Home school relations in Singaporean primary schools: Teachers’, parents’ and children’s views

Abstract

By providing descriptive evidence from an ethnographic study at three Singaporean primary schools, this paper reveals how participants in children’s education perceive and account for the relations they shape between home and school. Through analyses of interview data from teachers, parents, and children, the article demonstrates the potential effects of the actions of parents and teachers on the structure of the childhoods of a particular group of nine-year-olds. Findings are that children’s lives are mostly centred on their schools, which provide academic and values education. Parents, too, ascribe importance to holistic education; this, their aspirations for the future, and their attention to the individual needs of their children motivated them to agentively support their children’s education at home by teaching and organising educational, sporting, and cultural activities. Therefore, home/school relations structured rather curricularized childhoods for most children in the study.