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Pedagogical reforms within a centralised-decentralised system: A Singapore’s perspective to diffuse 21st century learning innovations

Yancy Toh (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Wei Loong David Hung (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Paul Meng-Huat Chua (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Sujin He (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Azilawati Jamaludin (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore)

International Journal of Educational Management

ISSN: 0951-354X

Article publication date: 12 September 2016

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dialectical interplay between centralisation and decentralisation forces so as to understand how schools leverage on its autonomous pedagogical space, influence the diffusion of innovations in the educational landscape of Singapore and how a centralised-decentralised system supports (or impedes) pedagogical reform for twenty-first century learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper first outlines the evolutionary stance of Singapore’s decentralisation from its past to present trajectories, thus providing a broader social-historical interpretation to its tight-loose-tight coupling of the education system; followed by situating the context of reform within the national narrative of Ministry of Education’s (MOE) twenty-first century competencies framework. The authors examine how school autonomy should be accompanied by systemic enabling mechanisms, through two case illustrations of whole-school reforms.

Findings

There are four carryover effects that the authors have observed: structural, socio-cultural, economic and epistemic. Middle managers from the two schools act as a pedagogical, socio-technological and financial broker outside the formal collaborative structures organised by the MOE. Such a “middle-out” approach, complemented by centralised mechanisms for “coeval sensing mechanism”, has resulted in boundary-spanning linkages and multiplier effects in terms of knowledge spillovers.

Research limitations/implications

Socio-cultural context matters; and what constitutes as co-learning between policymakers and practitioners in Singapore may be construed as policing that stifles innovations in other contexts.

Originality/value

In addition to the conceptualisation of how school autonomy may lead to school-based innovations, the paper provided some preliminary empirical evidence of how the co-production of knowledge has been engendered within, across and beyond individual Singapore schools through the mechanism of innovation diffusion. The unit of analysis is innovation ecosystem.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This material is based on the work supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and eduLab, Singapore under Grant (NRF2013-EDU002-STUDY01) and Educational Research Funding Programme under Grant (SUG 17/14 PC). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NRF or NIE Singapore. The authors are grateful to the participating primary schools for collaborating with us on this research.

Citation

Toh, Y., Hung, W.L.D., Chua, P.M.-H., He, S. and Jamaludin, A. (2016), "Pedagogical reforms within a centralised-decentralised system: A Singapore’s perspective to diffuse 21st century learning innovations", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 30 No. 7, pp. 1247-1267. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2015-0147

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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