ABSTRACT
Purpose is a long-term intention to influence the world in ways both meaningful to oneself and others. In other words, using one’s gifts for others. Purpose is the fulfilling of one’s meaning in life. Our research reveals that as with the high search for meaning among Singapore adolescents, purposelessness among students may have emerged from the competitive ethos of high-performance schooling. A purpose-driven education framework for the future of education challenges schools to: (a) invest in a purpose-driven vision of schooling towards higher values, not just high-performance schooling, (b) focus on helping students discover purpose to create and re-imagine new futures and possibilities beyond the self, not just future-proofing, and (c) inspire students toward self-formation and moral purpose, beyond developing academic competencies.
