorsing more independent and interdependent self-construal respectively, regardless of the different dominant self-construals in the two countries. Study 2 explored how tertiary education disciplines is associated with individuals’ conflict management tendencies via …


Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra Dec 2020

Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore’s education system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In this report, we will focus on education at the primary, secondary, and junior college levels, and will not discuss the education offered in polytechnics (vocational colleges) and universities. We will also focus exclusively on Singapore’s public school system, which Singapore citizens are required to attend unless they are granted a special exemption. In addition to public schools, there are also international schools, which cater to the relatively large expatriate population in Singapore and typically offer a curriculum leading to the IB diploma. All public schools …


Alternative Education Spaces And Pathways: Insights From An International Christian School In China, Menusha De Silva, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong Dec 2020

Alternative Education Spaces And Pathways: Insights From An International Christian School In China, Menusha De Silva, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The nascent scholarship on geographies of alternative education focuses on alternative education spaces, most located in the UK, that resist and/or negotiate neoliberal restructuring of education, some of which cater to socially marginalised groups. In contrast, through an ethnographic focus on an underground Christian international school in China, we examine an alternative education space that responds to parents’ aspirations for their children to be inculcated with global cultural capital, Chinese values and Christian beliefs. These aspirations are not fulfilled in mainstream state schools or international schools in China, but are demanded by parents looking for a “superior” set of skills …


The Transnational Frontiers Of Japanese Education: Multiculturalism, Cosmopolitanism, And Global Isomorphism, Hiro Saito Jul 2020

The Transnational Frontiers Of Japanese Education: Multiculturalism, Cosmopolitanism, And Global Isomorphism, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Japanese education system today faces three transnationally created challenges. The first is multiculturalism. Given an increasing number of students whose parents are either migrants or naturalized citizens, the government needs to rethink the nature of public schools, which have traditionally catered to ethnic majority students, and explore how to make them culturally more inclusive. The second is cosmopolitanism. Although cosmopolitanism is regarded as a desirable disposition and competency in a globalizing world, the government has difficulty incorporating it into the education system that continues to function as a central vehicle of nation-building. The third is global isomorphism. While world …


Competing For Academic Labor: Research And Recruitment Outside The Academic Center, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Meng-Hsuan Chou, Jue Wang Jun 2020

Competing For Academic Labor: Research And Recruitment Outside The Academic Center, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Meng-Hsuan Chou, Jue Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Increasing competition among research universities has spurred a race to recruit academic labor to staff research teams, graduate programs, and laboratories. Yet, often ignored is how such efforts entail negotiating a pervasive hierarchy of universities, where elite institutions in the West continue to attract the best students and researchers across the world. Based on qualitative interviews with 59 Singapore-based faculty, this paper demonstrates how migrant academics in competitive universities outside the West take on the burden of seeking other ways of attracting academic labor into their institutions, often resorting to ethnic and transnational ties to circumvent limits imposed by a …


Commentary: What Lies Ahead? Considering The Future Of A ‘New’ Vietnamese Higher Education, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Jan 2020

Commentary: What Lies Ahead? Considering The Future Of A ‘New’ Vietnamese Higher Education, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this commentary, Ortiga discusses two main tensions in how the authors in this volume portray the future of Vietnamese higher education. The first tension is the issue of autonomy or how universities must redefine their purpose and role in Vietnamese society as the state loosens its monopoly over higher education. Meanwhile, the second tension is the issue of privatisation or whether for-profit corporations and private agencies should play an increasing role in providing higher education services in the country. In reflecting on the future, Ortiga compares the case of Vietnam to higher education systems in neighbouring countries like the …


Counselling Referral For University Students: A Phenomenological Study From The Teachers’ Perspective, Poh Yaip Steven Ng, Yee Lin Ada Chung Sep 2019

Counselling Referral For University Students: A Phenomenological Study From The Teachers’ Perspective, Poh Yaip Steven Ng, Yee Lin Ada Chung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This small-scale pilot study analysed the input of two university teachers regarding their approaches, attitudes and understanding regarding counselling referrals for students in a university setting in Singapore. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, four main categories of themes were defined from the findings: referral procedures, challenges/difficulties, support and awareness. The academic teaching staff has an important role in the holistic development of students by helping them obtain counselling referrals. The key issues raised are outlined for consideration by policymakers, academic teaching staff and practitioners both within and outside of Singapore. The findings are discussed, including …


The ‘Seven S’ Approach To Subject-Based Banding In Schools, David Chan Mar 2019

The ‘Seven S’ Approach To Subject-Based Banding In Schools, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In an invited commentary, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan discussed the issues surrounding the replacement of streaming at secondary school with the subject-based banding system. He explained how we can approach issues by reflecting on what he called the "Seven S" elements of education.


The Relationship Between Future Goals And Achievement Goal Orientations: An Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation Perspective, Jie Qi Lee, Dennis M. Mcinerney, Gregory Arief D. Liem, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Dec 2018

The Relationship Between Future Goals And Achievement Goal Orientations: An Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation Perspective, Jie Qi Lee, Dennis M. Mcinerney, Gregory Arief D. Liem, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research aimed to study the relationships between students’ future goals (FGs) and their immediate achievement goal orientations (AGOs) among 5733 Singaporean secondary school students (M age = 14.18, SD = 1.26; 53% boys). To this end, we hypothesized that the relationships between like valenced FGs and AGOs (both intrinsic or both extrinsic) will be stronger than those of opposite valenced FGs and AGOs (intrinsic–extrinsic) and tested two alternative models: Model A positing the prediction of AGOs by FGs and Model B positing the prediction of FGs by AGOs. Structural equation modeling showed the heuristic superiority of Model B in …


Constructing The Global Education Hub: The Unlikely Case Of Manila, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Sep 2018

Constructing The Global Education Hub: The Unlikely Case Of Manila, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper investigates the creation of an unlikely education hub in Manila, Philippines, where local institutions have seen a growing number of international students from Korea, India, and the Middle East. These students seek qualifications in professions where Filipino migrants are highly represented, either to gain an advantage within their home countries or as a steppingstone towards jobs elsewhere. Drawing from current debates on ‘global cities’, this paper discusses how different actors promote Manila as an ideal destination for students by using the country’s unique position within the global market for migrant labor and its American colonial history. Here, Filipino …


Academic “Centres,” Epistemic Differences And Brain Circulation, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Meng‐Hsuan Chou, Gunjan Sondhi, Jue Wang Sep 2018

Academic “Centres,” Epistemic Differences And Brain Circulation, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Meng‐Hsuan Chou, Gunjan Sondhi, Jue Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article investigates the factors that shape how migrant academics engage with fellow scholars within their countries of origin. We focus specifically on the mobility of Asian‐born faculty between Singapore, a fast‐developing education hub in Southeast Asia, and their “home” countries within the region. Based on qualitative interviews with 45 migrant academics, this article argues that while education hubs like Singapore increase the possibility of brain circulation within Asia, epistemic differences between migrant academics and home country counterparts make it difficult to establish long‐term collaboration for research. Singapore institutions also look to the West in determining how research work is …


Constructing Underachievement: The Discursive Life Of Singapore In Us Federal Education Policy, Roberto Santiago De Roock, Darlene Machell Espena Sep 2018

Constructing Underachievement: The Discursive Life Of Singapore In Us Federal Education Policy, Roberto Santiago De Roock, Darlene Machell Espena

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper offers insights into the referencing of Singapore within the US Obama Administration educational discourse, underscoring the political-material-discursive nexus of international educational benchmarking. Using critical discourse analysis, we find that an objectified Singapore functions as a rhetorical tool of US policymaker agendas, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international assessments as basis for truth statements. US policy discourses on Singapore’s education system perpetuate, rather than interrogate, PISA’s questionable underlying “truths” around socio-economic development, equity, and excellence, and thus on student achievement and underachievement. Singapore’s status as an “Asian …


From Police Officer To Professor: A Conversation With David Chan, David Chan Apr 2018

From Police Officer To Professor: A Conversation With David Chan, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


Emigration, Employability, And Higher Education In The Philippines, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Jan 2018

Emigration, Employability, And Higher Education In The Philippines, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This book investigates the dilemma of educating students for future work in the context of the Philippines, one of the top sources of migrant labor in the world. Here, colleges and universities are expected to not only educate students for jobs within the country, but for potential employers beyond national borders. It demonstrates how human capital ideology reinforces such export-oriented education, creating an assumed relationship among academic credentials, overseas opportunity, and future migrant remittances. Findings indicate that attempts to produce migrant workers undermine the job security of college instructors, skew local curriculum towards foreign requirements, and challenge efforts to develop …


Learning To Fill The Labor Niche: Filipino Nursing Graduates And The Risk Of The Migration Trap, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Jan 2018

Learning To Fill The Labor Niche: Filipino Nursing Graduates And The Risk Of The Migration Trap, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Overseas recruitment has become a common strategy in filling nurse shortages within U.S. health institutions, sparking the proliferation of nursing programs in the Philippines. Export-oriented education exacerbates a mismatch, however, between available jobs (in both the Philippines and the United States) and the number of nursing graduates, thus increasing joblessness and underemployment among Filipino youth. Pursing higher education as a means to migrate also puts Filipino students at risk of getting caught in a migration trap, where prospective migrants obtain credentials for overseas work yet cannot leave when labor demands or immigration policies change. Such problems highlight the complicated impact …


How Smu Became An Agent Of Change For Universities, Arnoud De Meyer, Lily Kong Apr 2017

How Smu Became An Agent Of Change For Universities, Arnoud De Meyer, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Its partnership with Wharton has helped enrich the landscape of higher education in Singapore, two SMU leaders write in response to Han Fook Kwang's column last Sunday.


Mimicking Religion As Coping Strategy: The Emergence Of The Bell-Curve God In Singapore, Lily Kong Oct 2016

Mimicking Religion As Coping Strategy: The Emergence Of The Bell-Curve God In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The importance placed on education and, relatedly, examinations, in many Asian societies is well known. The means adopted to cope with the stresses that come along with such intensity are myriad. It is in such contexts that the emergence of a “Bell Curve God” in Singapore must be understood.


Changes To Psle Scoring Make For A Fairer System, David Chan Jul 2016

Changes To Psle Scoring Make For A Fairer System, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The changes to the Primary School Leaving Examination scoring system and how it will be used for admission to secondary schools are scientifically sound and practically sensible ("New PSLE scoring system to have 8 grade bands"; Thursday).


Public Vs. Private Schooling As A Route To Universal Basic Education: A Comparison Of China And India, William C. Smith, Devin K. Joshi Jan 2016

Public Vs. Private Schooling As A Route To Universal Basic Education: A Comparison Of China And India, William C. Smith, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines whether focusing primarily on public schooling can lead to more rapid achievement of universal basic education (UBE) than relying on a mixture of public and private schooling. Through a structured, focused comparison, we find China's greater emphasis on public schooling has contributed to higher enrollment, attendance, graduation rates, gender parity, and proportion of students entering higher education than India, the country with the world's largest private sector in primary and secondary education. This comparison suggests that greater emphasis on public schooling in developing countries may lead to more rapid UBE attainment than encouraging privatization.


Public Vs. Private Schooling As A Route To Universal Basic Education: A Comparison Of China And India, William C. Smith, Devin K. Joshi Jan 2016

Public Vs. Private Schooling As A Route To Universal Basic Education: A Comparison Of China And India, William C. Smith, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines whether focusing primarily on public schooling can lead to more rapid achievement of universal basic education (UBE) than relying on a mixture of public and private schooling. Through a structured, focused comparison, we find China's greater emphasis on public schooling has contributed to higher enrollment, attendance, graduation rates, gender parity, and proportion of students entering higher education than India, the country with the world's largest private sector in primary and secondary education. This comparison suggests that greater emphasis on public schooling in developing countries may lead to more rapid UBE attainment than encouraging privatization.


Balancing Spirituality And Secularism, Globalism And Nationalism: The Geographies Of Identity, Integration And Citizenship In Schools, Lily Kong Oct 2013

Balancing Spirituality And Secularism, Globalism And Nationalism: The Geographies Of Identity, Integration And Citizenship In Schools, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Geographies of education have drawn more research attention in the last decade. The varied motivations for geographical attention to education have led to divergent approaches. First, a macro, political economy or "outward looking" approach has examined educational provision and what it tells us about wider social, economic and political processes. Second, a micro, social-cultural or "inward looking" approach has emphasised social difference within school spaces, and the links between home and educational spaces. This latter approach has also acknowledged the importance of the voices of children and young people in understanding educational experiences. In this paper, l take stock of …


Cosmopolitan Nation-Building: The Institutional Contradiction And Politics Of Postwar Japanese Education, Hiro Saito Jun 2011

Cosmopolitan Nation-Building: The Institutional Contradiction And Politics Of Postwar Japanese Education, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The education system has been a quintessential state apparatus of nation-building since the emergence of the modern nation-state; however, recent comparative studies demonstrate the growing presence of cosmopolitanism in education policies and school curricula around the world. This trend indicates that the education system now operates according to two different institutional logics, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. To understand how the education system negotiates the potential contradiction between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, in this paper, I analyze the case of postwar Japanese education. Theoretically, I synthesize studies of institutional logics and social movements: while the former shed light on a contradiction between different …


Mapping 'Chinese' Christian Schools In Indonesia: Ethnicity, Class And Religion, Chang Yau Hoon Dec 2010

Mapping 'Chinese' Christian Schools In Indonesia: Ethnicity, Class And Religion, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Schools are not ‘‘innocent’’ sites of cultural transmission. They play an active and significant role in transmitting values and inculcating culture. Schools also serve as a site for the maintenance of boundaries and for the construction of identities. Previous studies have recognized the relationship between education and identity. Building on existing literature, this study examines the ways in which Christian schools can be a site for the construction and maintenance of religious, ethnic and class identities of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. The study surveys four prestigious ‘‘Chinese’’ Christian schools in Jakarta. Through a brief but thorough profiling of the …


Actor-Network Theory Of Cosmopolitan Education, Hiro Saito Jun 2010

Actor-Network Theory Of Cosmopolitan Education, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the past, philosophers discussed cosmopolitanism as a normative ideal of allegiance to humanity as a whole. A debate among social theorists, however, has examined cosmopolitanism as an incipient empirical phenomenon: an orientation of openness to foreign others and cultures. This paper introduces actor-network theory to elaborate the social-theoretical conception of cosmopolitanism. In light of the actor-network theory of cosmopolitanism, the paper proposes cosmopolitan education that aims to foster in students three dispositions: to extend attachments to foreign people and objects; to understand transnational connections in which their lives are embedded; and to act on these attachments and understandings to …