Chung, Ho Jin

Physical Education (PE) classes at primary schools in Singapore have been conducted based on the PE syllabus in which the mission and vision are stated as "Developing a Curriculum to Meet the Needs of the Nation, Community and Individual" and "Every Child is Physically Educated' respectively. Especially, PERI (2009) emphasised the non-academic courses in the curriculum and reported that PE is a subject which gives students an opportunity to build confidence and relationships with others as well as develop leadership, character and diverse skills.
While the Singapore MOE has continuously supported primary school PE in recent days, the PE was reported as 'just playing' in the past before optional 0-level PE syllabus was executed in 2007 (Fry & Tan, 2005). The research of Fry and Tan (2005) described how students perceive PE of Singapore but the overall epistemological structure as well as why the discourse on primary school PE classes amongst current students is constituted in such a way that brings them discursive meaning are less clear due to the lack of study in this area.
By Foucault, the Singapore's primary school PE class cannot be defined as it is. It is a discourse that is constituted by surrounding people of that age (Chung, 2009). It is critical because it does not illustrate past facts from a present perspective but rather describe them at the present perspective (Lee, 2003). To study episteme, new research method is required which is different to an existing historical method and that is archaeology which can be used to analyse a history of the present. Foucault traces why people use the 'particular' discourse, not other discourse as well as why the people's views on the discourse are necessarily formed in a particular way. Disclosing the structure of the discourse through Foucault's approach, it can be found how an educational policy in Singapore has been developed and progressed.