Formulating a research agenda in school leadership and organisational change for school improvement in Singapore

This paper argues that it is timely for educational researchers in Asia, and Singapore in particular, to generate cultural- and empirical-knowledge bases in school leadership that will speak to the specific interests of Asian students, educators and practitioners. As economic and social development across Asia gathers momentum, the more advanced Asian systems of education, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, will increasingly have the resources and expertise to launch significant research programmes in school leadership and organisational change, thereby challenging the persistent and present dominance of Anglo-American perspectives. The paper reports a planned large scale research programme for school leadership and organisational change in Singapore. Support for such a programme from all three major stakeholders – the Ministry of Education (MOE), the National Institute of Education (NIE) and school leaders and teachers – is conditional on the research programme leading to school improvement and better student outcomes. The paper sketches the politico–cultural–economic conditions of Singapore in which such an agenda has been formed; describes the main features of the research programme; and then relates its features to a possible broader Asian and international research agenda in school leadership. The planned Singapore programme has congruence with a future international research agenda advocated by scholars for the field of educational leadership