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Building a democratic society: exploring Singapore students’ understandings of democracy

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Purpose – One would not commonly associate democracy with Singapore, instead scholars have
often described Singapore as an illiberal democracy and an authoritarian state. At the same time,
all Singaporean school students recite the national pledge of allegiance in school every morning,
in which they pledge “to build a democratic society based on justice and equality”.What do students
know about democracy? Are they able to distinguish the characteristics of democratic systems from
non-democratic ones? The purpose of this paper is to report on Singapore students’ understandings
of democracy.

Design/methodology/approach – Using a qualitative instrumental case study design,
64 students from three secondary schools were interviewed and the social studies curriculum was
analysed.

Findings – Overall, students had poor knowledge of democracy. Consistent with a lack of
knowledge of democracy, most students also showed a relatively uncritical acceptance of hierarchy
and deference to authority, and held a superficial understanding of citizenship. Civics lessons
through social studies, and the school environment did little to promote students’ engagement with
democracy.

Research limitations/implications – The authors argue that it is important that students
be given the opportunities to develop a basic conceptual knowledge of democracy, as they are not
capable of discriminating democratic characteristics from non-democratic ones without it. At the very
least, students should know the relevance of what they pledge relative to their nation’s model of
democracy, or in the absence of a clear model, be encouraged to struggle with the various existing
models of democracies so that, as the future of Singapore, they might determine and adapt the ideals
that they deem best for the nation.

Originality/value – This paper is an original study of Singapore students’ understandings
of democracy.

Keywords: Singapore, Democracy, Students

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Asian Education and Development Studies

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

Malden, USA : Emerald Group Publishing Limited., 2016

Deskripsi Fisik

Asian Education and Development Studies Vol. 5 No. 1, 2016 pp. 37-58

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

2046-3162

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

Vol. 5 No. 1, 2016

Subjek

PENDIDIKAN

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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