Commentary: teacher education and nation-building in Singapore

The papers of this special issue provide an overview of the evolution of teacher education in Singapore with a focus on nation-building. They describe how teacher education in the small city-state has developed from the first Teachers’ Training College in 1950 to the establishment of the National Education Institute (NIE) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 1991. They explain how the NIE has worked hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Education and NTU leaders to make the NIE a global entrepot of educational practice, policy and research. In 2009, the NIE established a business consulting arm, NIE International, which has worked to circulate NIE’s model of teacher education around the globe. Yet, what is the specific nature of this model? To what extent is it relevant to other countries, as different in their histories and cultures as the Peoples’ Republic of China, the Federal Republic of Germany or the Kingdom of Bhutan? These are questions raised in this article.