Ideology, the State, and the Politics of Global Curriculum Reforms: Regulating Critical Thinking in an Illiberal State

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-13 - Reform, Resistance, Responses, and Responsibilities in Curriculum Studies

Abstract

Using ethnographic classroom data from secondary 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 Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic control and the relations between knowledge, curriculum 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

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