State Ideology and the Politics of Curricular Change in Antiliberal States: Recontextualizing Critical Thinking in Singapore

• In Event: 65.080 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 65.080-8 - Curriculum, Difference, and Spatial Implications

Abstract

Using ethnographic classroom data from three “mainstream” schools, this paper explores the politics of teaching critical thinking in Singapore. It first outlines the ideologies of the Singapore state, demonstrating the problems these pose for the straightforward appropriation of Western discourses such as critical thinking. This is followed by an overview of Bernstein’s work on pedagogic recontextualization and the relations between knowledge, curricular form and ideology. Framed by these insights, the paper develops an account of (a) how in these schools critical thinking is “delocated” from its liberal underpinnings and “relocated” as a set of skills focused on improving students’ examination results, (b) the modes of pedagogic communication involved, and (c) the ways teachers and students negotiate and resist these meanings.

Author

• Lim Leonel, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University