Teachers' Work and the Politics of Recognition and Redistribution: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in a "Meritocratic" Education System

• In Event: 29.044 - Constructing Equitable Education That Is Critical and Culturally Relevant

Abstract

Research around culturally relevant pedagogy has gained attention in North America as a student-centered approach to helping marginalized, at-risk learners achieve academic success and cultural affirmation. Locating its discourse and practice in other societies, however, raises a number of tensions. This presentation explores how teachers engage in culturally relevant pedagogy in Singapore, where the state’s ideology of meritocracy has for long downplayed the role of culture in students’ learning, even dismissing cultural biases as explanations for the systemic underachievement of ethnic minorities. The research findings suggest that in actively even if unconsciously foregrounding a cultural dimension in their teaching, the five teachers studied are resisting and challenging meritocracy’s principle of non-discrimination and engaging in a politics of recognition and redistribution.

Author

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