A Problem-Based Approach in Social Justice Education: A Focus-Group Study From Singapore

Abstract

The author of this article examines data collected from focus-group discussions about the impact of a social justice education module on human trafficking and low-skilled labor migration in South and Southeast Asia. Employing cognitive developmental theory as an analytical framework, this article shows how the structural complexity of the issue caused cognitive dissonance and motivated further inquiry among students. Furthermore, the presence of diverse scholarly accounts enabled students to form their own judgment about how to respond. While students differed on what solution they judged most appropriate, most students thought that workers deserved fairer treatment. Some students even put their beliefs into action.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Zachary Low Reyna, all those who attended the NUSC Special Programmes Seminar (Singapore, March 2023), as well as the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of College & Character for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. Thanks are also due to Qian Qian Ng and Tiffany Tee for their excellent research assistance, and to Marc Gan, Jeanette Choy, Kevin Lam, Jean Chia, and Tracy Toh for their invaluable advice at the initial stages of the research project.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ In 2022, the University Scholars Programme was merged with Yale-NUS to form the NUS College.

² Male university students tend to be two years older than their female counterparts for all Singaporean males are required by law to serve two years in the army, police or civil defense.

³ I would like to clarify that Powell’s claim was made in the context of sweatshop. In my module, I extended Powell’s account onto the case of labor migration, so as to expand the theoretical spectrum. It is also worth noting that Powell and Zwolinski (2012) suggested elsewhere that workers should have the autonomy to waive their right to safety in the workplace and that their position was pluralist, instead of utilitarian (p. 463).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National University of Singapore Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning under the Teaching Enhancement Grants [C-377-000-087-001].

Notes on contributors

Wing Sze Leung

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Wing Sze Leung ([email protected]) is senior lecturer in the NUS College at the National University of Singapore. Her primary areas of scholarship are moral theories, colonial studies, and the relation between ethics and aesthetics.