Environmental Education in Singapore: A Curriculum for the Environment or in the National Interest?

Abstract

Over the last decade, Singapore, in line with other countries in the region, has been attempting to develop a cross-curricular environmental education programme. This paper examines the context variables that have helped to shape the environmental curriculum in schools using evidence from interviews conducted with key players and teachers involved in the development. Despite a rhetoric couched in progressive terms focusing on 'awareness', 'attitudes', 'action', 'participation', 'experience' and 'life-long learning', the curriculum detail stresses information of a dominantly scientific nature reflecting a largely academic rationalist, rather than socially critical, approach. The interviews revealed three underlying themes that help to explain the sort of curriculum that is found: (1) a pragmatic utilitarian concern for the urban environment of Singapore; (2) a school and examination system that is still largely focused towards traditional disciplinary knowledge; and (3) the overriding influence of government and the balance that it prioritises between environment, economic development, social stability, nation building and external image.