Toward Equity-Centered Teaching in a Centralized, Meritocratic System: A Tale From Singapore (Poster 43): Division L - Section 3: Curriculum and Instruction, Stage 2, 4:41 PM

• In Event: e-Lightening Ed-Talk Session 4 - Stage 2

Abstract

This study examines how Singapore teachers understand and enact equity-centered teaching as they navigate the centralized education system and state-promulgated discourses on multiculturalism and meritocracy. A mixed-method study of 113 teachers’ responses to an instrument measuring equity-centered teaching and follow-up interviews with 10 teachers was used. Findings suggest that despite the common boundaries that condition teachers’ work, teachers diverge in their views of learners, pedagogies, and their reflexive orientations and agency in important ways. Further, participants’ understanding and enactment of teaching for equity diverged from the theories of equity-centered teaching, reflecting the working of dominant discourses promulgated by the strong state of Singapore. Implications for research on teaching for equity conducted outside the global North-West contexts are also discussed.

Author

• Wen-Chia Claire Chang, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University