Ideology, Digital Media, and Student Marginalization in Singapore

• In Event: A Critical Perspective on Multi-Literacies With a Focus on Marginalized Students.

Abstract

This presentation explores how meritocratic and other neoliberal discourses within Singapore’s system contribute to educators’ deficit-oriented ideologies. Deficits or deficiencies within students and/or their communities are seen as the root cause of struggles in schools, without sufficient exploration into structural or systemic issues (Valencia, 1997). Singapore’s national- and school-level ability banding, determined through standardised test scores (Esa, 2012), are underpinned by meritocratic ideology (Deng & Gopinathan, 2016; Koh, 2011). We examine how the stratified tracks influence differentiated pedagogical approaches, resulting in didactic, remediated and simplistic instruction for the lower-tracked students. We probe how teacher ideologies shape their receptiveness to integrating novel pedagogical approaches and digital media into their teaching practices, and analyse the role of deficit perspectives and expansive approaches in facilitating or impeding teaching practices in the classroom.

This multi-year case study utilised in-depth interviews and classroom observations with 15 teachers from a mainstream government secondary school. All participants taught at least one class of academically lowest performing students. The teachers varied in age, years of experience, ethnicity, gender, and subjects and levels taught. Through a grounded theory approach, we created thematic codes such as “ideology”, “language and literacy”, “views about students and digital media” and more. We coded the teachers’ interview and observation data into these categories, iteratively adding and refining codes as we proceeded. We then identified key ideologies, focused on literacy and digital media. We found that teachers’ expressed and/or enacted ideologies were opposing and closely replicated deficit and strength-based ideologies. Expanding on these and guided by a figured world lens (Holland et al., 1998), we designed seven categories within a spectrum from ‘instrumental’ to ‘expansive’. These categories centred around teachers’ figured worlds of students – focused on student futures, literacy, out-of-school life, and digital media. Findings revealed that teachers with more expansive approaches had more meaningful pedagogical approaches in the classroom, including infusing 21st-century competencies and digital media in their classroom teaching and interaction with students, while teachers with more instrumental views exhibited simplistic, strict and hierarchical instructionist approaches; consistent with the literature.


Through exploring the challenges of such student deficit views, undergirded by meritocratic and other neoliberal discourse, we highlight the need for key shifts in teacher ideologies and practices, particularly when incorporating 21st century competencies and digital media in classrooms and curricular reforms. We also discuss how educational barriers exacerbate inequity for marginalised students in Singapore, including curricular variations and the challenges in movement between streams (Albright, 2006; Anderson, 2015; Heng & Atencio, 2017). We highlight the fundamentally inequitable results of meritocratic ideologies; the belief that each individual has equity in opportunity results in naturalising and individualising systemic structures and disregards privileges associated with race, gender and class background (Ali, 2016; Rahim, 2000). Such beliefs negatively impact student outcomes, and exacerbate the inequity in educational opportunities (Anderson, 2015). We conclude that despite its sterling international education reputation, Singapore’s marginalised learners share similar realities as students in lower academic tracks in other countries - suffering from the structural effects of marginalisation, segregation, and deficit-oriented stereotyping.

Authors

• Roberto de Roock, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Sasha Raj Lawrence, Nanyang Technological University - National Institute of Education