Meritocracy, Tracking, and Elitism: Differentiated Citizenship Education in the United States and Singapore

Abstract

Numerous studies have highlighted a clear civic achievement gap between students from different ethnic and economic backgrounds in countries such as Singapore and the United States. Concurrently, researchers from both countries have noted that access to government and civics classes and curricula differs considerably across and within schools and school districts. Drawing on research studies conducted in both countries, this article compares the provision of citizenship education in two very different education systems: the United States and Singapore. The article also analyzes some of the explicit and implicit arguments that have been used in support of these policies and examines the potential implications of these policies for the education of young citizens. In both countries, studies strongly indicate that the formal and de facto differentiated access to citizenship education as a result of sorting students into different education tracks implicates students’ ability to be full and equal citizens.

Keywords:

• citizenship education
• civics
• de facto differentiated access
• meritocracy
• tracking

Notes

1 This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education and the Office of Educational Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore.