Seeing families as policy actors: exploring higher-order thinking reforms in Singapore through low-income families’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Empirical policy analyses have hitherto largely focused on how formal institutions and agents (such as schools and ministries) formulate and enact policy. Less considered is the role and perspectives of families in mediating education policy. This paper discusses the importance of viewing families as not only policy subjects, but policy actors who play important roles in negotiating education policy reform. In the Singapore context, as in many contexts, there has been a growing policy emphasis on developing higher-order critical and innovative thinking to equip young people for the global knowledge economy. However, it is at the socio-economic margins of society that policy ideals tend not to map out as policymakers expect. We draw on in-depth interviews with low-income families – analysed using a governmentality perspective – to understand how families navigate Singapore’s policy landscape, particularly its growing emphasis on higher-order competencies within a neoliberal, performative, high-stakes education system. The paper concludes by elaborating on equity implications arising from this analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberalism
• low-income families
• governmentality
• education policy reforms
• policy actors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Figures are rounded up. In 2019, it was announced that the streaming system would shift to subject-based banding by 2024, where students were streamed differently for different subjects (according to three bands: G1, G2 and G3). However, we retain the terms ‘Express’, ‘Normal-Academic’ and ‘Normal-Technical’, as these were the terms used by participants during the data collection phase.

2. We use the term ‘parent’ to describe this group – although in one family, the grandmother was identified by the young person (and by the grandmother herself) as the child’s main care-giver, because the mother (a divorcee) worked long shift hours and thus spent little time at home. Hence, the grandmother was interviewed instead of the mother.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charleen Chiong

Dr. Charleen Chiong is an independent researcher with interests in societal relations, family life, the state and social and educational inequalities. Her doctorate, completed at the University of Cambridge, explores how low-income families navigate Singapore’s education policy landscape.

Leonel Lim

Dr. Leonel Lim is Associate Professor in the Policy, Curriculum and Leadership Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research focuses on curriculum studies, the politics of education, and the sociology of curriculum. He is the editor of the Routledge series Politics of Education in Asia.