Situating Equity Contextually: Teachers' Interpretations and Practices of Equity in Singapore

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Situating Space: Examining School-Community Collaboration, Choice, and Connections

Abstract

Educational transfer—the movement of educational institutions, ideas, or practices—is increasingly popular. Differentiated instruction (DI), foregrounding notions of equity and diversity, is one such practice being transferred. Expanding understandings of how equity is localized beyond Western contexts, this study examines how ten teachers in Singapore interpret equity through their practices of DI. Teachers understood equity primarily as preparing students for academics and rarely centered other dimensions of students’ lives and identities in the curriculum. These findings point to a narrow construction of equity attuned to Singapore’s educational policies, national narratives, and Confucian heritage culture. This spells implications for contextually situating our conceptions of equity and further collaborations and dialogues amongst stakeholders in both origin and destination contexts.

Author

• Tang T. Heng, Nanyang Technological University