SCHOLARLY INTERESTS |
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DISSERTATION RESEARCH |
I identify my research with existing scholarship that explores the development of political literacy in young people. My fundamental research focus is on the role of education in shaping children's constructions of belonging, citizenship and national identity. Much research on national identity and education has focused on civic and citizenship education with adolescents and young adults while children below the age of twelve have conventionally been considered intellectually naïve with regards to issues of civic participation and national responsibility. I contend, however, that the relatively unschooled nature of children's opinions and intuitions presents a rich opportunity for exploring the more affective components of national membership. Further, understanding how our youngest citizens acquire values and commitments as part of their national identity formation is critical because these years are most foundational to their development- cognitively, emotionally, socially, and civically. I seek to understand how children themselves comprehend, experience, identify with, potentially resist and reshape nationalist projects of which they are often primary objects. A comparative study in this regard is important because national responses to global challenges sometimes vary. Singapore and the U.S. are multicultural countries with two different sets of political philosophies and cultural perspectives, and they hold distinct ideas about the individual's position vis-à-vis the larger community and the nation. Consequently, the similarities and differences in children's responses will offer a particularly interesting insight as to whether children's opinions about national identity and the role of school are universal or culture-specific. Using interview data from children and their self-produced artifacts (drawings and photographs) as a representational system, I seek to examine the role of schools as both a socializing and nationalizing agent, and interrogate the process by which young students acquire social/ national norms, rules, values and political literacy. Through a unique multi-disciplinary study across education, childhood studies, and political science, my research will: i) demonstrate how young students make sense of the nationalizing project of the school; ii) provide a description of how two distinct societies engage schools in the process of national identity development, and iii) contribute to a broader understanding of how multicultural nations respond similarly or differently to the critical challenges of a rapidly evolving global demography. |
SELECTED ACADEMIC PAPERS |
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"The Invisible Whole": Children and the development of national identity. (2007)
Re-thinking "a highly qualified teacher": A multilevel analysis of teacher quality in the context of institutional social disadvantage. (2006)
Quality of care by child care type: A comparison of center-based care, family child care, and friend, family & neighbor care (2006)
Professional development in early childhood education:Some critical questions. (2006) Considering the effects of universal pre-kindergarten on child development: A multi-dimensional perspective. (2006) The origins of Head Start: An intellectual history of poverty. (2005) Liberatory multicultural education: A research synthesis. (2004) Play in academic achievement: The development of intellectual character. (2003) |
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SKILLS |
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SOME RELEVANT COURSEWORK |
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serene koh
