This article reports on how those working in post-secondary education and training in Singapore perceive the professional effects of a transition to online learning, teaching and assessment (LTA) as a consequence of the COVID-19 global pandemic. It draws on a survey sample of n = 1553 educators and trainers working in Singapore and their perspectives on how a migration to online LTA is producing long-term, if not permanent, changes to the organisation and delivery of post-secondary education and training. It reveals a largely positive view of digital resettlement of education and training in Singapore as a consequence of COVID-19. Yet despite the articulation by respondents of ‘paradigm change’ and ‘education without limits’, we find that an embrace of digitalisation is mobilised (and manipulated) not so much by pedagogical concerns but by economic ambitions and a utilitarian logic common to the neoliberal incantations of a global education policy community. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Every teacher’s classroom practice is embedded in a system of overlapping contexts that interact with their day-to-day decisions. In this paper, I focus on sociocultural context and how it interacts with teachers’ subjective responses to accountability instruments. Drawing on interviews with secondary school teachers in Finland and Singapore–education systems with contrasting but comparably effective approaches to teacher accountability–I find that one way in which sociocultural context interacts with teachers’ experiences of accountability instruments is by influencing the mental models of motivation that shape their responses to these instruments. This finding is relevant to two contentious areas in education policy. First, it suggests that teacher accountability policy is a socioculturally embedded matter, implying a need for caution rather than recommending specific forms of accountability across the board. Second, it adds to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that ‘best practices’ from high-performing education systems are contingent on implementation contexts. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

As a new dimension of transnational connections between East and Southeast Asia, this paper explores educational migration of South Korean "early study abroad" (jogi yuhak) students and accompanying mothers to Singapore. In examining Asian educational migrants to the "West", many previous studies tend to focus on the accumulation of cultural and linguistic capital not available within Asia. However, I argue that the study of educational migration within Asia needs to go beyond the Bourdieuan framework of capital accumulation. Instead, the case of South Korean educational migrants in Singapore illustrates that these migrants emphasise more on the enactment rather than accumulation of cultural capital, the process wherein many emotional resources and embodied techniques are required in order to activate what the migrant students have accumulated through their overseas education. This study identifies the "Asian advantage", specific types of emotional and educational benefits that are believed to facilitate the migrant students' capital enactment in their imaginings of future trajectories of "going global".

Although Singapore schools are English-medium, Mandarin is a compulsory subject for students of Chinese heritage. As young Singaporeans increasingly speak English at home, the required study of Mandarin has become a source of anxiety for families. Mandarin 'enrichment centers', which provide supplementary language classes, leverage this anxiety in various ways, from promising top exam results to highlighting non-traditional pedagogical approaches. This analysis draws on data from the websites of 14 such centers, focusing on how these programs position learners in relation to the notion of linguistic entrepreneurship (De Costa et al. 2016). We identify three broad classes of enrichment center: Traditional, Modern Traditional, and Anti-Traditional, each offering distinct imaginings of the learner as linguistic entrepreneur. Traditional centers highlight academic achievement, promising 'exam-focused' strategies to optimize school performance. Modern Traditional centers, in contrast, frame enrichment as an elite lifestyle choice, emphasizing exclusivity and luxury. Finally, Anti-Traditional centers distance themselves from conventional pedagogy, and invoke notions of holistic, experiential learning. Across these categories, we observe a common discourse of Mandarin learning as a character-building struggle, in which centers provide unique resources enabling learners to survive the Singapore education system and emerge as ideal neoliberal subjects who have maximized their potential.

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This study aims to examine the motivational profiles of Malay students in Singapore-based self-regulated learning framework (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990) and self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985). The sample consisted of 740 secondary school students from 24 tuition centres for Malay students only. The students were from three academic streams in Singapore (Express, Normal-academic, and Normal-technical). Using cluster analysis, five different clusters of students were found based on their unique characteristics on self-regulation and learning strategies scores. The clusters were named from best to poor in numeric order. Cluster 1 is characterized by high scores on intrinsic value, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and lower scores on lack of learning strategies and anxiety compared to other clusters. On the other hand, cluster 5 has the lowest intrinsic values, self-efficacy, and self-regulation relative to their scores on other clustering variables. In addition, the more adaptive profiles were also found to score higher in enjoyment and effort, and lower in boredom, compared to other clusters. The findings suggest that intra-individual differences in self-regulated learning behaviour are associated with the expected differences in the type of motivation possessed, and learning outcome measures.