Education reforms within neoliberal paradigms: A comparative look at the Singaporean and Finnish education systems

Abstract

Education reforms around the world have been powerfully shaped by the rise of the neoliberal political, economic and cultural agendas. Neoliberal policies (re)produce certain types of institutional processes such as managerialism, performativity, and competition. These elements are mediated in varied ways by national ideologies, societal needs and educational goals. The logic of the market has also been an indelible feature of neoliberalism and this has undermined the possibilities and potentialities for equity in the distribution of the resources of schooling. Within the global neoliberal paradigm of international testing, Singapore and Finland have been appraised as top performing and therefore successful education systems in the world. Their stellar performance in these tests have led scholars and policy-makers alike in different parts of the world to attempt to extrapolate the lessons that could be learnt from the two systems. Yet these two education systems are noticeably different and have certainly taken distinct paths to attain their current status. Both have embraced neoliberalism in different forms. This paper sets out to explicate the crucial need for the building of a culture of trust to counteract the adverse effects of overdependence on accountability measures within the pervasive neoliberal framework of the Singapore education system.