This book examines connections between policy contexts, school experiences and everyday activities of children growing up in the global city of Singapore. In particular, it explores how Singapore children’s everyday experiences inside and outside of school shape their orientations towards educational success. Alongside an analysis of school life and educational policies, it also considers children’s out-of-school activities, including leisure, homework, and enrichment activities, and connections between these and their school-based activities. The book draws on empirical data from Primary 4 classes in two Singapore schools in the form of student-completed surveys, classroom ethnographies, student responses to a learning dialogues activity, and a re-enactment of one child's out-of-school life, as well as curriculum and policy analysis. It provides readers with an in-depth understanding of Singapore Primary 4 children’s experiences inside and outside of school, including the structure of timetables and pedagogical approaches encountered in school lessons, children’s enjoyment of activities inside and outside of school, children’s engagement and wellbeing at school, and the impact of Singapore’s educational policies on children’s learning experiences. Moving beyond a simplistic focus on Singapore children’s academic performance in international high-stakes testing, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of their lives inside and outside of school. This holistic approach is unique in the Singapore context and contributes to a greater understanding of children’s everyday lives in the city.
Author Biography:
Dr. Johannah Soo lectures in Consumer Food Sciences at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She has more than 25 years of teaching experience from secondary to tertiary levels, specialising in the field of sustainable consumption, nutrition and food science education. Her training in psychological assessment and measurement from her MEd also brings expertise in attitude scale and questionnaire design. Johannah’s research interest includes examining food-related behaviours and attitudes of consumers, especially in measuring societal resilience in the event of food shortage crisis, global childhood and the integration of STEM education into Family and Consumer Sciences curriculum.
Nanthini Karthikeyan is an Assistant Manager at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). She is currently undertaking research on Workplace Learning and Competency-based Education. She previously worked as a Research Assistant in the National Institute of Education at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She has varied working experience in research projects like financial literacy, standard spoken Tamil and student perceptions. Her research interests include student engagement, student-teacher interaction, classroom language and workplace learning
Kam Ming Lim is the Registrar and an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In his previous position as Associate Dean, he led the development and revamp of NIE teacher education programmes. His research expertise includes teacher education, prosocial behaviour, and help-seeking behaviour. He was also the President, Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (2018-2021), Council member, World Education Research Association (2015-2019), and President, Educational Research Association of Singapore (2015-2019). The Singapore government conferred him the Public Administration Medal in 2015.
Clare Bartholomaeus is a Research Fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her key research interests include gender, diversity, and children/young people. She has published widely in the areas of education, gender studies, health, and family studies. She is author of the books Transgender people and education (with Damien Riggs, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and Home and away: Mothers and babies in institutional spaces (with Kathleen Connellan, Clemence Due, and Damien Riggs, Lexington Books, 2021).
Nicola Yelland is the Professor of Early Childhood Studies in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her teaching and research interests are related to transformative pedagogies and the use of new technologies in school and community contexts. She has worked in East Asia and examined the culture and curriculum of school settings. Nicola’s work engages with educational issues with regard to varying social, economic and political conditions and thus requires multidisciplinary perspectives. Nicola effectively links research with practice so that her audience are able to critically explore the nexus of theory and practice.
