Meritocracy, policy and pedagogy: culture and the politics of recognition and redistribution in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Ideas about merit and the associated notion of a meritocracy have long been drawn upon to frame and understand a range of issues central to education policy. Little attention, however, is given to how in practice and through the workings of policy, meritocracy functions as an ideology that is struggled over by various social groups and pedagogic agents. Focusing on classroom pedagogic practices in Singapore, this article explores the ways in which in an ostensibly meritocratic education system, teachers interpret and negotiate ideas about culture to engage their students in the system’s low-progress tracks. We argue that these teachers are creatively resisting, even challenging official discourses of meritocracy and engaging in what Nancy Fraser calls struggles over recognition and redistribution.

KEYWORDS:

• Meritocracy
• politics of education
• culture
• pedagogy
• Nancy Fraser
• Singapore

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See, for example, the debates around formal and substantive accounts of equality (e.g. Rawls, 2001) and also Jencks (1988) seminal discussion of the various types of equality and justice – democratic, moralistic, humane, utilitarianism. A detailed treatment of these issues requires separate discussion. Here, we focus on elaborating upon how ideas about meritocracy relate to and are framed by these broader considerations of equality.

2. See Guinier (2015) for the need to redefine merit in ways that go beyond standardized tests and that instead foreground the collaborative and deliberative nature of leadership in democracies.

3. For an account of how racial inequality in the US is explained in terms of non-racial dynamics, see Bonilla-Silva (2006).

4. Most recently, in what appears to be an indirect admission of the inadequacies of meritocracy, the government has begun to provide early support for young children from low-income families through various community, home-based and pre-school channels (see https://www.ecda.gov.sg/Parents/Pages/KidSTART.aspx, accessed 26 January, 2018). Major investments have also been made into improving and playing a larger role in pre-school education (which was previously left to the private sector), and ensuring that all children – particularly those from vulnerable families – are provided access to high quality preschool education.

5. Fraser’s (2008) work on ‘political misframing’ becomes quite critical in understanding such struggles over needs and needs recognition.

6. In her later work and in response to critics, Fraser (2008) adds a third dimension – representation; in addition to economic and cultural justices, political justice requires all individuals/groups to be accorded an equal voice in decision-making over justice claims. In this paper, we focus our analyses on the dimensions of recognition and redistribution and include where relevant issues of representation.

7. Colloquial Singaporean English, comprising vocabulary and syntax drawn from English, Malay and other Mandarin dialects and Indic languages. Singlish is widely spoken in Singapore but commonly regarded as having low prestige.

8. A gesture of greeting commonly practiced among Muslims, typically involving a low bow of the head and body with hands or fingers touching one’s forehead.

9. Also known internationally as the Eid al-Fitr.

10. Josepheus Tan is a delinquent turned criminal-defence lawyer in Singapore who in recent years has received public attention for his transformation and the large amount of pro bono cases he picks up.

11. See, for example, the arguments made by Bernstein (1990) around weaker pedagogic frames for less prestigious school subjects.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Education [Grant Number OER 16/15 LTW].

Notes on contributors

Leonel Lim

Leonel Lim is Assistant Professor of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. His research focuses on curriculum theory and the politics of education, with specific interests in the relations between ideology and curriculum, the socio-political assumptions of critical thinking and rationality, elite schooling and the sociology of curriculum. He is the author of Knowledge, Control and Critical Thinking in Singapore (Routledge, 2016) and an edited volume (with Michael W. Apple) titled The Strong State and Curriculum Reform (Routledge, 2016).

Michael Tan

Michael Tan is Research Scientist at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. His research interests include sociology of curriculum and theoretical issues in the learning sciences. He is currently working on projects involving embodied cognition in makerspace contexts.