Reconciling discourse about geography and teaching geography: the case of Singapore pre-service teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study draws upon a Foucauldian notion of discourse to explore how four pre-service geography teachers in Singapore made decisions about what geography is and how to enact their understandings of geography in their classrooms. This analysis of discursive power is particularly relevant to Singapore because of the high level of state control over geography and teacher education. The particular ways in which teacher education is organised in this context also exert a number of conflicting discursive pressures that pre-service teachers have to reconcile in their subject conceptions and practice. Drawing upon data gathered from concept maps, photo-elicitation exercises, interviews and analyses of teachers' lesson plans and school curricular documents, the study highlights the dominance of discourses at the state and school levels in the Singapore geography education context. However, it also notes the ways through which participants “resisted” discourse, underscoring the importance of pre-service teachers' professional identities and beliefs about geography education in sustaining their practice through difficult times.