Educational leadership in Singapore

Abstract

Purpose -While Singapore's outstanding educational achievements are well known worldwide, there is a disproportionate paucity of literature on school leadership practices that contribute to and support pedagogical initiatives that -along with socio-cultural factors -are normally considered responsible for its educational success. The aim of this paper is to explicate system-wide school leadership factors that contribute to Singapore's educational success. Design/methodology/approach -The paper includes critical discussion, review of literature and conceptualization. Findings -It is argued that three unique features of Singapore school leadership, namely -logistics of a small tightly-coupled school system, human resource policies that reinforce alignment, and a distinctive "leader-teacher compact" reflecting the predominant Chinese culture -account for the extraordinary level of tight coupling and alignment of leadership across the school system. In turn, these unique features bring synergies of sustainability, scalability, succession, and high performance across the entire Singapore school system. Research limitations/implications -Unique features of Singapore school leadership must be examined in conjunction with pedagogical initiatives and socio-cultural factors for a more complete and nuanced understanding of educational success in Singapore. Practical implications -Tightly coupled mechanisms of leadership underlie the success of Singapore education. Government needs to consider whether such tightly-coupled leadership will continue to serve it well in future, given the demand for twenty-first century knowledge based skills. Social implications -The influence of socio-cultural factors (e.g. leader-teacher compact) on educational success merits inclusion in any explanation. Originality/value -This paper addresses an important gap in the literature by promulgating crucial features of school leadership that contribute to Singapore's educational success.

Teacher leadership enactment in professional learning community contexts: towards a better understanding of the phenomenon

“…Although the Singapore education system is said to be highly centralised (Hairon and Dimmock 2012;Dimmock and Tan 2013), the implementation of PLCs has a tight-loose combination (Lee and Lee 2013). While school leaders are strongly encouraged and expected to implement PLCs, the nitty-gritty details are to be decided by school leaders and teachers.…”

Desarrollo Profesional Docente en Singapur: Describiendo el Panorama

“…En 2009/10, tras más de una década de iniciativas innovadoras de DPD, el MOE estableció que todas las escuelas públicas debían convertirse en Comunidades de Aprendizaje Profesional (CAP). Esta medida (ver MOE, 2010) convirtió a Singapur en el primer país del mundo en adoptar el marco de CAP a nivel nacional (Dimmock y Tan, 2013;Hairon y Dimmock, 2011).…”

“…Como dijimos en la Introducción, somos conscientes de que el éxito del sistema educativo de Singapur no puede ser explicado exclusivamente por la calidad y cantidad del DPD ofrecido a su personal docente, pues existen numerosos factores de nivel macro, organizacional y familiar que son importantes en esta ecuación (Dimmock y Tan, 2013;Hairon y Dimmock, 2011;Tan y Dimmock, 2014). Con esta precaución en mente, el presente artículo muestra que el sistema educativo de Singapur ha respondido muy bien a los retos de las reformas curriculares y pedagógicas.…”

“…); y el nivel familiar (crianza y socialización) (Dimmock y Tan, 2013;Hairon y Dimmock, 2011;Tan y Dimmock, 2014). Sin duda, el nivel organizacional es el que ha despertado mayor interés y curiosidad entre educadores, investigadores y responsables políticos de todo el mundo en los últimos años.…”

“…Con base en estas características generales, argumentamos que el modelo de DPD en Singapur presenta las características del DPD de "alta calidad" descritas en la literatura internacional (p.ej., Avalos, 2011;Bautista, Cañadas, Brizuela, y Schliemann, 2015;Borko, 2004;Darling-Hammond y McLaughlin, 2011;Desimone, 2009). No obstante, dado que reconocemos la complejidad de razones que explican el éxito de Singapur en materia educativa (Dimmock y Tan, 2013;Hairon y Dimmock, 2011;Tan y Dimmock, 2014), nuestra intención no es en modo alguno establecer o sugerir relaciones causales simples entre la calidad y/o cantidad de oportunidad de DPD ofrecidas a los profesores y el alto rendimiento de sus estudiantes. Como se discute en la Introducción de este monográfico (Bautista y Ortega-Ruiz, 2015), la influencia del DPD debe ser analizada desde una perspectiva sistémica y compleja.…”