Building trust: how low-income parents navigate neoliberalism in Singapore’s education system

ABSTRACT

Singapore is described as a hybrid neoliberal-developmental state. While politicians have, since the city-state’s independence, exercised ‘strong’ ideological leadership over Singapore’s economy and society, including education – there are simultaneously aspects of ‘neoliberal’ logics in Singapore’s education system: extensive school choice and streaming, academic competition and the self-responsibilising meritocratic ethos. Literature on the nature and effects of neoliberalism typically depicts rising inequalities and families’ growing anxieties, due to competition and self-responsibilisation. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this article explores how a group of low-income Malay parents navigate two aspects of institutionalised neoliberalism: (1) responsibilisation of young people within a meritocratic regime, (2) responsibilisation of parents as stakeholders in an increasingly complex education landscape. We find that while families internalise responsibilisation – profound trust in the state remains. Empirical particularities are drawn upon to understand how a socio-politically-constituted ‘architecture of trust’ between state and low-income parents is built, and its implications on families’ lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Parents
• neoliberalism
• trust
• responsibilisation
• education policy
• inequality
• Singapore

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of the families who participated in this study. This work was financially supported by the Cambridge Trust.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Charleen Chiong is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her research, funded by a Cambridge International Scholarship, explores how socio-economically disadvantaged families navigate the education policy landscape in Singapore.

Clive Dimmock is Professor of Leadership and Professional Learning in the School of Education, University of Glasgow. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change, University of Education, Hong Kong. His research has concentrated on cross-cultural comparative leadership and schooling in Asian contexts, especially Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.