Title: Leveraging autonomous pedagogical space for technology-transformed learning: a Singapore's perspective to sustaining educational reform within, across and beyond schools

Authors: Yancy Toh; Azilawati Jamaludin; Sujin He; Paul Meng-Huat Chua; David Wei Loong Hung

Addresses: National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616 Singapore ' National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616 Singapore ' National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616 Singapore ' National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616 Singapore ' National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616 Singapore

Abstract: This paper discusses the dialectical relationship between bottom-up and top-down forces coalescing around the three elements of socio-technical landscape, socio-technical regimes and niche innovations. By studying this intricate connection, we hope to distil how regime-level actors such as policy-makers can influence learning through the introduction of various national policies and how technology-transformed learning that emerged from innovative niches might have the potential to affect the socio-technical (patchwork of) regimes and change the socio-technical landscape. Through a case study of an ICT prototype school in Singapore, we hope to demystify how the climate of increasing school autonomy can afford schools with common meta-language and pedagogical spaces to both tinker and sustain the use of mobile technologies for teaching and learning. The conditions underpinning this multi-level sustainability are unpacked and recommendations made so that typical schools can also experience the opportunities for transformation through spillover effects emanating from networked niches.

Keywords: innovation diffusion; sustainability studies; mobile learning; m-learning; technology integration; school autonomy; centralised-decentralisation; socio-technical landscape; niche innovations; technology-transformed learning; autonomous pedagogical space; Singapore; educational reforms; national policies; education policy; ICT; spillover effects.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMLO.2015.074517

International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 2015 Vol.9 No.4, pp.334 - 353

Received: 20 Mar 2015
Accepted: 11 Oct 2015
Published online: 03 Feb 2016 *

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