Abstract
In Singapore, educators have to balance nationalist ideals with more cosmopolitan values and skills that are deemed essential for the country's survival in the global marketplace. In particular, teachers and students have to grapple with two very different goals articulated in the national curriculum – “Being Rooted” and “Living Global.” Through the use of individual interviews and classroom observations, this study examines Singapore secondary students’ understandings of national and global citizenship. The findings from the study suggest that the students are strongly committed to national priorities and are less committed to the cosmopolitan values. These two case studies also underscore the significant impact of high-stakes national examinations on modes of instruction and are suggestive of the crucial role political and institutional contexts play in shaping students and teachers’ perspectives of citizenship.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abu El-Haj, T. R. (2010). “The Beauty of America”: Nationalism, education, and the war on terror. Harvard Educational Review, 80(2), 242–274.
Alviar-Martin, T., & Ho, L. C. (2011). “So, where do they fit in?” teachers’ perspectives of multi-cultural education and diversity in Singapore. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(1), 127–135.
Basch, L., Schiller, N. G., & Blanc, C. S. (1994). Nations unbound: Transnational projects, postcolonial predicaments and deterritorialized nation-states. Basel: Gordon and Breach.
Buras, K. L., & Apple, M. (2006). Introduction. In M. W. Apple & K. L. Buras (Eds.), The subaltern speak: Curriculum, power and educational struggle (pp. 1–39). New York: Routledge.
Buras, K. L., & Motter, P. (2006). Toward a subaltern cosmopolitan multiculturalism. In M. W. Apple & K. L. Buras (Eds.), The subaltern speak: Curriculum, power and educational struggles (pp. 243–270). New York: Routledge.
Cornbleth, C. (2001). Climates of constraint/restraint of teachers and teaching. In W. B. Stanley (Ed.), Critical issues in social studies research for the 21st century (pp. 73–96). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Cornbleth, C. (2002). Images of America: What youth do know about the United States. American Educational Research Journal, 39(2), 519–552.
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Davies, I., & Issitt, J. (2005). Reflections on citizenship education in Australia, Canada and England. Comparative Education, 41(4), 389–410.
Doyle, W. (1992). Curriculum and pedagogy. In P. W. Jackson (Ed.), Handbook of research on curriculum (pp. 486–516). New York: Macmillan.
Epstein, T. (1998). Deconstructing differences in African-American and European-American adolescents’ perspectives on U.S. history. Curriculum Inquiry, 28(4), 397–423.
Epstein, T. (2000). Adolescents’ perspectives on racial diversity in U.S. history: Case studies from an urban classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 37(1), 185–214.
Evans, R. W. (2004). The social studies wars: What should we teach the children? New York/London: Teachers College Press.
Feinberg, W., & McDonough, K. (2005). Liberalism and the dilemma of public education in multicultural societies. In K. McDonough & W. Feinberg (Eds.), Citizenship and education in liberal-democratic societies: Teaching for cosmopolitan values and collective identities (pp. 1–22). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gaudelli, W. (2003). World class: Teaching and learning in global times. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gaudelli, W. (2010). Seeking a curricular soul: Moving global education into space/place, with intimacy and toward aesthetic experience. In B. Subedi (Ed.), Critical global perspectives: Rethinking knowledge about global societies (pp. 143–160). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Gopinathan, S. (2007). Globalisation, the Singapore developmental state and education policy: A thesis revisited. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 5(1), 53–70.
Han, C. (2007). History education and ‘Asian’ values for an ‘Asian’ democracy: The case of Singapore. Compare, 37(3), 383–398.
Hanvey, R. (1982). An attainable global perspective. Theory into Practice, 21(3), 162–167.
Hess, D. (2009). Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. New York: Routledge.
Hess, D., Stoddard, J., & Murto, S. (2008). Examining the treatment of 9/11 and terrorism in high school textbooks. In J. Bixby & J. L. Pace (Eds.), Educating democratic citizens in troubled times: Qualitative studies of current efforts (pp. 192–226). Albany/New York: State University of New York Press.
Ho, L. C. (2009). Global multicultural citizenship education: A Singapore experience. The Social Studies, 100(6), 285–293.
Ho, L. C. (2010). Don’t worry, I’m not going to report you: Education for citizenship in Singapore. Theory and Research in Social Education, 38(2), 217–247.
Ho, L. C., Alviar-Martin, T., Sim, J. B.-Y., & Yap, P. S. (2011). Civic disparities: Exploring students’ perceptions of citizenship within Singapore’s academic tracks. Theory and Research in Social Education, 39(1), 298–316.
Hobsbawm, E. (1994). The nation as an invented tradition. In J. Hutchinson & A. D. Smith (Eds.), Nationalism (pp. 76–82). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lee, H.L. (1997). A speech by BG Lee Hsien Loong, deputy prime minister at the launch of national education. http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/1997/170597.htm. Accessed 26 Dec 2009.
Loh, K. S. (1998). Within the Singapore story: The use and narrative of history in Singapore. Crossroads: An interdisciplinary. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 12(2), 1–21.
Mathison, S., Ross, E. W., & Vinson, K. D. (2006). Defining the social studies curriculum: Influence of and resistance to curriculum standards and testing in social studies. In E. W. Ross (Ed.), The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems and possibilities (3rd ed., pp. 99–114). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Merryfield, M. M., & Subedi, B. (2001). Decolonizing the mind for world-centered global education. In E. W. Ross (Ed.), The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems, and possibilities (Revth ed., pp. 277–290). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ministry of Education. (2007). Report of the committee on national education. Singapore: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education. (2008). Combined humanities ordinary level social studies syllabus (Syllabus 2192). http://www.seab.gov.sg/SEAB/oLevel/syllabus/2008_GCE_O_Level_Syllabuses/2192_2008.pdf
Ministry of Education. (2011). Press release: MOE to enhance learning of 21st century competencies and strengthen art, music and physical education. http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2010/03/moe-to-enhance-learning-of-21s.php. Accessed 18 Oct 2011.
Morris, P., & Cogan, J. (2001). A comparative overview: Civic education across six societies. International Journal of Educational Research, 35(1), 109–123.
Myers, J. P. (2010). The curriculum of globalization: Considerations for international and global education in the 21st century. In B. Subedi (Ed.), Critical global perspectives: Rethinking knowledge about global societies (pp. 103–120). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Noddings, N. (1988). An ethic of caring and its implications for instructional arrangements. American Journal of Education, 96(2), 215–230.
Noddings, N. (2005). Global citizenship: Promises and problems. In N. Noddings (Ed.), Educating citizens for global awareness (pp. 1–21). New York: Teachers College Press.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2002). For love of country? Boston: Beacon.
Popkewitz, T. S. (2003). National imaginaries, the indigenous foreigner, and power: Comparative educational research. In J. Schriewer (Ed.), Discourse formation in comparative education (Vol. 2nd, pp. 261–294). Frankfurt am Main: Peter-Lang.
Sim, J. B.-Y., & Ho, L. C. (2010). Transmitting social and national values through education in Singapore: Tensions in a globalized era. In T. Lovat, R. Toomey, & N. Clement (Eds.), International research handbook on values education and student wellbeing (pp. 897–917). Dordrecht: Springer.
Smith, A. D. (1991). National identity. Reno: University of Nevada.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Thornton, S. J. (2004). Citizenship education and social studies curriculum change after 9/11. In C. Woyshner, J. Watras, & M. S. Crocco (Eds.), Social education in the twentieth century: Curriculum and context for citizenship (pp. 210–220). New York: Peter Lang.
Thornton, S. J. (2005). Teaching social studies that matters: Curriculum for active learning. New York: Teachers College Press.
Tomlinson, J. (2003). Globalization and cultural identity. In D. Held & A. McGrew (Eds.), The global transformations reader: An introduction to the globalization debate (2nd ed., pp. 269–277). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Walzer, M. (1983). Spheres of justice: A defense of pluralism and equality. New York: Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ho, LC. (2013). National and Global Citizenship Education: Case Studies from Two Singapore Social Studies Classrooms. In: Deng, Z., Gopinathan, S., Lee, CE. (eds) Globalization and the Singapore Curriculum. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-57-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-57-4_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-4451-56-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-4451-57-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)