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Curriculum integration in Singapore: Teachers'perspectives and practice
ARTICLE in TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION · APRIL 2013
Impact Factor: 1.32 · DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2012.11.004
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Chi Chung Lam
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Theresa Alviar-Martin
Hong Kong Institute of Education
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Susan A. Adler
University of Missouri - Kansas City
10 PUBLICATIONS 62 CITATIONS
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Jasmine B.-Y. Sim
National Institute of Education (NIE), Singa…
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Curriculum integration in Singapore: Teachers’ perspectives and practice
Chi Chung Lam a,1, Theresa Alviar-Martin b,*, Susan A. Adler c, Jasmine B.-Y. Sim b
a Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong b Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, NIE7-03-52, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Singaporec School of Education, University of Missouri e Kansas City, USA
h i g h l i g h t s
< Teachers’ conceptions of integration reected various interdisciplinary models.
< Perceived benets to integration included greater engagement of learners.
< Perceived barriers included teachers’ lack of subject knowledge.
< Other barriers were misalignment of assessment and societal valuing of competition.
< Barriers to integration are discussed in light of global trends in education.
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 27 November 2011
Received in revised form
12 November 2012
Accepted 19 November 2012
Keywords:
Integrated curriculumCurriculum reform
Teacher conceptions
Singapore
a b s t r a c t
In this qualitative study, we examined eleven Singapore teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning as
related to their experiences implementing integrated curriculum. Interviews revealed that the teachers’
conceptions of integration spanned the spectrum of ideas found in relevant literature. Further, although
participants saw benets to integration, including greater engagement of learners, they also spoke of
signicant obstacles to its implementation, such as teachers’ own perceived lack of subject knowledge
and a misalignment with the assessment system. The ndings, while echoing previous studies conducted
in various countries, highlight implementation dif culties in settings where high stake examinations and
disciplinary-based curriculum prevail.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
How a school curriculum should be organized has long been
a hotly debated issue in curriculum design and development
(Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004; Schiro, 2008). Whether middle-level
and secondary school curricula should be interdisciplinary or
subject-based is especially controversial because it involves distinct
differences in beliefs about the type of knowledge that should betaught to young citizens who are soon to participate fully in
a nation’s polity and workforce (Association for Middle Level
Education, 2010; Dewey, 1938/1997). Scholars adhering to varying
educational philosophies have argued over the issue of inter-
disciplinarity since the early 1900s (Applebee, Adler, & Flihan,
2007; Jackson, 1992). These arguments have unfolded within
wider economic and socio-political contexts. In the United States of
the 1960s, disenchantment with the Vietnam War and growing
poverty cast skepticism on subject-based curricula’s potential to
address social problems that were dividing the nation. Educators ’and the American public’s attention turned e albeit briey e to
progressive, integrated curricula that were organized around real-
life problems and issues rather than discipline-based content
(Dowden, 2007; Vars & Beane, 2000). As the push foraccountabilityand standardized testing later increased, however, the voices sup-
porting integrated curricula receded (Marsh & Willis, 2007).
Schools in Asia have witnessed similar shifts. Most East Asian
countries, such as China, have customarily adopted discipline-
based curriculum in secondary schools, but since the turn of the
millennium, integrated curriculum has been touted as a means of
expanding young people’s international awareness and preparing
them for participation in the global economy. Singapore is one of
those countries in which various forms of integrated curricula have
recently been proposed and, in some cases, implemented (Sharpe &
Gopinathan, 2002).
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ65 6790 3857; fax: þ65 6896 8950.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C.C. Lam), theresa.alviar@
gmail.com (T. Alviar-Martin), [email protected] (S.A. Adler).1 Tel.: þ852 2609 6947.
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Teaching and Teacher Education
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c om / l o c a t e / t a t e
0742-051X/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.11.004
Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e34
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Like many educational reform efforts, the development of
integrated curriculum is a complex process. Teachers’ decisions
about their practice impact the effective implementation of
curriculum reforms (Fullan, 2007). Teachers’ decisions, in turn, are
inuenced by their conceptions of the reform and the contexts in
which they will be implemented (Gopinathan & Deng, 2006).
International research similarly suggests that successful delivery of
integrated programs relies on teachers whose practices are guided
by their conception of curriculum. However, teachers hold different
conceptions of integration and which forms of integration are
desirable (Lam, Chan, & Zhang, 2006). Such diversity in teachers’
conceptions could be partly attributed to the different classica-
tions and assertions of the nature of curriculum integration ( Beane,
1997; Drake & Burns, 2004; Jacobs, 1991). Teacher development
studies have, moreover, indicated that hands-on experience in
implementing new curriculum initiatives is more likely to induce
attitudinal and conception changes (Fullan, 2007).
In this qualitative study, we draw on principles that posit
teachers as key participants in curriculum reform and imple-
mentation (Darling-Hammond, 2009; National Commission on
Teaching and America’s Future, 1996; Thornton, 1991, 2005) as we
examine eleven Singapore teachers’ conceptions of teaching,
interdisciplinarity, and their experiences in implementing inte-grated curriculum. By conceptions, we refer to teachers’ beliefs and
knowledge that are rooted in their experiences of practice
(Calderhead, 1996; Pajares, 1992). This research is intended to shed
light on the ways teachers reconciled their conceptions with local
school conditions and the wider context of Singapore ’s educational
policies. By exploring teachers’ conceptions, we seek to inform
research on the enactment of integrated curriculum, illuminate
barriers to curriculum integration in a context where high stakes
examinations and discipline-based curriculum prevail, and provide
a base from which to suggest futuredirections in teacher education.
2. Review of the literature
To survey the literature, we attend to the philosophical origins of discipline-based and integrated curricula. We then review inter-
national research to discuss teacher conceptions and preparation in
light of curriculum integration principles.
2.1. Philosophical origins of discipline-based and integrated
curricula
Despite its ubiquity in educational literature, discussion around
integrated curriculum is hindered by a lack of consensus regarding
terms and denitions (Dowden, 2007). Broadly dened, “curric-
ulum integration” refers to curricular programs that are aimed
toward making subject matter more relevant to students’ experi-
ences “with less concern for delineating disciplinary boundaries
around kinds of learning”
(Gehrke, 1998, p. 248). Curriculum inte-gration has gained critics and advocates, because major educational
philosophies e perennialism, essentialism, progressivism and
reconstructionism e have in turn drawn on philosophical orienta-
tions (idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism) that
differentially dene the nature of reality and knowledge, the aims
of schooling, and teachers’ roles [see for example, Ornstein and
Hunkins (2004) for a discussion of philosophies]. Perennialism
and essentialism have been most inuential in shaping discipline-
bound curricula (Posner, 2004). Rooted in realism, which deems
human behavior as rational when it conforms to the laws of nature,
perennialism emphasizes knowledge that is permanent, charac-
terized by distinct subjects such as classical literature, mathe-
matics, and science. Among perennialists, teachers are experts who
guide students toward a deeper understanding of universal truths.
Similar to perennialists, essentialists are concerned with the past;
however, essentialists study enduring knowledge as it is applied to
the contemporary scene (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004). The launching
of the Russian satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 renewed interest in
perennial education in the United States, bringing attention to
schools’ perceived inadequacies in cultivating students’ knowledge,
especially in science and mathematics. Beyond the structuring of
schools around delineated subjects, perennialist and essentialist
tendencies are evident in the narrow measurement of student
achievement through testing and concerns to prepare students for
specialized disciplines (Eisner, 2002).
In contrast to the two traditional educational philosophies,
progressivism and reconstructionism regard an integrated curric-
ulum as central to meaningful learning (Beane, 1997; Vars, 1991).
John Dewey (1907/1991), for example, argued that the earth was
not “stratied” into subjects: “all studies grow out of relations in
the one great common world” (p. 91). Both perspectives draw on
pragmatic philosophy, which posits knowledge as a process in
which reality is constantly changing. Teachers serve as guides to
children in problem-solving and scientic projects, and books and
subject matter are drawn upon as instruments of the learning
process rather than sources of ultimate knowledge (Ornstein &
Hunkins, 2004). Inspired by Dewey’s works, progressives viewthe school as a microcosm of democracy. They aim for youth to
learn skills of inquiry, collaboration and self-discipline in order to
democratically solve issues in society. Although closely aligned to
progressivism, reconstructionism is characterized by a more critical
stance toward social issues. The issues that concerned many
reconstructionists, including racial inequality and poverty, remain
pertinent today (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004; Schiro, 2008).
Curriculum integration encompasses approaches with differing
levels of adherence to progressive and reconstructionist tenets and
degrees of unity across disciplines (Czerniak, Weber, Sandmann, &
Ahern, 1999; Grossman, Wineburg, & Beers, 2000). Several advo-
cates of interdisciplinarity (see Applebee et al., 2007; Drake, 2000;
Vars, 1991) have illustrated how curriculum integration models
differentially link discipline-based content (Klein, 2006). Multidis-ciplinary approaches juxtapose subject areas according to a theme
identied in two or more subjects ( Jacobs, 1989); however, disci-
plines “speak as separate voices” (Klein, 2006, p. 5), and the orga-
nizing theme is subordinated to established subject areas.
Examples of multidisciplinary approaches are sequenced, threaded
(Fogarty, 1991) or correlation (Vars, 1991) approaches, where
subjects are taught separately but arranged chronologically in
order to focus on parallel topics. Among interdisciplinary programs,
subjects are blended and may be taught through team teaching.
Shared, webbed, integrated (Fogarty, 1991), and fusion (Vars, 1991)
models, where disciplines become tools to study a theme, problem,
question, or idea in-depth, typify the interdisciplinary approach.
Transdisciplinary (Drake & Burns, 2004) approaches call for the
greatest degree of integrative restructuring, where subjectboundaries are blurred and connections magnied in a new orga-
nizational framework (Klein, 2006). Transdisciplinary approaches
are embodied in integrative (Beane, 1997) and structured, and
unstructured core curricula (Vars, 1991) that entail collaborative
and student-centered teaching, where the student’s interest
becomes the heart of learning. Table 1 illustrates examples of cross-
disciplinary approaches and integrated curricula.
Curriculum integration, although characterized by a variety of
approaches, nds unity in its pragmatic impetus. Wraga (2009)
identied three major rationales for integrating curriculum. The
rst contends that making connections across disciplines will foster
the “cumulative impact of all learning experiences ” (p. 92). The
second focuses on the interrelatedness of experience and the idea
that schools should help learners better understand those
C.C. Lam et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e 3424
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8/18/2019 Curriculum Integration in Spore
4/13
experiences. The third rationale argues for schools to equip learners
with the ability to address social problems and issues. Echoing
progressive and reconstructionist tenets, advocates of integrated
curriculum argue that if schools are to prepare citizens who can
make decisions in a complex globalized world, there must be
opportunities for learners to integrate and apply knowledge across
traditional disciplines (Parker, 2008).
2.2. International efforts in curriculum integration
Intermittent interest in progressive educational approaches
since the 1920s served as a vehicle for the spread of integrated
curricula worldwide. In the 1970s, integrated curriculum in theUnited States was a focus of the middle school movement. Starting
in the 1990s, a wave of curriculum reform swept through Asia, with
many countries adopting integrated curriculum as a means of
promoting the learning of “21st century skills” such as problem-
solving and its higher relevance to students’ daily life (Lam,
2002). Taiwan, for example, introduced “Social Studies” to replace
Geography and History in junior secondary schools in the late
1990s. China took similar measures to introduce Integrated Science
at junior secondary level. In 2009, a new integrated subject, Liberal
Studies, was made compulsory for all senior secondary students in
Hong Kong (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2005).
Echoing debates that have surrounded the varying educational
philosophies, such attempts to introduce integrated curricula have
not been without resistance. For example, in recent years,
secondary school programs in New South Wales, Australia, reverted
to disciplinary-based curricula after almost a decade of integration.
On the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, studies have revealed
serious implementation problems of integrated programs (Lam &
Chan, 2011; Zhang, 2007). Even in the United States, despite
considerable advocacy and a relatively long history, little change
has actually been sustained. Across these settings, proponents of
integrated curricula faced questions regarding students’ abilities to
master subject-based content when disciplinary lines were blurred
(Ellis & Fouts, 2001). Ball (1987) further observed that schools’administrative structure have long been subject-based, and the
introduction of integrated programs may be perceivedas a threat to
the status and resources of existing subjects.The tenacity of subject-based curricula has been reinforced by
global trends toward neoliberalism, a political ideology where the
state “installs apparatuses and knowledges through which people
are recongured as productive economic entrepreneurs” (Davies &
Bansel, 2007, p. 248). Applied to education, neoliberalism forwards
essentialist and perennialist agendas, embodied in standards-based
reforms, high-stake examinations, accountability and ranking, and
discourses focused on excellence (McKenna & Richardson, 2009).
Nussbaum (2010) has argued that neoliberal, essentialist, and
perennialist mentalities have calcied divisions between disci-
plines and marginalized subjects such as the humanities, which are
deemed unessential in preparing youth to compete in the global
economy. The emphasis on examinations has likewise impeded
curricula aimed at fostering critical thinking skills that are dif
cult
Table 1
Examples of cross-disciplinary models and related integrated approaches.
Cross-disciplinary models Integrated approaches Description
Multidisciplinary
(Drake & Burns, 2004; Jacobs, 1989)
A curricular model that juxtaposes subject areas according to a theme
identied in two or more subjects. Organizing theme is subordinated to
established subject areas.
Correlationa Teachers of different subjects all deal with aspects of one topic at the
same time.
Sequenced
b
Units of study are rearranged and sequenced to coincide with oneanother. Similar ideas are taught in concert while remaining as separate
subjects.
Threadedb The approach threads thinking skills, social skills, multiple intelligences,
technology, and study skills through the various disciplines.
Interdisciplinary
(Drake & Burns, 2004)
Content is blended. Although disciplines speak in separate voices, they
become tools to focus closely on an organizing theme, problem,
question, or idea.
Fusiona Teachers take integration further by combining the content of two or
more subjects into a new course with a new name.
Integratedb Views the curriculum through a kaleidoscope: interdisciplinary topics
are rearranged around overarching conceptsand emergent patternsand
designs.
Sharedb Shared planning and teaching take place in two disciplines in which
overlapping concepts or ideas emerge as organizing elements.
Webbedb A fertile theme is webbed to curriculum contents and disciplines;
subjects use the theme to sift out appropriate concepts, topics, and
ideas.
Transdisciplinary
(Drake & Burns, 2004)
Cross-disciplinary approaches that call for the greatest degree of
restructuring, where subject boundaries are blurred and connections
magnied in a new organizational framework.
Integrativec A curriculum design theory aiming to enhance the possibilities for
personal and social integration through the organization of curriculum
around signicant problems and issues without regard for subject area
lines.
Structured and
unstructured coreaStudent- and society-centered curricular approaches. Teachers identify
the needs, problems, and concerns and skills and subject matter from
any pertinent subject are brought in to help students deal with those
matters. In structured core, teachers design units of study that are
relevant to students; whereas in unstructured core, teachers and
students together develop the units of study.
a Vars (1991).b Fogarty (1991).c Beane (1997).
C.C. Lam et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e 34 25
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to assess through summative evaluations (Bailey, 2003; Hinde,
2005).
International efforts at implementing integrated curricula,
despite their mixed results, have yielded scholarship focused on the
enactment of such programs. The lack of agreement about the
nature of integrated approaches, however, poses challenges to the
study of curriculum integration. The various integration models
provide categories that are conceptually rich, but not necessarily
reective of work in schools (Applebee et al., 2007). Confounding
this operational issue are variables associated with inter-
disciplinarity, such as adherence to student-centered instruction
and collaboration between teachers and other school personnel.
Thus, it is dif cult to draw conclusions about the relative strength of
integrated programs over subject-based curricula (Ellis & Fouts,
2001; Lam, 2002).
2.3. Teacher education, conceptions, and practice
Hargreaves and Fullan (1998), Darling-Hammond (2009) and
Thornton (1991, 2005) maintain that teachers are critical partici-
pants in curriculum reform. It is through teachers ’ beliefs about
education, their knowledge, understanding of policies, and day-to-
day experiences of practice that teachers interpret curricular goalsand students’ learning experiences. Ultimately, the nature of
teaching and learning is highly dependent upon teachers ’ beliefs
and their perceived capacities to enact learning goals within their
educational and professional contexts (Pajares, 1992). Research
indicates that teachers’ enactment of integrated programs stems
from a characteristically progressive concern: that of making
learning more relevant to students (Applebee et al., 2007;
Hargreaves & Moore, 2000; Lam & Chan, 2011).
Evidence suggests that teachers’ beliefs about notions of
teaching within subject-based curricula pose barriers to the intro-
duction and longevity of integrated programs. This subject-based
orientation stems from both the type of education teachers expe-
rience as youngsters and as pre-service teachers. Previously, we
discussed how essentialist and perennialist philosophies havedominated the nature of schooling. The arguments for discipline-
based education have similarly inuenced teacher education
globally (Lam & Chan, 2011; Zhang, 2007). Although progressive
and reconstructionist principles, such as attending to children’s
different interests, are taught in teacher education courses, pre-
service teachers mostly experience a curriculum that caters to
enhancing discipline-based content knowledge (Darling-
Hammond, 1999; Labaree, 2008). In the United States, for
example, “highly qualied teachers” are likely to be dened
through mastery of subject matter and in particular, test scores on
mathematical and verbal ability, with less emphasis placed on
pedagogical skills or knowledge of curriculum planning (for
example, U.S. Department of Education, Of ce of Postsecondary
Education, Of ce of Policy Planning and Innovation, 2002, p. viii-9).In places where teachers are trained as discipline specialists,
teachers’ resistance to integrated curriculum has been strong.
Goodson (1983) demonstrated that secondary school teachers in
England identied themselves primarily as teachers of particular
subjects. More recent studies in the United States, China, Taiwan,
and Hong Kong reveal similar kinds of teacher identity that stems
in part from teachers’ discipline-based preparation (Lam & Chan,
2011; Little, 1990; Zhang, 2007). When integrated curriculum is
introduced in secondary schools, teachers are required to teach
subject content which they believe to be beyond their personal
body of knowledge. Furthermore, integration usually calls for forms
of pedagogy that may be unfamiliar to teachers. Hence, they may
feel deskilled (Lam & Chan, 2011). To deliver the new integrated
programs, they would need to reskill themselves (Lam et al., 2006).
When determining whether or not to implement some degree
of curriculum integration, schools and teachers must consider
a number of trade-offs and address several issues, including suf -
cient planning time, the availability of resources, and the social and
political context in which curriculum reform unfolds (Applebee
et al., 2007; Hinde, 2005). The context of curriculum change var-
ies among nations. Many East Asian countries have had a high-
stake examination culture and a long history of discipline-based
school curriculum, but are now aiming at nurturing higher order
thinking skills and making education more relevant to students ’
daily life. Singapore, being one of these countries, provides an
interesting setting to understand the enactment of curriculum
integration. In the following section, we sketch the milieu of
curriculum integration in Singapore.
3. Curriculum integration in Singapore
The emergence of integrated curriculum in Singapore can be
viewed as a response to global, neoliberal economic trends
(McKenna & Richardson, 2009) and the recognized need to shift
schooling toward a more student-centered focus (Gopinathan &
Deng, 2006). In the 1990s, government leaders and public gures
questioned local schools’ capacities to equip students with theappropriate mix of skills, abilities and knowledge required by the
new economy (Gopinathan, 2007). Two initiatives were launched
to address these concerns: “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation”
(TSLN) in 1997, and “Teach Less, Learn More” (TLLM) in 2004. The
TSLN initiative focused on developing “students into active learners
with critical thinking skills and.a creative and critical thinking
culture within schools” (Tan & Gopinathan, 2000, p. 7). Key TSLN
strategies included the reduction of subject content and the revi-
sion of assessment modes to emphasize process instead of
outcomes (Tan & Gopinathan, 2000). The TLLM initiative empha-
sized a student-centered education that fostered active learning,
character development and life-long learning. The TLLM programs
involved school-based curriculum development (SBCD) to
encourage schools to innovate with the existing curriculum toaddress students’ learning needs. Curriculum directives suggested
innovations such as organizing content “around a certain theme,
engaging in curriculum integration that might require the cooper-
ation of teachers from various departments” (Gopinathan & Deng,
2006, p. 99). Integration was, thus, seen as a pathway to address-
ing the new curriculum directives.
Aside from grassroots SBCD efforts, curriculum integration in
Singapore has evolved topedown. For example, students at the
secondary level take Social Studies, an examinable integrated
courseaimed at developing students into “responsible citizens with
a sense of national identity and a global perspective ” (Singapore
Examinations and Assessment Board, 2008, p. 3). Another
program, entitled National Education, comprises citizenship
education involving curricular and non-curricular activities aimedat strengthening young Singaporeans’ attachment to their country
amid concerns that the globalized economy would strain their
national loyalty (Gopinathan, 2007). In the early 2000s, the
Ministry of Education (MOE) explored the Integrated Humanities
program that would combine History and Geography at the lower
secondary level. Eventually, because of implementation issues, the
idea was abandoned. Discussion about the initiative however,
brought about curriculum innovations in various schools.
School-based and topedown initiatives aimed at curriculum
integration in Singapore have resulted in a variety of integrated
models, from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary (Leong, Sim, &
Chua, 2011). These initiatives provided an opportunity to explore
how teachers enact their integrated curriculum ideas and factors
shaping their practices. Drawing on scholarship in curriculum
C.C. Lam et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e 3426
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integration and educational reform, we crafted an investigation that
positioned teachers at the heart of curriculum change efforts.
Teachers’ understanding of curriculum, and how teachers imple-
ment e or fail to implement e intended changes can have
a substantial impacton theoutcomes of those changes.It is with this
understanding that we explored the conceptions and practices of
eleven Singaporean teachersengagedin variousforms of curriculum
integration. This study specically examines teachers’ efforts to
reconcile an initiativetoward integrated curriculum and progressive
goals articulated by the Ministryof Education with a high-stakes test
culture in which exam performance is the main measure of success
for both students and teachers. Although focused on Singapore, this
study aims to illuminate the dilemmas faced by teachers in many
Asian and Western societies who seek to reconcile progressive
educationgoals withessentialist, perennialist,or neoliberal agendas.
4. Methods
To better understand teachers’ conceptions and curriculum
practices in relation to the demands of their professional context
requires an in-depth examination of teachers’ thinking and expe-
rience. For this reason, we adopted a qualitative case study design.
Specically, we employed an instrumental case study approach.Stake (2005) distinguishes between typical and instrumental case
studies. The former is built around cases that hold inherent char-
acteristics that are of interest to the researcher, whereas in
instrumental case studies, researchers choose specic cases to
inform an “external interest” (Stake, 2005, p. 445). In this study,
a case of eleven teachers became the basis of illuminating the
external issue, perspectives and enactment of integrated curric-
ulum. The case of teachers was bounded (Stake,1997, 2005) by their
experiences of working within integrated programs that were
shaped by local education policies and the broader Singaporean
socio-political milieu. We framed the investigation around two
research questions: (a) What is the nature of teachers’ conceptions
and practice of integrated curriculum within their schools? and (b)
What are teachers’ perspectives of the enactment of integratedcurricula within the Singaporean educational context?
4.1. Data collection
The research team comprised four investigators af liated with
the sole teacher education institution in Singapore. The researchers
recruited teachers for the study by inviting students from their
teacher education classes to participate in interviews. The number
of participants increased as interviewees referred the researchers
to colleagues and acquaintances that were involved in integrated
curricula. Scholars maintain that the interview is an effective data
collection method to illuminate teachers’ conceptions (Calderhead,
1996) and reveal the complexity of the teaching world ( Merriam,
2002; Patton, 2002). The researchers conducted interviews con-
sisting of semi-structured questions that covered three general
areas: (a) understanding of integrated curricula; (b) efforts related
to integrated curricula; and (c) perceived benets and barriers to
implementation. In all phases of the investigation, the researchers
adhered to ethical guidelines stipulated by the university’s Insti-
tutional Review Board. Participants were informed of the purpose
of the study and measures were taken to ensure condentiality and
anonymity. Each investigator interviewed at least two participants.
With the participants’ consent, the interviews were audio-taped
and transcribed in full.
In all, eleven secondary school teachers, six women and ve
men, participated in individual interviews lasting between 60 and
100 min. The teachers comprised a purposive sample that repre-
sented six schools that had embarked on various forms of inte-
gration, a range of years of teaching, at least two years of workingon curriculum integration in their schools, and differing roles
within the integration programs. Table 2 summarizes the partici-
pants’ background.
Five participants came from schools that had initiated inte-
grated programs as core features of the curriculum at the
Secondary One and Two levels. Three of the ve participants
(Jonathan, Diana, and Ai Ling) were from St. Anne’s Secondary
School, a school that pioneered the development of the Integrated
Humanities (IH) program that merged History and Geography. The
teachers joined the IH program at different junctures of develop-
ment. Two teachers from this group came from typical,
government-funded schools that had instigated integrated
programs lasting for at least one semester. Hui Ping was from
Achieve Academy, which was anticipating a possible directive toadopt the IH program. Hariff was the head of the Social Studies
department at Hijau Secondary. He was a proponent of integrating
subjects within the school’s National Education (NE) program.
The six other teacher-participants worked on integration
initiatives that were peripheral to the formal curriculum. Although
these programs spanned two weeks or less, they involved teachers
Table 2
Participants ’ background information.
Namea School Years of teaching Disciplinary
background
Integrated school
program
Subjec ts i nteg rated Ro le an d years of
involvement
Core integrated programs
Jonathan St Anne’s Secondary Over 10 Humanities &
History
Integrated Humanities History & Geography Planner: 6
Diana 3 Geography Planner, teacher: 3
Ai Ling 4 History Planner, teacher: 4
Hui Ping Achieve Academy Over 10 Geography Integrated Humanities History & Geography Teacher: 2
Hariff Hijau Secondary Over 10 History National Education Values, History, Geography,
Social Studies
Planner, teacher: 6
Non-core integrated programs
Katie Trinity Secondary 6 English &
Literature
Education for Life Social Studies, Geography,
English
Planner, teacher: 2
Lisa 7 Planner, teacher: 2
Kavitha 4 History, English, Science Planner, teacher: 3
Xu Ping 3 Science Information Technology
& Science
Planner, teacher: 2
Li Wah Jingga Secondary 7 Geography Enrichment History & Geography Planner, teacher: 2
Curriculum developer: 1
Alex Ungu Academy Over 10 History Values Education Social Studies & Values
Education
Teacher, researcher: 2
a
Participants’ and school names are pseudonyms.
C.C. Lam et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e 34 27
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from more than one subject department. Four of these teachers
(Lisa, Katie, Kavitha, and Xu Ping) came from Trinity Secondary
School, which had implemented the Education for Life (EFL)
program. The EFL comprised learning units that linked subject
areas aimed at invigorating the school’s professed values. The EFL
modules took on different forms. Katie and Lisa co-taught
Secondary Three Geography, History, and English. Kavitha co-
taught with two other teachers. The team’s week-long EFL units
combined Secondary One History, Literature, and Science. Xu Ping’s
EFL units linked Science and Information Technology at the
Secondary Two level. The two remaining teachers came from
typical, government-funded schools, and had been involved
extensively in researching, planning, or teaching integrated units. Li
Wah was a former teacher and curriculum developer at Jingga
Secondary School who had planned and implemented an enrich-
ment module on History and Geography. Finally, Alex was a senior
Social Studies teacher who was assigned by his school, Ungu
Academy, to investigate the feasibility of implementing values
education in Social Studies. The participants collectively provided
different perspectives on the integration process and the demands
on the teachers, the school, and the educational system. Further-
more, the homogeneity and variation within the sample bolstered
the study’s external validity by providing a solid basis for gener-alizing the ndings to other secondary teachers involved in
curriculum integration in Singapore (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
4.2. Data analysis
Analysis employed the constant comparative method (Miles &
Huberman, 1994), an inductive approach aimed at reducing the
data into a manageable number of themes that addressed the
concerns of the study (Creswell, 2008). The analytical process
occurred in stages similar to those outlined by Boeije (2002). In the
initial stage, the researchers subjected individual transcripts to
open coding that entailed processes of fragmenting and connecting.
Fragmenting emphasized the separate codes that emerged during
the interview and the lifting of the coded pieces out of the inter-view context. To connect the data, we compared one coded
segment with another. If a similarity was detected, the criterion of
convergence became the basis of developing a category. For
example, one coded fragment identied in Jonathan’s interview
was “protected planning time”. We found that other codes in the
interview, such as “shared venues” and “collaborative instruction”
were linked to “protected planning time” because each evidenced
school action in support of integration. We connected the similar
coded fragments by collectively labeling them under the category,
“school support.” By fragmenting and connecting the data, we
captured the essential message contained in each interview. The
process likewise enabled us to check for internal validity: each
researcher read and coded the interviews separately as a way of
determining the consistency of ideas within each transcript.
The second stage involved comparing interviews within the
same group. Employing axial coding, we searched for characteris-
tics across interviews to dene common concepts and discover
combinations of codes within each concept. As shown in Table 2,
the groups comprised two types of participants: a) teachers from
schools where integration was a core curricular feature and b)
teachers from schools where integration was peripheral. In
comparing participants within the rst group, we found the cate-
gory, “school support” from Jonathan’s interview to be a common
feature. However, support manifested differently among teachers
who had come from other schools (Hariff and Hui Ping). For
example, in Hariff ’s case, “school support” was not exemplied by“shared venues” and “collaborative instruction”, but through
“protected planning time” and uniquely, the “National Education”
curriculum.
In the nal analytical stage, we compared the two groups with
regard to the participants’ perceptions of curriculum integration.
The cross-analysis served as a form of triangulation that allowed us
to validate categories and enrich the picture that emerged from the
rst group (Boeije, 2002). Further, the criteria on which some
interviews differed from others became the basis of developing
a matrix to construct descriptions of the teachers ’ experiences of
implementing integrated curricula. Table 3 includes examples of
these criteria (organizing principles, perceived benets).
The analysis yielded two broad themes that informed the
study’s research questions. The rst captures participants’ theo-retical understanding of integration, their views of the nature of
integrated curriculum, and attempts to integrate curricula through
their school-based practices. The second theme reects the
Table 3
Characteristics of integrated programs.
School and teachers Integrated program and
subjects
Type of integration
and duration
Organizing principles/themes Perceived benetsa Program used for
exam preparation
Core integrated programs
St. Anne’ s Secondary
Jonathan
Diana
Ai Ling
Integrated Humanities:
History & Geography
Shared: whole year Social & political issues: Singapore’s
aging population, inux of foreign
workers, pollution, sustainable
development
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Yes
Achieve Academy
Hui Ping
Shared: 1 semester Historical patterns: role of rivers in
shaping civilizations
1, 2, 3 No
Hijau Secondary
Hariff
Social Studies, National
Education
Webbed: 1 semester Social & political issues based on
Singapore’s history and National
Education themes
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Yes
Non-core integrated programs
Trinity Secondary
Katie
Lisa
Kavitha
Xu Ping
Education for Life: English,
History, Science, Information Technology
Threaded, webbed:
1e2 weeks
Historical patterns: how societies
respond to change
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 No
Environmental issues: sustainable
development, interconnectedness
Jingga Secondary
Li Wah
History & Geography Shared: 1e2 weeks Historical patterns: societies’
relationship with environment
1, 2, 3, 4 No
Ungu Academy
Alex
Social Studies & Values Threaded: N.A. “Values-inspired” themes N.A. No
a 1 ¼ authentic, real world learning; 2 ¼ enhancing student interest; 3 ¼ expanding perspectives; 4 ¼ critical thinking & problem-solving; 5 ¼ holistic learning;
6¼
differentiated learning; 7¼
camaraderie among teachers; 8¼
exam preparation.
C.C. Lam et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e 3428
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teachers’ perceptions of integrated programs within Singapore’s
curriculum reform initiatives. Notably, the teachers emphasized
that integration faced obstacles due to entrenched values, beliefs,
and practices. These themes are discussed below.
5. Findings
5.1. Conceptions, motivations, and practice of integration
Our study’s rst question concerned how teachers conceptual-
ized the nature of integration and enacted integrated curriculum in
their schools. Like Applebee et al. (2007), we observed that
teachers’ conceptions and practice of integration do not t neatly
into the models of curriculum integration identied in the litera-
ture. Most teachers learned about curriculum integration through
in-service seminars or short courses; thus opportunities to explore
models of curriculum integration were limited. Teachers’ concep-
tions of integration were, furthermore, linked closely with the
characteristics of the integrated programs offered in their schools.
Among teachers whose schools adopted integrated curricula to
implement core programs for a sustained period, teachers were
more likely to conceptualize integration through interdisciplinary
approaches that prioritized issues under study rather than themaintenance of disciplines that characterized multidisciplinary
approaches (see Table 3).
Four teachers approached integration through a multidisci-
plinary model. That is, they focused on themes that represented
real world problems; but assessments were built around the
specic skill expectations of the disciplines involved. Lisa and her
teammate, Katie, designed their EFL units around a week-long eld
trip for their students to a palm oil plantation in Malaysia. Lisa
noted that “integrated curriculum is a curriculum in which there is
no clear distinction about disparate subjects but rather the skills of
particular subjects are used specically for the students to solve
a problem ..” The teachers emphasized that problems relating to
the environment and sustainable development were the focus of
the unit; on the other hand, assessments were linked to the sepa-rate subjects through the use of rubrics that outlined the different
skills. Similarly, their colleague, Kavitha, explained that the school’s
Secondary One EFL units, organized under the theme of “How
societies respond to change”, was an opportunity to practice skills
learned in English, History and Science classes. For Alex, who was
tasked to develop an integrated program at Ungu Academy,
a feasible approach to organizing the curriculum was to anchor
learning through values-based themes that would then be
combined through discipline-specic assessment rubrics.
The remainder of the participants conceptualized their curric-
ular approaches through interdisciplinary models. A pair of
teachers characterized their integration as “webbed” (Fogarty,
1991), where organizing themes spanned the curriculum but
were implemented within subject areas. Hariff, who had led theintegration of NE in his school, explained: “There is a theme,cutting
across . horizontally and vertically wherebasically all the different
subjects are communicating these themes, so the students are able
to have a better understanding.” Hariff mentioned that historical
themes highlighting how Singapore had responded to social
upheavals such as water shortages and racial tensions were
explored extensively in Social Studies and Values Education classes.
Similarly, Xu Ping explained that to prepare students for their EFL
eldwork, which involved designing a bridge to serve a village in
a rainforest in Malaysia,he taught the students about the concept of
“interconnectedness” through a unit on ecosystems during Science
and “networks” during Information Technology class.
Diana, Ai Ling, and Jonathan from St. Anne’s Secondary School,
and Li Wah who were designated as their schools’
curriculum
developers, and Hui Peng, framed their understanding and practice
of integration similarly to Fogarty’s (1991) shared model. Diana saw
integration as “Something that, as much as possible, connects two
subjects . or teaching things that can lend itself to both disci-
plines.” Diana and Ai Ling explained that combining History and
Geography into the IH allowed them to focus on issues that were
relevant to students’ lives while preserving skills and concepts that
were af liated traditionally with the individual subjects. Ai Ling
mentioned that Singapore’s limited land area and its historical ties
to neighboring countries led to many issues that students could
ponder. Hui Peng recalled how she implemented a unit on “Rivers”
to facilitate learning about the longevity of ancient civilizations,
a topic that was taught in History and Geography. Diana explained
that she and her colleagues at St. Anne ’s designed IH units that
dealt mainly with social problems in Singapore, such as its aging
population, the inux of foreign workers, and pollution. A common
principle among these units was to emphasize how societies, in
order to endure, needed to adjust to social, environmental and
political changes.
The variations in programs notwithstanding, all except one of
the participants agreed that integration offered many benets,
particularly in cultivating students’ learning and interest (see
Table 3). These benets served as incentives for teachers as theyworked on their integrated units. The benets cited by the teachers
reected arguably progressive principles of student learning. This
was best captured by Hariff, who noted that the NE curriculum
could be taken “as propaganda.but we wanted the students to
approach social issues more critically.” Progressive principles were
evident in the pedagogical innovations introduced by the teachers.
Hariff said that his students tended to be social learners. This
inspired his teaching team to design strategies that involved
collaborative work. Jonathan and Ai Ling recalled that the IH subject
challenged them to avoid the usual didactic lectures and Power-
Point presentations. They developed role-play and cooperative
group activities that enabled them to address students’ different
learning styles.
Teachers likewise reported positive effects on camaraderie
among the teachers. Hariff and Jonathan reiterated that through
working together for the integrated program, team spirit among
the teachers was enhanced. At St. Anne’s Secondary School,
teachers relied on colleagues trained in different subjects to iden-
tify common concepts and skills in History and Geography. Jona-
than noted that teachers worked long hours between semesters to
craft their curriculum units together. He added that the common
teaching time enriched the exchange of ideas among teachers while
providing students with cross-disciplinary perspectives.
Across the twogroups, teachers said that they had learned about
integration through short-term seminars sponsored by the MOE.
Hariff, Hui Peng, Jonathan, and Li Wah mentioned that attending
a masters course on curriculum design introduced them to
“concept-based” approaches. Intriguingly, more than half of theteachers, while attempting to enact practices to support integra-
tion, expressed a sentiment that their efforts fell short of what
integration should be. Hui Peng, Jonathan, Kavitha, Li Wah, and Xu
Ping were among those who described a normative stance that
differed from their integration practices. Jonathan described the IH
program as adhering to Fogarty’s (1991) shared model; however,
his understanding of integration reached beyond the merging of
two subjects:
Rather than just limited to two disciplines, it’s to see connec-
tions between different elds of knowledge, and this
could mean two or more, but, basically to look out for how
different elds of knowledge are connected and to appreciate
more importantly, the connections. because, through
C.C. Lam et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 31 (2013) 23e 34 29
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integration.one of the advantages is that it is.applicable to
the real world . where knowledge is not compartmentalized
into subjects.
Hui Peng observed that she sought to link History and Geog-
raphy, but claimed that the curriculum had not fullled an impor-
tant criterion of integration, specically, the subsuming of subjects
within compelling relevant issues. She used a metaphor of a local
drink to explain the disjuncture in her thinking and practice:
In Singapore, “bandung” means rose syrup with milk, so just like
two subjects, they are supposed to mix until it becomes some-
thing brand new . But the way the syllabus is, the way the
curriculum is being designed doesn’t really allow us a lot of
scope to explore this integration.
Another intriguing pattern relating to teachers’ conceptions and
enactmentwas the varying level of support for integration based on
the programs’ role with regards to preparation for examinations. As
indicated in Table 3, teachers in schools where integrated programs
involved examinable subjects (St. Anne’s and Hijau Secondary
Schools) saw more benets to student learning and generally held
stronger support for such programs compared to their counterparts
where schools’ primary test preparation took place in traditional,
discipline-based subjects. The role of examinations and other
constraints to integrated curriculum will be discussed further in the
following section.
5.2. Obstacles to integration
The second area of interest concerned teachers’ views of
curriculum integration within the wider context of Singapore’s
educational initiatives. The teachers reported that a high
percentage of school-based integration they developed adhered to
interdisciplinary approaches in which content from disciplines
were organized around a theme. Transdisiplinary approaches that
“organize curriculum around student questions and concerns”
(Drake & Burns, 2004, p. 13) were uncommon. The participants ’responses indicated that resistance to transdisciplinary approaches
stemmed from four general factors that have been noted by other
researchers (see Grossman et al., 2000; Lam & Chan, 2011). These
include: (a) teachers’ perceived lack of subject knowledge; (b)
teacher subject identication; (c) the inadequacy of resources and
time needed for curriculum development; and (d) misalignment
between topics and assessment.
A feeling of inadequacy in subject knowledge was found to be
a concern of all except one of the teachers involved. Without ample
grasp of the subject knowledge, teachers found it dif cult to
identify the key ideas to be covered in their teaching. Li Wah
explained: “When designing what to teach in the new integrated
subject, it . is denitely a struggle because they won’t know.the
important aspects of the discipline to esh out.”
The only teacherwho did not nd lacking of subject knowledge a problem was Katie.
She noted: “For a person just starting out (subject matter knowl-
edge) might seem quite daunting, but in Singapore we have enough
resources available to ll this knowledge gap.”The concern of subject identity was less apparent than subject
knowledge, but nonetheless posed a stumbling block to integration
efforts. Teachers whowere trained to teach a certain subject usually
identied themselves as a member of that subject. Hui Peng voiced
her concerns about this issue frankly: “Because I am a Geography
teacher .I nd that integration actually threatens the integrity of
the status of the subject.” This was especially true in upper
secondary S