Illuminating Parentocracy’s Impact on Holistic Education in the Digital Age : A Bourdieusian Case Study of Singapore

Amidst Singapore’s evolving educational landscape and the emergence of parentocracy, Singaporean parents with varying capital and habitus have devised various educational strategies to navigate their children through this new holistic educational framework, based on their beliefs on “educational success”. With this context in mind, this study aims to illuminate, through a Bourdieusian lens, how parents with primary school children who possess varying amounts of economic and cultural capital, as well as different habitus, have responded to the new educational framework by adopting specific educational strategies. The study’s findings offer insights into how parentocracy can impact the holistic development of students, thereby advancing research on holistic education in Singapore. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, this study reveals that a positive correlation exists between a parent's educational capital volume and their inclination towards holistic education. Nonetheless, the primary determining factor lies in the volume of international capital accumulated.