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Sustaining people-to-people networks in the digital age: The strengths and limitations of regional study trips in Singapore’s teacher education curriculum
Citation
Teo, J. E. (2024, December 14). Sustaining people-to-people networks in the digital age: The strengths and limitations of regional study trips in Singapore’s teacher education curriculum [Paper presentation]. The 6th Association of Southeast Asian Teacher Education Network (AsTEN) International Conference, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Abstract
In 2020, Singapore’s government introduced the “Knowing Asia” education policy. Since 2022, about 900 experienced teachers from Singapore have embarked on regional study trips to 20 Asian cities as part of a university-based teacher education and leadership development programme. These teachers have middle leadership responsibilities across diverse schools in Singapore, ranging from primary, secondary, pre-university, special education, and madrasah (schools that provide Islamic religious education along with mainstream curriculum). To encourage networking and co-leadership, participants must self-organise their five-day regional study trip in teams of 12-15 members. This paper introduces key strengths and limitations of embedding regional study trips in teacher education curriculum. From Singapore’s perspective, strengths and limitations include: (i) naturalistic opportunities for teachers to stretch their networking capabilities, (ii) experiential professional learning in an Asian city, however, (iii) it can be a challenge to secure learning visits to local schools and industries given the short planning timeline. From the perspective of regional cities, strengths and limitations include: (i) opportunities to have in-person touchpoints with teachers from diverse schools in Singapore, (ii) strengthening of regional friendship and cooperation at the people-to-people level, but (iii) with the limitation of being unable to accommodate self-organised requests for informal visits to public schools due to established protocols for handling such requests at a more formal government-to-government level. The paper concludes with recommendations for sustaining in-person people-to-people networks between teachers in Asia through regional study visits, while balancing with opportunities for online networking in the digital age.
Date Issued
2024