The Singaporean model student: Recontextualizing the figure of personhood

Abstract

The commercialization of education in Singapore has spurred the phenomenon of school posters in immense quantity and variety. At every education level, there are a myriad of posters that exist, as schools try to brand themselves in an extremely competitive market. How does this diversity find its place against the backdrop of strict governance from the Ministry of Education and a narrow definition of quality education from the perspective of the Singaporean society? To investigate this, Agha’s concept of Figures of Personhood lends itself as an incredibly useful tool which is able to effectively analyse both linguistic and visual elements in these posters. Using the model student FOP as a basis for comparison, the different types of model student images portrayed by schools are detailed in this paper. The finding shows that although there are differences in the model student FOP at each education level and ranking (which supposedly describes the quality of schools), the Singaporean model student FOP is still a largely homogenous and coherent figure, aligning with the ideologies of MOE, and the state, to a large extent. The outliers, though, challenge this narrative in interesting and meaningful ways, symbolizing the potential to change some of the structures we are navigating in, as parents and students ourselves.