Meritocracy as Dominant Ideology: Perceptions of Equal Opportunity in Singapore

Joseph W. Miller, Gettysburg College

Description

For decades, the Singaporean education system has proven itself on the international scene, constantly scoring top five in all categories on standardized international assessments. Singapore's instructional methods, standardized tests, and streaming tracks have been scrutinized in the hope to replicate their results, but few researchers have attempted to understand how Singaporean's perceive their education system within the dominant ideology of meritocracy, and how that perception changes depending on the person's race and their relationship to the education system. This research constitutes the next step in that direction. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 Singaporean adults, constituting all four state-recognized races, and covering a wide breadth of parents, students, former students and administrators. A qualitative content analysis was performed to identify common perceptions of meritocracy, with a special emphasis on how this perception differed by respondents’ characteristics--race, age, relationship to the educational institution. Results indicate that Chinese Singaporeans have a more favorable opinion of the outcome of the meritocratic education system than Malays, with all groups conforming to the dominant ideology, or the perception that Singapore's education system is wholly meritocratic.

 
May 5th, 10:00 AM May 5th, 11:00 AM

Meritocracy as Dominant Ideology: Perceptions of Equal Opportunity in Singapore

Breidenbaugh Hall 209

For decades, the Singaporean education system has proven itself on the international scene, constantly scoring top five in all categories on standardized international assessments. Singapore's instructional methods, standardized tests, and streaming tracks have been scrutinized in the hope to replicate their results, but few researchers have attempted to understand how Singaporean's perceive their education system within the dominant ideology of meritocracy, and how that perception changes depending on the person's race and their relationship to the education system. This research constitutes the next step in that direction. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 Singaporean adults, constituting all four state-recognized races, and covering a wide breadth of parents, students, former students and administrators. A qualitative content analysis was performed to identify common perceptions of meritocracy, with a special emphasis on how this perception differed by respondents’ characteristics--race, age, relationship to the educational institution. Results indicate that Chinese Singaporeans have a more favorable opinion of the outcome of the meritocratic education system than Malays, with all groups conforming to the dominant ideology, or the perception that Singapore's education system is wholly meritocratic.