Introduction

This chapter introduces the study and its central problematic: how disadvantaged families navigate the opportunities and constraints of Singapore's putatively ‘high-performing’ education system. It highlights the lack of research on disadvantaged groups’ lived experiences and perspectives within a system that often attracts much praise, and within a context of growing inequality in Singapore. The chapter outlines the two key research questions that structure the study: 1) How do families from disadvantaged backgrounds conceptualise and seek to enact a ‘successful’ future for their children? 2) How do families relate to the state (including state policies and state institutions, especially schools) in navigating the broader education policy context? What accounts for such relations? It introduces the seeming paradoxical coexistence of dynamics of responsibility and dependency in education policy, as well as in families’ lives. This chapter also lays out the method used in this study, the positionality of the researcher and the structure of the book.