Making a difference : a multimodal discourse analysis of MOE’s teacher recruitment advertisement video

Abstract

Education in Singapore, including teacher recruitment and training, has received much attention, especially in recent years. This is evident from teacher recruitment advertisements published in various modes, including print advertisements and videos. As official discourses from the Ministry of Education (MOE), these advertisements represent one channel through which the MOE relays its ideals of what the teaching profession encompasses. This study therefore aims to uncover the ideologies surrounding the construction of teachers and the teaching profession in the Singaporean context by investigating how teacher identity and agency are articulated through official discourses aimed at recruiting teachers. This portrayal is compared with the perceptions of practising teachers.<br><br>A multimodal discourse framework (Baldry & Thibault, 2006) is adopted to unpack the different meanings expressed in and through the MOE’s 2011 teacher recruitment video. A macroanalysis which draws on the phasal analysis framework (Baldry & Thibault, 2006) and the visual semantics stratum (Lim, 2007) is first carried out. This is followed by a microanalysis drawing on Halliday’s (1985, 2004) systemic-functional model and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) visual analysis framework. The analyses reveal the ideal teacher as a caring person, whose role and identity are explicitly centered on the student. However, the impact of her actions and the difference they make to his life are left implicit. A comparison between these findings and findings from focus group discussions with practicing teachers suggests that there is a gap between the idealised vision of the government and the teachers’ lived reality.