School Leadership and Educational Change in Singapore

This book provides readers with insights into how Singapore school leaders are actively engaged in the transformation of the Singapore education system. It brings to attention crucial elucidations of the increasing demand and complexity placed on school leaders through the use of case studies. Each chapter in the book focuses on a particular issue which has become important or has gained renewed importance in the Singapore education system.

The chapters first provide a background to the theme under examination and a theoretical basis for discussion. They then narrate the case that shows how school leaders interpret and implement policy initiatives in their respective schools or lead change in that area. The case studies span over a wide range of domains such as instructional leadership, assessment leadership, stakeholder engagement, professional learning communities, and school branding. The data collected from these case studies came primarily from interviews of educators in their respective school contexts, in addition to other sources of data such as artifacts. Each case study highlights descriptions, interpretations, and perspectives across school contexts, which is consistent with the proposition that school leadership is very much shaped by context. At the end of each chapter, there are guiding questions to help readers critically analyse and reflect on the main learning points of the case.

Benjamin Wong was Associate Professor at the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He taught and researched on history of political thought, nation building and Singapore politics, ethics and leadership as well as education philosophy, education policies, and personal epistemological beliefs. He co-edited "Dissident Democrats: The Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia," and published articles in Philosophy East and West, Journal of Educational Administration and History, The Asia-Pacific Educational Researcher, among others. At the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group, he served several coordinator roles critical to the functioning of specific programmes to support student learning - one of which is the Programme Coordinator of the Leaders in Education Programme (LEP) at the National Institute of Education, which he served for eight years. The LEP is a full-time 'state-of-the-art' progamme for selected education officers to prepare them for leadership positions in Singapore schools, and has won widespread admiration from educators in many parts of the world.

Salleh Hairon is Assistant Professor at the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group, and Assistant Dean, Doctor in Education, at the Graduate Studies and Professional Learning Programme Office, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in Education from the University of Bath, and Masters of Arts in School Effectiveness and School Improvement from the University of London, Institute of Education. He teaches in undergraduate, postgraduate and in-service courses relating to teacher and leadership education and preparation. Prior to his academic career, he has taught in both primary and secondary schools in Singapore. His research focus is on school leadership for teacher collective learning, which includes distributed leadership, teacher leadership, professional learning communities, action research and professional development.

Pak Tee Ng is Associate Dean, Leadership Learning at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He oversees and teaches in milestone executive programmes for leaders in Singapore schools (Principal-ship and Head-of-Department-ship). Pak Tee's main areas of teaching, research, training and consultancy at NIE are Educational Leadership, Educational Policies, Learning Organisation, Change Management, Innovation, Complexity, and Coaching. He has authored several books and numerous journal articles, book chapters and conference papers.