Assoc Prof Suzanne Choo Publishes Articles on Literature Education and 21st Century Education

Assoc Prof Suzanne Choo, Assistant Dean in the Office of Teacher Education, recently published articles on literature education and twenty-first century education.

The article “Expanding the imagination: Mediating the aesthetic-political divide through the third space of ethics in Literature education” published in the British Journal of Education Studies was based on the OER project “Cultivating Cosmopolitan Virtues Through Critical, Aesthetic and Ethical Engagements With Literature”. In her article, Assoc Prof Choo explores the aesthetic-political divide in literature education and expands on the idea of applying third space theory which allows students to engage with aesthetic, political and ethical dimensions of literature.

Assoc Prof Choo also published an article titled “Examining models of twenty-first century education through the lens of Confucian cosmopolitanism” in the Asia Pacific Journal of Education. In this article, she examines the twenty-first century education model applied in Singapore schools. Her article suggests that the application of Confucian cosmopolitanism can facilitate an ethical re-orientation in the education model, shifting the focus from instrumental competencies to humanistic virtues. The education models shared in this article arose from the study “Education for Twenty-first Century Global Capacities: A Comparative Case-study of Two Schools in Singapore and the United States”.

TODAYonline also featured Assoc Prof Choo’s commentary on “Literature too can help Singapore students engage with Asia”. In response to the recent announcement in the Parliament that there will be an inclusion of more Asian content in Singapore’s humanities curriculum, she shared about the importance of good humanities education and how it helps to activate students’ critical thinking, creativity and empathy. She also shared that Literature education could play a key role in helping students attain a deeper appreciation for Asia. In the article, she observed that students who attended a 10-week poetry course titled “Exploring Asia through poetry”, was able to relate the literacy text with present-day issues in Asia. Asian literature provides rich insights into complex everyday issues and societies in the region, which provides an opportunity to deepen students’ critical and empathetic understanding of Asia.