Soo, Johannah Li Mei

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.

‘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.