Allying and aligning: teachers’ extra-curricular work, meritocracy and state-sponsored scholarships in Singapore

Abstract

Research in education has long noted teachers’ role in assisting social and ideological reproduction. Separately, scholarship has also investigated the use of extra-curricular activities in equipping disadvantaged students with social and cultural capital, to embark on social mobility. Positioned at the intersection of these two apparently disparate strands, this paper presents a case in which teachers’ extra-curricular work is seen to simultaneously enact subtle socio-ideological reproduction, and the facilitation of social mobility attainment. Specifically, the paper draws on a study of how teachers in a lower-status junior college in Singapore prepare their students in applying for prestigious state-sponsored scholarships. Through teachers’ extra-curricular work of allying and aligning, social mobility and social reproduction are simultaneously made possible, yet also exist in some tension. Thus, this paper offers a unique sociological perspective on teachers’ extra-curricular work and its significance for broader issues of meritocracy, social mobility, and social reproduction.

Keywords:

• Extra-curricular work
• meritocracy
• social mobility
• state-sponsored scholarship
• Singapore

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank FJC’s teachers for participating in this research project. We are also grateful to the two peer reviewers for their invaluable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest.