Howard's End: a narrative memoir of political contrivance,neoconservative ideology and the Australian history curriculum

In August 2006, Australia's conservative prime minister John Howard convened a history summit in Canberra. The purported goal of the summit was the framing of a nationally-acceptable curriculum in Australian history. However, as this article suggests, Howard's hidden intention was to use the summit as a device for introducing a narrowly traditionalist syllabus that would be personally pleasing to the prime minister. As it happened, Howard's plan encountered resistance from members of the history education community and, after several diversions and alarms, was discarded when the conservative coalition government was defeated in the general election of November 2007. The author was closely involved in these proceedings and this article constitutes a contextualisd memoir of events.     

The curriculum of climate change education: A case for Singapore

The inclusion of the climate change topic in the curriculum of school subjects in Singapore was pivotal, such that it positioned the discourse squarely in the structure of Singapore's education system. In an examination of the intersections and disjoints between state policies on climate change against the programmatic curriculum, results showed that there is no strong policy curriculum that mandates how climate change should be learned in Singapore, even though it is present in several school subjects. The topic is included in school subjects through the initiative of subject disciplinary specialists and middle managers of the education ministry. This exemplar has implications on how climate change education policy and practice can be shaped elsewhere.     

Ideology,rationality and reproduction in education: a critical discourse analysis

In undertaking a critical discourse analysis of the professed aims and objectives of one of the most influential curricula in the teaching of thinking, this article foregrounds issues of power and ideology latent in curricular discourses of rationality. Specifically, it documents the subtle but powerful ways in which political and class commitments are (re-)produced in the forms of thinking that are valued in schools and societies. Through a nuanced analysis of the language features of the text and the social and political ideologies that underpin it, the article argues that such curricula engage in shaping our common-sense understandings of what thinking and rationality is and should be in instrumental forms that both connect to neoliberal prerogatives and that facilitate the social reproduction of a particular fraction of the middle class.     

Healthy competition and unsound comparison: reforming educational competition in Singapore

It is frequently claimed that the ‘competition state’ responds to external competition by making competition increasingly central to its internal processes as well. This article discusses education reform in Singapore as departing from the opposite position. In Singapore ‘excessive’ competition in education is now targeted by policy-makers as a major obstacle to making Singapore education competitive in the global ‘knowledge economy’. Nevertheless, the consequence of education reform does not seem to be a reduction of educational competition as such, but rather a transition from an ‘academic’ to a ‘holistic’ form of competition, raising new questions of educational equity and fairness.     

Change and Continuity in the Singapore Literature-in-English Curriculum

This paper examines contestations over the value of Literature in the secondary school curriculum in the former British colony of Singapore and the way the Literature curriculum has been framed to understand the various issues surrounding the role of Literature education. Using Raymond Williams’ framework of dominant, residual and emergent ideologies, I show how the dominant perception of Literature study in Singapore as a decontextualised humanistic and aesthetic subject is influenced by its residual British colonial legacy. Significant official changes, fundamentally conservative, have been driven by the governing ideology of instrumental pragmatism and are tied to twin aims of economic well-being and national belonging. The conservative view of Literature education prevents the adoption of emergent views of Literature education as hybrid, multimodal and critical. A pragmatic re-evaluation of the aims of Literature education in the twenty-first century is required to regain renewed significance for the subject.     

Meritocracy,policy and pedagogy: culture and the politics of recognition and redistribution in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Ideas about merit and the associated notion of a meritocracy have long been drawn upon to frame and understand a range of issues central to education policy. Little attention, however, is given to how in practice and through the workings of policy, meritocracy functions as an ideology that is struggled over by various social groups and pedagogic agents. Focusing on classroom pedagogic practices in Singapore, this article explores the ways in which in an ostensibly meritocratic education system, teachers interpret and negotiate ideas about culture to engage their students in the system’s low-progress tracks. We argue that these teachers are creatively resisting, even challenging official discourses of meritocracy and engaging in what Nancy Fraser calls struggles over recognition and redistribution.     

探析大学思想政治教育工作应如何改进

大学思想政治教育工作,是我国社会主义建设一个重要环节。因此我国必须对大学思想政治教育工作给与足够的重视,但是我国现阶段大学思想政治教育工作还是存在着一定的问题。故而本文主要是探讨我国现阶段大学思想政治教育工作中存在的问题,提出必要的改进策略。     

新加坡创新教育及其启示

新加坡创新教育的实施卓有成效,为此提出了一系列教育政策改革,从教师创意培训、全面改革课程、搭建展示平台、培养创业精神等方面促进创新教育的实现。在此经验基础上,结合我国教育现状,提出培训创新型师资,实现创意教学;完善创新思维课程,提高创新能力;创新结合创业,培养创业精神等策略,以推进我国中小学创新教育进程。     

Cultural ideology matters in early childhood curriculum innovations: a comparative case study of Chinese kindergartens between Hong Kong and Shenzhen

This study forms part of a wider comparative research project investigating the mechanisms and outcomes of school-based curriculum (SBC) development in kindergartens between the two neighbouring cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, under the umbrella of ‘one country, two systems’. This comparison will help to clarify how sociocultural contexts may affect early childhood curriculum (ECC) innovations by comparing the kindergartens of socialist and capitalist China. Data are presented from qualitative case studies of four kindergartens—two in each city—corresponding to the three levels of curriculum analysis and comparison: intended curriculum, implemented curriculum and curriculum ideology. Comparative analyses revealed that the SBCs of the four cases were different but all tended to balance and integrate diverse approaches in terms of curricular and pedagogical practices. The commonalities of SBCs in Hong Kong and Shenzhen kindergartens were due to shared cultural values, propelled by both ‘modernization’ and Chinese traditions, while the unique characteristics of SBC practices in each society were shaped by different social contexts. The educational philosophy of progressivism has greatly influenced ECC innovations in the Chinese kindergartens to varying degrees and in different ways. Implications of this comparative study are also presented for future research and practice.     

Meritocracy,elitism, and egalitarianism: a preliminary and provisional assessment of Singapore's primary education review

Meritocracy functions in Singapore as the key principle of governance and educational distribution. However, the concept of meritocracy itself contains a number of inherent contradictions, most evidently witnessed in the tension between its egalitarian and elitist strands. This tension is documented in the recommendations of Singapore's recent primary education review, already accepted by the Ministry of Education and to be implemented in the coming years. This article considers these recommendations against the backdrop of a tentative movement towards egalitarianism in educational distribution. Specifically, it provides a preliminary and provisional assessment of how far they would go towards providing for greater educational equity and, therefore, in recovering the ideology of meritocracy in the nation-state.     

新加坡小学课程发展历程、特点及未来走向

新加坡自建国以来建立了适应本国多元文化并存国情的小学课程体系和考试制度，并随时代的发展作出相应的改革。文章展现了其具体课程发展历程和考试制度的变革，并归纳总结了其特点和未来发展趋向。     

构建学校思想政治工作的新思路

重视和做好思想政治工作，构建学校思想政治工作新思路，要对青年学生进行理想信念的培养和人格品德的塑。     

网络时代高校思想政治工作面临的挑战及对策

网络思想政治教育是计算机网络和思想政治教育结合的产物，它打破了思想政治教育的传统模式，开创了思想政治教育的现代方式。近年来由于大学生上网人数的急剧飙升，网络对他们的思想观念、价值取向等都产生着十分广泛和深刻的影响，从而使高校的思想政治教育面临着挑战。本分析了这种挑战，并提出了相应的对策。     

新加坡与香港地区教师教育比较

1970年,新加坡总理李光耀在香港大学年会上以"双城记"为题做了一场发人深省的演讲,除了讲述新加坡和香港地区所取得的相似成就与优势以外,还进一步做出预测,表示两地在未来将会取得更大的成功.在此基础上,笔者试图从一个更为广泛和更具批判性的视角进行深入分析,首先梳理出二者基本差异,进而再讨论是哪些特定的政治、文化和教育因素最终导致了二者的不同发展路径和成果.国际研究学者围绕同一主题共同创作了一篇具有独到见解的文章,这使得1970年发表的这篇文章在35年后又被重新提起.     

新加坡职业教育发展述评:探索、改革与经验

新加坡的职业教育是世界上最成功的案例之一。新加坡的职业教育与经济社会发展相伴而行,整体上经历了三个发展阶段,即为劳工密集型制造业培养技术工人、为技术密集型产业培养高技能人才、转型发展形成完善体系。新加坡通过职业教育与普通教育的"分流教育"制度改革、应用学习教育模式改革、全民终身学习的继续教育与培训等重大改革创新,在"教育立交桥"、产教融合、院校建设、政府支持等方面形成了职业教育的鲜明特色和经验,对我国发展世界水准的现代职业教育具有借鉴意义。     

工具理性视域下的高职思想政治教育

通过对工具(技术)理性和价值理性概念的梳理,做出我国工业化过程中工具理性的膨胀带来了价值理性缺失的基本判断,进而分析社会主义市场经济条件下工具(技术)理性对高职思想政治教育目标、经费投入、教育者素质、受教育者学习风气等四方面产生的负面影响,并针对现状提出了在教育观念、主题、课程设置到教育内容、方法等方面高职思想政治教育的对策与出路,以期实现工具(技术)理性和价值理性在高职思想政治教育中的有机结合,进一步增强高职思想政治教育的实效性。     

The purposes outdoor education does,could and should serve in Singapore

This paper discusses the purposes that outdoor education does, could and should serve in Singapore. Gert Biesta’s conceptualisation of three functions of education is adapted to frame deliberations on the purposes of outdoor education in Singapore’s socio-political and educational milieu. The author suggests that outdoor education in Singapore could and should give high priority to serving three educational purposes; namely, building resilience, building emotional bonds with the place that constitutes Singapore, and building ecological literacy. In pursuing such purposes, outdoor education in Singapore might lessen the gap between the educational outcomes it currently produces and those it could achieve in the future.     

Curriculum,culture, ideology and ownership: the case of the Exploring Masculinities programme

This article considers curriculum ownership, contestation and the relationship between curriculum and culture through the lens of the Exploring Masculinities (EM) programme. The programme was developed in the late 1990s to meet the social and personal needs of young men. As its dissemination was being planned, it became the subject of critical attention from some high-profile journalists and certain parent bodies. This article reports on a follow-up study of a national sample of parents regarding the inclusion of EM issues on the school curriculum. It also draws on interviews with journalists who were at the centre of the related media debate. The macro curriculum issues are discussed in light of this data along with one key issue identified by parents, namely the professional competence of teachers around social and personal issues.     

新课程理念下的高校体育课程改革

随着对新课程理念研究的深入以及我国高等教育改革的深入,作为高等教育重要载体及重要组成内容的大学体育也必须要积极适应改革的潮流,对高校体育课程中与新课程理念不相匹配的内容进行改革。本文在探讨新课程理念下高校体育课程改革存在的问题的基础上,提出了一些解决的对策,以期更好地促进高校体育课程改革的健康发展。     

Curriculum,standards and professionalisation: The policy discourse on teacher professionalism in Singapore

In this article the author explores the policy discourse on teacher professionalism (TP) in Singapore. Various types of relevant policy texts are collected and analysed, considering the three different perspectives of TP discussed in the existing literature – the managerial view, the professional view and the transformative view. The author argues that the current discourse presents a hybrid notion of TP that integrates managerial and professional views to serve policymakers’ intentions, but this is a constrained view that may de-professionalise the teaching profession by narrowing TP to faithful alignment and effective implementation of the national curriculum.