There is an increase in demand for teacher leaders to take on and lead the digitised change in the classrooms. However, there is still limited research on how ready teachers are to lead and manage online teaching during and post-COVID times, and hence this exploratory study investigates the challenges that teachers face in enacting e-leadership. To answer the question on “how do the process and development of the introduction of Home-Based Learning (HBL) influence teacher leadership in Singapore?”, through convenience sampling, this study used questionnaires to understand in-service teachers’ readiness to be e-leaders and the drawbacks in the development and introduction of the hybrid or e-curriculum. The study concluded that when building teacher leadership capacity, it is important for school leaders to set the direction, establish a culture of online learning, and develop e-champions to support e-pedagogies. E-teacher leadership can be described as hybrid leadership that consists of a blend of face-to-face and virtual leadership skills.

Recent education reform in China reflects the global trend of education policy borrowing from Anglophone countries such as the United States. The reform in China essentially advocates shifting from knowledge reproduction and didacticism to knowledge construction by students through a learner-centredness approach. Aware of the trend of borrowing policy from ‘Western’ countries, some educators in China use the proverb ‘the West wind has overpowered the East wind’ to describe this phenomenon. This paper examines the cultural factors that influence education policy borrowing in China by drawing upon Johnson’s metaphors of the ‘politics of selling’ and the ‘politics of gelling’. This paper argues that there exist fundamental cultural differences between Western and Chinese perspectives on the nature and transmission of knowledge that make education policy transfer in China challenging. This paper further proposes that China borrow education policy judiciously by integrating foreign and indigenous sources of knowledge, teaching and learning.

Professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means of raising the teaching profession are becoming more attractive in education systems seeking to improve school improvement processes and outcomes. The main intention is to increase the individual and collective capacity of teachers so as to support school-wide capacity for teaching and learning. Although international research on PLCs is relatively extensive, covering about three decades, there are still gaps in its research base; specifically on the concept of community and the effects of PLCs. In this article, we propose a research agenda for PLC research that will afford substantive theorization on PLCs which will need to be drawn from robust empirical evidence. In the proposed research agenda for PLCs, we first argue that a PLC is a multi-dimensional construct comprising three inter-dependent dimensions of ‘community’, ‘learning’ and ‘professional’. This precedential task is necessary before investigations on effects or impact (direct or indirect) of PLCs can be meaningfully and reliably carried out. We then propose a research framework for PLCs constituting three aspects: construct of PLCs; conditions–contexts of PLCs; and causalities of PLCs. Finally, we propose six aspects pertaining to methodological rigor to support PLC research.

The authors examine the current frameworks for 21st-century education by critiquing the individualist view of education that underpins them. It is argued that such a view of education over-emphasizes technical rationality and neglects the importance of moral values and the role of the community in shaping the individual’s identity, ethics, and behaviors. An alternative framework that underscores the centrality of the community and the inculcation of moral values and reasoning abilities is proposed.

The term school-based curriculum development (SBCD) implies that teachers are to innovate and customize school curricula according to their local needs. This also means that SBCD requires co-constructive work among schools’ key stakeholders in the school curriculum development process. While much work has made known on SBCD in Western contexts, much less is known in non-Western contexts. This paper reports on key findings pertaining to SBCD drawn from a case study of a primary school in Singapore. Singapore makes for an interesting case as education policymakers encourage schools to innovate their curriculum yet maintaining a steep culture of academic achievement and control over standards across schools. The study involved data collection from non-participant observations of classroom lessons, teacher group meetings and focused group discussions. A salient finding that had emerged from the study is that the societal value for pragmatism underpins the processes of SBCD.

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the importance of teacher leaders. In this article, we report on an ethnographic case study involving three PLCs investigating how teacher leadership supports PLC conversations using an intervention framework provided by the research team. The findings showed that teacher leadership has potential in supporting PLC conversations along three dimensions of its construct.

Community-based teacher learning in Singapore education started in 2000 with the introduction of Learning Circles, followed by other forms of community-based teacher learning platforms such as Action Research and Lesson Study. By 2010, the Ministry of Education embarked on a school- and system-wide approach to community-based teacher learning in the form of Professional Learning Communities (PLC). However, studies looking at its impact on student learning outcomes are non-existent locally. Internationally, research studies investigating the effects of PLCs specifically on student learning are not aplenty. In their literature review, Vescio et al. (2011) found that although 11 studies reporting impact of PLCs, only eight out of the 11 investigated the impact of PLCs on student learning with modest evidence (Louis & Marks, 1998; Suppovitz, 2002; Suppovitz & Christman, 2003; Phillips, 2003; Strahan, 2003; Hollins et al., 2004; Berry et al., 2005; Bolam et al., 2005). Since the publication of the literature by Vescio et al. (2011), three other studies investigating impact of PLCs on student learning outcomes have also been reported (Sigurðardóttir, 2010; Lomos et al., 2011; Williams, 2013).

Over the past decade, the Singapore government has introduced various initiatives such as Teach Less, Learn More and engaging minds to develop students’ 21st century competencies. One significant approach adopted in these initiatives is to encourage school-based curriculum innovations (SCI).This current initiative involves the participation of all schools in the system. A marked departure from previous practice, schools in Singapore now have more autonomy and space in SCIs through engaging in school-based curriculum development (SBCD) activities. In this study, we used the terms SCI and SBCD interchangeably. This study is novel in taking a comprehensive approach in developing this baseline research of curricular and pedagogical reforms of nine schools in Singapore.

‘Continuous meritocracy’ was introduced in Singapore to redefine the concepts of talent and ability in Singapore society. This expanded meaning of meritocracy serves as another way to further support the SkillsFuture Singapore movement (Skillsfuture Singapore, 2023b), which was launched in 2016. ‘Continuous meritocracy’ complements Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs, which were to provide adult learners opportunities to integrate practical work experiences with academic learning. However, to fully operationalize WIL in the domain of adult learners, this paper points out that it is vital for the Singapore government and the different stakeholders to endorse the different forms of successes by making them more visible in the society. Utilizing Pierre Bourdieu’s key theoretical concepts, this paper discusses the relationship between blue-collar adult learners’ dispositions and WIL and proposes an ecosystemic approach that is based on work-integrated (adult) learning (WIAL) to transform the Singapore blue-collar workers’ habitus with the aim to visualize ‘continuous meritocracy’ at the ground level.