A Corpus-Based Analysis of Singapore School Song Lyrics and Mission, Vision and Values Statements
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OF "GOOD INDIVIDUALS" AND "USEFUL CITIZENS"? A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF SINGAPORE SCHOOL SONG LYRICS AND MISSION, VISION AND VALUES STATEMENTS Michael Yeoh Seong Jui Hwa Chong Institution Class: 3P1 Project Work Group ID: 2-01 Teacher-Mentor: Dr. Tommie Chen Siong Chuk 20 August 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank: all my past project work mentors for their patience and guidance, Dr. Tommie Chen for changing my approach to life when I was in Secondary 2, for giving me the opportunity to do this project and for being my project work mentor this year and my sister for reading the last draft of this report and suggesting changes to my expressions so that readers can (hopefully) better understand what I am writing about. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 3 2. Rationale, Aim and Research Questions ……………………………………….. 4 3. Literature Review ………………………………………………………………… 6 3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis ……………………………………………….. 6 3.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory …………………………………………….. 7 3.3 Corpus Linguistics ………………………………………………………... 7 3.4 Critical Metaphor Analysis ……………………………………………….. 8 4. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………... 9 4.1 Corpora examined ………………………………………………………... 9 4.2 Reference corpus …………………………………………………………. 9 4.3 Word processing software for corpus analysis and comparison …………. 10 4.4 Metaphor analysis ………………………………………………………… 10 4.5 Limitations ……………………………………………………………….. 11 5. Research Process, Results and Analysis ……………………………………….. 11 5.1 Steps 1 and 2: Metaphor identification and metaphor interpretation …….. 11 5.2 Conceptual Metaphors identified ………………………………………… 13 5.3 VALUES ARE A SUPPORT,VALUES ARE A GUIDE, VIRTUE IS UP …………….. 14 5.4 LIFE IS A MISSION and other Conceptual Metaphors derived from it ……. 16 5.5 LIFE/EDUCATION IS A PROGRESSIVE JOURNEY, STUDENT IS A STRONG PERSON …………………………………………………… 17 5.6 SCHOOL IS A CLAN and other Conceptual Metaphors derived from it …… 20 5.7 LEARNING IS A CRAFT ………………………………………………………………. 26 5.8 SERVICE IS LIGHT …………………………………………………………………….. 28 5.9 Alignment of schools' educational messages with the DOE and the CCE Syllabus ………………………………………….. 32 5.10 How educational messages communicated to students differ between the different types of schools and educational tracks ……………………….. 34 5.11 Step 3: Metaphor explanation ……………………………………………. 35 6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….. 39 References ………………………………………………………………………………… 41 2 OF "GOOD INDIVIDUALS" AND "USEFUL CITIZENS"? A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF SINGAPORE SCHOOL SONG LYRICS AND MISSION, VISION AND VALUES STATEMENTS 1. INTRODUCTION Education is the social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills and cultural norms and values (Marcionis, 2018, p. 539). However, there is inequality among schools and schools can both cause and perpetuate social inequality (Marcionis, 2018, p. 544). In her book ‘This Is What Inequality Looks Like’, Teo (2018) wrote that,“[t]he circumstances and experiences of low-income families [in Singapore] reveal the deep inequalities embedded in [the Singapore] education system […][which] undermine the democratic promise and potential of mass education” (p. 124). In a paper entitled ‘Critical metaphor analysis of citizenship education discourse’, Lee (2015) examined the Singapore government's "nation-building messages to school children" (p. 100). She asserted that the Singapore Story - the story of the origins and development of Singapore - is the master narrative used to legitimise the Singapore government's ideology and that it represents and reproduces ideas, values, identities and institutions which are hegemonic (Lee, 2015, p. 101). Worryingly, these ideologies are “latent in naturalised discourse and taken- for-granted truths” (Lee, 2015, p. 104). There are different types of secondary schools and different educational tracks in Singapore. Most students are allocated to their secondary schools based on their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) scores. The different types of secondary schools cater to students with different PSLE scores and offer different educational tracks. The top students from each PSLE cohort are eligible to join the Integrated Programme (henceforth 'IP') educational track. Teo (2018) pointed out that, “[t]he different educational tracks […] result in different exposure to learning. This includes, importantly, […] citizenship education. […] [H]igher-track students are developed to become civic agents, lower-track students are prepared to become obedient citizens” (p. 107). 3 2. RATIONALE, AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS This project examines whether schools in Singapore cause or help to perpetuate social inequality, in particular, gender inequality and class divides. The aims and ideologies of education in Singapore are reflected in the policies and decisions of the Ministry of Education (henceforth, ‘MOE’). All schools which come under the control and supervision of the MOE (henceforth, ‘MOE schools’) are required to follow MOE's policies and decisions. Each school is, however, allowed to have its own identity. The Oxford dictionary defines identity as "the characteristic determining who or what a person or thing is". A school's identity is shaped by MOE policies and decisions and school-specific factors such as the origins and history of the school. This identity is reflected in the school's songs and mission, vision and values statements. School songs are tailor-made to canonise each school’s unique vision and mission and for teaching values and character (Treacy & Westerlund, 2019, p. 512). On its website, the MOE states that, “[t]he mission of MOE is to mould the future of the nation by moulding the people who will determine the future of the nation. MOE will provide our children with a balanced and well-rounded education, develop them to their full potential, and nurture them into good citizens, conscious of their responsibilities to family, community and country” (Singapore Ministry of Education [MOE], 2019). In order to help students thrive in a fast-changing world, MOE has identified 21st century competencies which underpin the education MOE schools provide. The development of 21st century competencies help students to embody the Desired Outcomes of Education (henceforth, 'DOE'). The DOE are attributes that educators aspire for every Singaporean to possess upon the completion of his formal education. (MOE, 2020.) 4 Figure 1. Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes. Source: Citizenship and Character Education Syllabus for Secondary Schools (MOE, 2012). Figure 2. The Desired Outcomes of Education (MOE, 2020). 5 Values form the core of the 21st century competencies framework. The character and citizenship education syllabus for secondary schools (henceforth, 'CCE Syllabus') explains that core values are fundamental for a person of good character and a useful citizen of Singapore. They guide students to discern between right and wrong, help them to make responsible choices and become more aware of their roles in society. (MOE, 2012.) In this project, Conceptual Metaphors were derived from school song lyrics and school mission, vision and values statements in order to find out (i) what educational messages are communicated by MOE secondary schools to their students, (ii) how these educational messages are aligned with the DOE and the CCE Syllabus and (iii) how these educational messages differ between the different types of schools and educational tracks. 3. LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth, ‘CDA’) primarily studies the way social-power dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced, legitimised and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context; it seeks to understand, expose and ultimately challenge social inequality (van Dijk, 2015, p. 466) by making explicit political and ideological motivations that would otherwise be implicit or concealed (Charteris-Black, 2004, p. 29). According to van Dijk (2011), ideologies are general systems of basic ideas shared by the members of a social group (p. 380) and discourse often shows some of the structures of ideologies (p. 387). He proposed the following "fundamental categories" for organising ideologies: (i) identity (who are we? who belong to us? where do we come from?), (ii) activities (what do we usually do? what is our task?), (iii) goals (what do we want to obtain?), (iv) norms and values (what is good/bad, permitted/prohibited for us?), (v) group relations (who are our allies and opponents?) and (vi) resources (what is the basis of our power, or our lack of power?) (van Dijk, 2011, p. 386). 6 3.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory Conceptual Metaphor Theory (henceforth, ‘CMT’) was first proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their book ‘Metaphors We Live By’. The basic premise of CMT is that figurative language - especially metaphor - is not simply a stylistic feature of language; rather, thought itself is fundamentally metaphoric in nature (Evans, 2019, p. 300; Lakoff & Johnson, 1981, p. 3). According to CMT, conceptual structure is organised by virtue of cross-domain mappings which give rise to correspondences between conceptual domains (Evans, 2019, p. 300). These correspondences are called ‘Conceptual Metaphors’ (Evans, 2019, p. 300). Being able to identify and examine our conceptual system helps to cast light on the way people think about things and make sense of reality (Charteris-Black, 2004, p. 22). A criticism of CMT which