Globalisation, the Singapore state and educational reforms: towards performativity

Abstract

In response to the challenges of globalisation, the Singapore government has introduced an array of neo-liberal educational strategies to promote two goals: (a) greater diversity and choice in the educational landscape; and (b) greater autonomy and innovation at the school level. This article argues that the Singapore government uses the tactic of performativity as a means of state control even as it implements an education policy of decentralisation. Accom- panying the strategies to deregulate the education system are processes of reregulation intro- duced by the government to monitor and influence the thinking and behaviour of key educational stakeholders. What makes the case of Singapore interesting in the international literature is that it illustrates the tactical changes made by a small and ‘vulnerable’ state in Asia in an era of globalisation and convergence of educational reforms.