Globalisation, the State and Education Policy in Singapore

This paper explores the concept of globalisation and educational policy making in the context of a recently developed ‘strong state’, Singapore. It suggests both the need to clarify the concept of globalisation from such concepts as dependency and centre-periphery and to avoid overly deterministic accounts of the influence of global trends on education policy making. An analysis is provided of policy initiatives in Singapore between 1979 and 1991 located within state-based imperatives to respond to both global and state-centric challenges.