What is my role as a teacher in the near future?

In Singapore, education is placed as one of the top priorities which can be inferred from its rank of 2nd out of the total expenditure of the government as compared to other ministries (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2011). Education possesses many roles in the perspective of different realms: the nation, the school, the teachers and the students. At different levels, different objectives are set. Over the years, we have seen several radical changes and transformations of our educational objectives according to the dynamics of the globalised world.

On the national level, Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) was adopted in 1997 while a new pedagogical approach of Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) in the year 2004 during the inaugural National Day Rally speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was made to guide schools and teachers. Last but not least, the vision for the teaching fraternity came in 2009- Lead, Care and Inspire.

Clearly, we can pin-point a top-down approach that the government has integrated in the different levels over the years to shape our education system. With such teacher-centric developments flowing in, we can see that the emphasis is now on the stake-holders of the system – the teachers. From my perspective as a trainee teacher, the vision is achievable, however in some instances; I foresee an addition to the countless dilemmas that I would face as a beginning teacher due to the contradicting objectives of the different management levels. It is too simple to pass one-size-fits-all policies and assume it may be carried out in the same way in different schools due to the dynamic nature of schools and students. This essay will be a reflection of determining my role as a teacher and also to look at...

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...urpose and value of the school experience (Tan C. , 2008).” There is no one perfect solution with regards to achieving the purpose of education in society. Governments must balance the nation’s objectives with the people’s interests at heart.

In order to follow the vision of – Lead, Care, Inspire, one has to overcome the complexities of teaching. From the below figure take from Education Statistics Digest 2011, we can see that most teachers leave the service during their initial years of teaching.

(MOE, 2011)

New teachers’ experiences are, in many cases affected by perceptions and expectations formed even before their teaching preparation programmes. Any incompatibility between future teachers’ perceptions of teaching and the realities of work and the workplace may lead to job dissatisfaction and possible attrition from the teaching force.