Singapore's Approach to Developing Teachers

Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight

Woon Chia Liu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429782602
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teacher Training

Singapore's education system has come to international attention due to its commendable performance on the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), as well as the students' continual sterling performance in internationally benchmarked tests such as Trends in International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS), and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The accomplishments are the result of a long-haul vision of education, and more importantly, a deep commitment towards developing teachers for the 21st century. Singapore has invested steadfastly from the early years in teachers at the front line of the classrooms in schools. This book explicates the 'thinking' behind Singapore's approach to developing teachers and building the teaching profession. It examines how Singapore strives to attract the best and the brightest people to become teachers, develop them into autonomous professionals, and grow them over their career so that they are able to deliver quality education for every child. The author hopes that by sharing the hindsight, insight and foresight of the system, and looking at Singapore's aspirations and challenges, the book can stimulate reflection and generate discussion, and provide ideas for improving teaching and teacher learning worldwide.

PART I

The teaching profession

1

A NATIONAL PRIORITY AND A PROFESSION

DOI: 10.4324/9780429433641

Introduction

Singapore is frequently referred to as the ‘Little Red Dot’ by Singaporeans and foreigners. The term was first used by the former Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, more as a disparaging remark, in an article published in the Asian Wall Street Journal on 4 August 1998 (Borsuk and Chua, 1998). Although the remark initially caused an outcry as it was seen as dismissive of Singapore, the term was quickly embraced by both Singapore leaders and ordinary citizens with a sense of pride towards the nation's success despite its physical limitations. For a young island city-state that is just a little red dot on the world map, with no natural resources or hinterland, few would argue that Singapore has established an enviable education system and has achieved extraordinary economic success within a generation. Singapore has been the destination of multiple study trips by politicians, policy makers, and thought leaders, and has been the subject of ‘international fascination … partly because [it] is so small and yet so well-known and influential and partly because of its extraordinary success …’ (Connelly, 2013, p. vii).

Singapore is an enigma and resists simple classification and explanation. This book will attempt to share the thinking behind Singapore's approach to developing teachers and building the teaching profession from an insider's perspective. Underlying principles, key pillars, policy decisions, educational aspirations, and reform initiatives, as well as the hindsight, insight, and foresight that are considered noteworthy in the Singapore's journey will be discussed. The aim here is to highlight what matters and what works in the hope that we can draw up promising strategies for improving teaching and teacher learning worldwide. As will be seen in the following chapters, Singapore's teacher development is a self-reinforcing system, with each part of the system aligned to the other pieces (Sclafani, 2008). Although not organised by components but by underlining principles and key pillars, this book will cover the multiple complementary components from recruitment to retirement. In essence, the first five chapters will focus on the teaching profession, and the latter five chapters will concentrate on teacher education and certification.

This chapter will set the stage by emphasising that in Singapore, the commitment of the education service is to the students, and all decisions are made based on what is deemed best for them (Sclafani, 2008). Singapore understands the importance of developing teachers for quality teaching to be accessible to students in all schools and classrooms. Therefore, it is no coincidence that teachers are lauded as a national priority, and teaching is positioned as a high-quality profession (Liu, 2017).

A national priority

For finally, just as a country is as good as its citizens, so its citizens are finally, only as good as their teachers.

(Lee, 1966a)

Singapore in the 1960s was very different from the cosmopolitan garden city that we see today. Our people were lowly educated, and there was social unrest and high unemployment. Singapore had to embark on nation building fast. Without any natural resources, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Founding Prime Minister of Singapore, believed that the resourcefulness of our people would be the key to the survival of the nation. Consequently, education was identified as one of the key pillars in nation building (P. T. Ng, 2017). Mr Lee took the stand that teachers at the front line of the classrooms are the pivotal factor of educational success, and in their care is entrusted the impressionable minds of young people, and thus the future of the nation (Lee, 1959, 1966b). He asserted that

Outside the influence of their parents and their homes, the most important influence is the teacher and the school. And so it is no exaggeration to say that our 10,600 teachers in all our schools constitute the most influential group of 10,600 people anywhere in Singapore.

(Lee, 1959)

Mr Lee's views about teachers and the teaching profession laid the foundation for teacher policies in Singapore (Liu, 2017). Following his lead, prime ministers and other leading officials have reiterated that teachers are a priority in Singapore. They are often lauded in political speeches and public media for their contribution to nation building and developing our youths. Mr Heng Swee Keat, then Minister for Education, made one of the most succinct yet poignant comments about the contribution of teachers. He said,

You teach to make Singapore possible, you teach to make our future possible.

(Heng, 2014)

More recently, in the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, our appreciation for our teachers was exemplified in the Teachers' Day speech by Mr Lawrence Wong, then Minister for Education. He shared ‘this year has reminded us even more acutely of the role and the enormous impact of teachers and staff in the lives of our students. It has also reminded us of the indomitable spirit of our education fraternity’. He went on to extol that

This is the spirit that touches me and makes me proud to be part of this team. In the midst of your many challenges, you have stayed strong and steadfast because the wellbeing of your students was always at the forefront of your mind.

(Wong, 2020)

This high regard has been noted by foreign academics (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2017; Goodwin, 2012), and they appreciate that the commitments to deliberately celebrate teachers and treat teaching as an important profession are not genetic in nature, but are developed and sustained politically (Darling-Hammond, 2017). As observed by Darling-Hammond (2017), the situation in Singapore is in contrast to the wave of teacher bashing in the United States (Chaltain, 2012; Fagell, 2020; Lawson, 2019; Samsa, 2013), as well as ‘war on teachers’ (MacBeath, 2012, p. 73) and ‘teaching-shaming’ (Chakrabarti, 2020) in England. Even in the recent coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, unlike the way Singapore's teachers were treated, teachers in the United States reflected that there were many complaints about them being lazy, entitled, and unethical, that they needed to be micromanaged, that they were ‘liars’ if they said they had underlying health risks, and ‘weak’ if they were scared to teach in person because their districts had no real safety plan in place (Fagell, 2020). The aguish was evident when a teacher pronounced that ‘I don’t need people telling me I'm wonderful all the time, but I do need to feel like I matter and that my work has value, whether it's inside or outside a building' (Fagell, 2020).

Teaching as a profession

From the early years, the Singapore government made it clear that teaching is

a proud and dedicated profession. Teaching is not a job. It is not a vocation. The capacity to transmit knowledge and skills demands dedication of a very high order, for nowhere else is the giving so great in return for what you get for what you give.

(Lee, 1966a)

The position became the cornerstone on which Singapore built our teaching profession. In Singapore, ‘teaching as a profession’ means that teachers are expected to acquire a scientific knowledge base that is a pre-requisite for practice. They are governed by a strict code of conduct and professional ethos, and have a moral and ethical commitment to the child, society, and nation. In addition, teachers need to have technical skills to enact what they know in the classroom, judgement in applying knowledge, and autonomy to make decisions in the best interest of the child. Finally, teachers must continue to sharpen their expertise throughout their career to maintain relevance (Liu, 2017; Liu and Lim, 2018).

Singapore's definition is consistent with Shulman's (1998) observation of the common characteristics of all professions. It is in line with the trait theorists' view that a profession must have features that include specialised knowledge, a code of conduct, professional authority and autonomy, access control, and continuous research (Yeom and Ginsburg, 2007). Similar perspectives are shared by many educational experts and thought leaders. For instance, Darling-Hammond (1988) defined a profession as one that has specialised expert knowledge, primary responsibility to the welfare of those whom they serve, and standards of practice and professional ethics, which are monitored by the profession. Likewise, Day (2002) defined a profession as one that has a strong knowledge base (technical culture), service ethic (commitment to serving clients' needs), professional autonomy (control over classroom practice), and professional commitment (strong individual and collective identities). Murray (2006) noted that teaching as a profession must include professional knowledge, attitudes, and values which determine and articulate the character of teachers' practices. Glazer (2008) highlighted that a profession must be practice-centred. Sachs (2016) contended that teaching is a (mature) profession because its members have a robust knowledge base, share a common set of values, and are guided by ethical practice, and she made the case for teachers to be more research active with teachers' practices validated and supported through research. Schleicher (2012) emphasised that as professionals, teachers need to have ownership of their professional standards and have a say in their own professional development (PD). For the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), professionals must be able to make autonomous and expertise-based actions and decisions about their work based on a specialised set of expert knowledge and skills that they acquire from both quality training and constant collaboration and dialogue with peers and other stakeholders (OECD, 2019).

At this point, it is important to acknowledge that the word ‘professionalism’ is not a uni-dimensional construct. It is often a complex, contentious, and value-laden term (National Institute of Education (NIE), 2008). Principally in the West, autonomy is seen as a key attribute of professionalism, and its roots lie in the historical evolution of guilds, which grouped together the members involved in some form of economic, intellectual, or artistic activity. Though different in different contexts, relations between the guilds, religious, and state authorities eventually led to arrangements that provided some measure of autonomy and, for academic institutions, freedom (NIE, 2008). In the East, notably China, the rulers were able to maintain authority over intellectual life for a much longer time. For societies that have been strongly influenced by China, such as Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, professionalism focuses more on ‘content mastery, loyalty to authority, high ethical standards, group rather than individual orientation (Lewis and Tsuchida, 1999; Paine, 1990)’ (NIE, 2008, p. 23). As the countries sought to modernise, first Japan followed by China, they started borrowing ideas from the West. Nonetheless, the traditional ethical and intellectual traditions remain strong amongst teachers and education professionals (NIE, 2008). Singapore sits at the crossroads and is a melting pot of both East and West. We are more of a collectivistic society so we ‘value group rather than individual orientation’, but we do not advocate ‘loyalty to authority’. We believe in empowering our teachers, but our focus of the ‘devolution of authority’ may be different as compared to some countries (see Chapter 2 for more discussion on teacher autonomy in Singapore).

The next section will examine several key decisions that cemented teaching as a high-quality profession in the Si...