Creating Educational Dreams: The Intersection of Ethnicity, Families and Schools

Kang (policy and leadership, National Institute of Education, Singapore) explores the post-secondary aspirations of 60 female secondary students from the Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnic groups in Singapore, and how those aspirations are sought after and achieved in a nation-state like Singapore which prides itself on its meritocratic ideals. The study examines ways that educational outcomes are influenced by ethnicity, in partnership with various social institutions, including family differences in cultural perceptions of education, parental management of children's education-related lives at home and in school, and various dimensions of school--curriculum, examinations, and teachers--that are 'anti-meritocratic.'