EDUCATION

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 OVERVIEW
 Children have always been involved in some form of
schooling (parents, immediate community, teachers)

 Of all the mammals, human children have the longest

period of ‘learning’ before they become independent (from
0yrs to 18yrs)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 OVERVIEW
 In Asian countries, education is seen as an essential way
of achieving upward-mobility
– Imperial exams in China for ordinary citizens to serve the Emperor

– In India, many of the brightest aim for the Civil Service (The
examination is one of the toughest examinations in India with
success rate of 0.1%-0.3% with more than 900,000 applicants)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 OVERVIEW
 In Asian countries, education is seen as an essential way
of achieving upward-mobility
– Imperial exams in China for ordinary citizens to serve the Emperor

– In India, many of the brightest aim for the Civil Service (The
examination is one of the toughest examinations in India with
success rate of 0.1%-0.3% with more than 900,000 applicants)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 In S Korea, were about 74.8 job seekers for every vacancy

 In Asian countries, education is seen as an essential way

of achieving upward-mobility
– Imperial exams in China for ordinary citizens to serve the Emperor

– In India, many of the brightest aim for the Civil Service (The
examination is one of the toughest examinations in India with
success rate of 0.1%-0.3% with more than 900,000 applicants)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 OVERVIEW
 In Asian countries, education is seen as an essential way
of achieving upward-mobility
– Imperial exams in China for ordinary citizens to serve the Emperor

– In India, many of the brightest aim for the Civil Service (The
examination is one of the toughest examinations in India with
success rate of 0.1%-0.3% with more than 900,000 applicants)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 STRUCTURE of AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM
 1989-2008: 60% of 15-64 year olds have
post-school qualification

 5 levels of education
– 1. Compulsory Primary School (5-12 years)
– 2. Compulsory Secondary School (12-16 years)
– 3. Post-compulsory secondary school (15-17)
– TAFE (like Poly) or higher education University

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 STRUCTURE of AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM
 If you are a young person in Australia, 45
out of 100 will graduate from university
– Good thing? Educated workforce….
– Bad thing? Over-qualified workforce…

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

STRUCTURE of Singapore
EDUCATION SYSTEM

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

STRUCTURE of Singapore
EDUCATION SYSTEM

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

STRUCTURE of Singapore
EDUCATION SYSTEM

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 AIMS OF EDUCATION
Good for economy
Trains young for paid employment - community
and govts ought to invest in education
Investing in education is also good for economy

Helps shape citizens

Education socialises children to be part of society
 makes young people law-abiding, well-adjusted
and conforming members of society (more…)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 SCHOOLS AS SOCIALISING
INSTITUTIONS
 Schools as normalising agencies
for practices, behaviours and ideas:

– regulates behaviours: standardised

behaviour, dress, thinking, nationalism,
hygiene…

– sets standards: standardised literacy-

numeracy skills produce ‘literate’
workers

– divides population into high achievers,

competent, low achievers (is this
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
good?)
 SCHOOLS AS SOCIALISING
INSTITUTIONS
 In Singapore, all primary and secondary school students
must wear uniform

 WHY?

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 AIMS OF EDUCATION
Are there are NEGATIVE effects of education?

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 EDUCATION INEQUALITY
 Despite more participation in education, there is
still inequalities faced by certain groups of
students in society. Most affected groups:

 1. Students in rural communities

– Poor facilities

 2. Female students
– Likely to be on / off students

 3. Students from poor families (eg…)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY
 Despite more participation in education - still
inequalities of opportunities for some groups in
society. Most affected groups:
 1. Students in rural communities
 2. Female students
 3. Students from working-class families (eg…)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 THEORIES OF
EDUCATION INEQUALITY

Involves combination of class differences,

race and gender issues, geographic location ,
mobility, disability

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 FUNCTIONALIST THEORIES
 Schools are engaged in reproducing the status
quo - the society we already have

 Part of the agenda is to ensure working-class

children do not aspire to becoming
doctors/lecturers or upper class children do not
contemplate entering the working-class “blue
collar” jobs
 Eg ‘steaming in Singapore’ (eg…)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 STREAMING/TRACKING
 process of dividing school children into groups that receive'
different instruction due to the perceived differences in
academic ability
GEP, Express, Normal etc (more detail in later slide)

 labels students as being "bright", "slow“ children

 teachers react to students according to the stream they are

in – ‘teacher expectations’
– A teacher who ‘expects’ a smart student to do well will work harder
to make sure s/he actually does well

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 STREAMING/TRACKING
 students from privileged backgrounds more help likely to
do better in school not because they are ‘smarter’
– Parents have more $$$ for tuition and out-of-school classes
– Parents have higher expectations for the children (like ‘teacher
expectations’)

 Oakes (1990): students in lower streams more likely to

receive poorer education in quality of subjects, types of
teachers, and general resources available to them

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 Acting Minister of Ed
Ng Chee Meng
 Hua Yi Pri
 Hwa Chong JC
 US Air Force Academy on SAF scholarship
 Master of Arts (International Relations) at Tufts
University, USA
 Join SAF in 1986. Became minister 2015.

 Can you trust a successful scholar who asks

parents to let their kids ‘fail’??
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 Conflict Theory
 Schools entrench ‘inequality’ in society because
certain students are disadvantaged by issues like
class, gender, ethnicity

 Because different students have different access

to resources, certain students do poorly in school
and therefore find it harder to achieve upward-
mobility as an adult
– (or certain students do well in school and find upward
mobility easier to achieve)
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 Conflict Theory
 Because all students who graduate from school
have different experiences/results, some will go on
to higher studies (and get higher-paying jobs)
while others will go straight to work (and get lower-
paying jobs)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 Symbolic Interactionism
 Focus on the ‘individuals’ in schools

 eg how teacher influences students?

 eg how do students perform different roles

in school to mimic society at large?

 How do the interactions in school reflect

society at large?
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
The Breakfast Club (movie)

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 BOWLES AND GINTIS
Argue that there is no link between student’s intelligence and
scholastic success (ie your IQ does not determine how well you do in
school)

 Family background is stronger influence than intelligence

 Example: intelligent working class child less likely do well at school

than intelligent student from higher socio-economic background

 WHY?

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 Pierre BOURDIEU
 French sociologist formed theory
about relationship between the
social and the educational factors
that contribute to school success

 Theory of Cultural Capital

 Similar to financial capital

individuals inherit from families
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 CULTURAL CAPITAL (CC)
 CC is the bank of knowledge about power
(both symbolic and material) which
individuals inherit from their families

 Individuals from middle/upper class

backgrounds find their CC fits with that of
school (eg ‘reading’, ‘playing music’)

 Working-class children find their CC is not

valued by schools (eg ‘cooking’, childcare)
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 CC
 Cultural capital is an important factor to
finding the job of your choice

 Students from poorer families face

alienation at school and often self-eliminate
from education

Social groups with limited access to

knowledge have low economic political and
social power
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 CC

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 Beyond CC
 Please recall the ‘new British classes’
newsclip shown in tutorial – Social Capital is
becoming increasingly important in this
internet age

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 FAMILY BACKGROUND AND
UNEQUAL OUTCOMES
 QUESTION
What influence did your family have on
your educational outcomes?

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 Family and Socialisation
 Families are first institution of socialisation
(remember the ‘family’ lecture?)
 School is the second major institution of
socialisation
 Are there other institutions? Religious
organisations?

 Peer groups in adolescence take over

strong socialisation influences (‘peer
pressure’) Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 Family and Socialisation
 Parents attitudes towards education
– Parents’ positive or negative experiences may affect
education outcomes of children

 Degree of parental involvement in school

 Degree of parental contacts in local community

 Ability to pay for extra-curricular activities

– Piano, ballet, drama, sports…
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
 IN-SCHOOL PRACTICES THAT
REPRODUCE INEQUALITIES
 Concept: Hidden Curriculum: “the social
learning that occurs within the education
system which is not part of the official
curriculum. This involves learning a large
range of social conventions about one’s role
in the social hierarchy”.

 Eg: obeying ‘authority’ (teachers/prefects)

links to how to act in the workforce/society
Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001
IN-SCHOOL PRACTICES THAT
REPRODUCE INEQUALITIES
 Knowledge hierarchy is imparted to students

 Greater prestige (status) to maths/science;

Lower prestige to humanities/arts
– Most parents/teachers encourage students to
become ‘doctor/engineer’ etc, but seldom
artist/actor/chef etc

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 TEACHER-EXPECTATIONS
 Teachers make assumptions about student
outcomes based on their own social,
cultural, class backgrounds
– Common for teachers to say “I’m teaching a 5N
Academic ‘condemned’ class, so as long as
they go to ITE I’ll be happy…”
– How does this affect students?

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

Conclusion: Education for the Future

 The education syallbi takes years to plan;

the needs of societies change rapidly

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001

 Conclusion: Education for the
Future
 With Singapore having a very high GINI
coefficient AND the divide between ‘top
schools’ and ‘neighbourhood schools’, will
the difference between ‘upper class’ and
‘working class’ kids in school be transported
to greater differences in adult population?

Dr Danny Tan - JCU SY1001