What is quality education? How can it be achieved? The perspectives of school middle leaders in Singapore

Educ Asse Eval Acc (2015) 27:307322

DOI 10.1007/s11092-015-9223-8

Received: 3 July 2014 /Accepted: 1 June 2015 /Published online: 12 June 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract This paper presents the findings of a research project that examines how middle leaders in Singapore schools understand quality education and how they think quality education can be achieved. From the perspective of these middle leaders, quality education emphasises holistic development, equips students with the knowledge and skills for the future, inculcates students with the right values and imbues students with a positive learning attitude. Quality education is delivered by good teachers, enabled by good teaching and learning processes and facilitated by a conducive learning environment. The challenge of achieving quality education is to find the balance between lofty ideals and ground realities. One critical implication of the research findings is that policymakers should appeal to the ideals of practitioners to drive change.

Keywords Singapore.Schoolleadership.Middleleaders.Qualityeducation.Teachers. Curriculum . Pedagogy. Learning environment . Change

1 Quality education

Politicians, academics and practitioners in the field of education use the term quality education very often in various discourses. It generally refers to schooling that stakeholders and society in general will approve of. The call for quality education is perhaps associated with the advent of the knowledge society (read, for example, Drucker 1993, 2000), globalisation and talent war (read, for example, Brown and Tannock 2009; Florida 2005;) and concepts of

* Pak Tee Ng [email protected]

1 Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1, Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Republic of Singapore

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Pak Tee Ng1

308 Educ Asse Eval Acc (2015) 27:307322

innovation in education (read, for example, Bentley 2006; Westera 1999). Others have called for quality education as a human right (read, for example, UNESCO 2005) or a constitutional right (read, for example, Perry et al. 2010).

However, the term quality education is vague and perhaps over-used. There is a high degree of eclecticism in...