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Preparing for school : an ethnographic study of young Chinese children’s literacy learning
Author
Koh, Guat Hua
Supervisor
Kramer-Dahl, Anneliese
Mohd Mukhlis Abu Bakar
Abstract
Over the years, the field of education in Singapore has evolved into an increasingly intense site of struggle for the student population, and for their parents too. Students in Singapore have performed impressively well in internationally comparative studies in educational achievements in Mathematics, Science and Reading conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, as well as the national examinations. Statistics provided by the Ministry of Education in Singapore have shown that Chinese students in particular have been able to produce impressive results in the various national gate-keeping examinations. To understand the reasons for such success, this thesis adopts an ethnographic perspective to study four pre-school Singaporean Chinese children coming from the working-class and middle-class backgrounds. The study aims to find answers to two research questions: (1) How do these Chinese families prepare their children for school? and (2) What is the nature of literacy learning that their children do during the period prior to entering primary school?
Participant observations have been carried out in the homes to uncover the strategies the families employ to prepare their young children for primary one. These strategies include each family’s choice of the dominant home language(s), choice of kindergartens and primary schools, the kinds of literacy practices and literacy events enacted at home. Data collected include fieldnotes, audio records, photographs of literacy artefacts, and interviews with the various members of the four families. Visits have also been made to the kindergartens and the primary schools these children studied in. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field provide this study with the tools to analyse the data.
The findings show that all the parents, the mothers more so than the fathers, invest a lot of their time, efforts and money to give their children a headstart in education. Yet, social background and the educational level of the parents, in particular that of the mothers, have significant influence on the preparation process. The mothers with higher education seem to be more able to envision beyond the present to the longer term effects of their preparation work while the mothers with lower education seem to be more concerned with the here and now in their children’s educational performance. Bourdieu’s concepts enable this study to understand the differential intergenerational transmission of capital and habitus during the early socialization period of these children, leading to differential advantages gained. The children who are better prepared have inherited more of the kind of capital and habitus valued in education than their counterparts who are disadvantaged.
This study concludes with the observation that underneath the practice of meritocracy lie hidden social inequalities that have left those with less of the kind of capital “recognized” by educators to be of value in school without much of a fighting chance in a competition where stronger players are participating to win. It becomes necessary to heighten the awareness of everyone involved in education at all levels to such a social phenomenon and attempts should be made to create a more socially just educational environment.
Participant observations have been carried out in the homes to uncover the strategies the families employ to prepare their young children for primary one. These strategies include each family’s choice of the dominant home language(s), choice of kindergartens and primary schools, the kinds of literacy practices and literacy events enacted at home. Data collected include fieldnotes, audio records, photographs of literacy artefacts, and interviews with the various members of the four families. Visits have also been made to the kindergartens and the primary schools these children studied in. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field provide this study with the tools to analyse the data.
The findings show that all the parents, the mothers more so than the fathers, invest a lot of their time, efforts and money to give their children a headstart in education. Yet, social background and the educational level of the parents, in particular that of the mothers, have significant influence on the preparation process. The mothers with higher education seem to be more able to envision beyond the present to the longer term effects of their preparation work while the mothers with lower education seem to be more concerned with the here and now in their children’s educational performance. Bourdieu’s concepts enable this study to understand the differential intergenerational transmission of capital and habitus during the early socialization period of these children, leading to differential advantages gained. The children who are better prepared have inherited more of the kind of capital and habitus valued in education than their counterparts who are disadvantaged.
This study concludes with the observation that underneath the practice of meritocracy lie hidden social inequalities that have left those with less of the kind of capital “recognized” by educators to be of value in school without much of a fighting chance in a competition where stronger players are participating to win. It becomes necessary to heighten the awareness of everyone involved in education at all levels to such a social phenomenon and attempts should be made to create a more socially just educational environment.
Date Issued
2010
Call Number
LC157.S55 Koh
Date Submitted
2010