ELITES IN THE MAKING: UNDERSTANDING MINORITY EXPERIENCES AND SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF TRANSCULTURAL ELITISM IN A SINGAPORE ELITE MISSION SCHOOL

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of elite schools in social reproduction. Situating the study in Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), an elite mission school in Singapore, this study examines minority experiences to address two questions. Firstly, how do Singapore's elite schools reproduce the elites? Secondly how do the members of the minorities negotiate their schooling experiences with the dominant cultural milieu in ACS? Based on Singapore's multiracial, multi-faith and multi-lingual milieu, minorities is conceptualised as ethnic, religious and linguistic minority. A Bourdieuian perspective is used to frame the understanding of the minority experiences. This study demonstrates that ACS partakes in the social reproduction of the elites by providing elite socialisation to selected individuals who possess social, economic and cultural capital. The study observes that the phenomenon of elite reproduction allows for replacement with carefully screened new members while maintaining the existing social structure of power and stratification. The state's new phase of multiculturalism policy, one that envisions a cosmopolitan Singaporean, is also incorporated into the elite education in ACS. This study explicates the adaptations made by linguistic minority to use the dominant elite language, Standard English. Likewise, this study reveals the cultural transformations of the religious and ethnic minorities into one who could now transcend their ethnicity and traverse comfortably between different ethnic cultures and religions. Evidently, ACS prepares its students for positions of leadership and power by cosmopolitanising them into (Standard) English-speaking, transcultural elites.