THE BATAKS IN SINGAPORE : A STUDY OF GROUP COHESION AND ASSIMILATION

Master'sMASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

IDEAS in Singapore: the experience of three schools.

This paper reports on the experience of three schools in Singapore as they implemented a whole school revitalisation (improvement) project, Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievement in Schools Project (IDEAS). The IDEAS project was developed in the Australian school context by researchers at the Leadership Research Institute, University of Southern Queensland and was launched in three Singapore schools in June 2004. The IDEAS approach towards school revitalisation recognizes pedagogical issues and harnesses the hidden capacity of the teaching profession as crucial elements of school revitalization. Of particular interest was the applicability of concepts developed and trialled in Australia to another cultural and societal context. To this end a research project was established with the Ministry of Education, Singapore, National Institute of Education and LRI/USQ. The project was closely monitored by a research team at NIE and assisted by researchers from the LRI. The project reports how the staff in the three trial schools engaged in developing a school vision that is being linked to teaching and learning. Teacher leadership has been a key to the development of the project which in turn has challenged the roles and relationships between teachers, students and formal leadership positions within each of the school contexts. The outcomes provide particular implications for the transfer of context specific projects across countries. They also reveal important insights about how teacher leadership can be fostered and strengthened with appropriate supportive structures and professional development activities

Enabling teachers to become pedagogical leaders: case studies in two IDEAS schools in Singapore and Australia

This research paper is about the role of the principal in enabling teacher leadership for pedagogical innovations and school improvement studied in two Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools (IDEAS) schools in Singapore and Australia over a 3-year period from 2005 to 2007. The research reported is based on the developing relationship between principals and teacher leaders as they collaboratively engage in a process of whole school improvement. Both case study schools used the IDEAS school improvement program which originates from the Leadership Research Institute, University of Southern Queensland. The cases trace the facilitation of the IDEAS process in each school and highlights the centrality of teacher leadership in bringing about change in school-wide pedagogy and a process of school re-culturing. It underlines the fact that principals need to support the enabling of leadership among teachers by giving them the space, time and responsibility to make decisions about curriculum work and ensuring that these are aligned with new organizational structures and processes. The paper discusses how the schools were different and yet similar in many ways between the two countries, Singapore and Australia, with regard to the nature of the enabling processes for organizational revitalization and school capacity building. It draws out some implications for school leadership and school improvement