Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Volume 54 - Issue 3 - Staying in a certain state of mind

Oct 15, 2026

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Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 54, Number 3, November 2014 explores how Singaporean freelance adult educators sustain professional engagement amid contingent, market-driven work in the mostly private CET sector. The paper argues that continued workplace success depends on managing professional identity through ‘shapeshifting’, supported by resilience, lifelong learning, networking, time management, and self-marketing. Insights come from 68 interviews and socio-cultural theoretical analysis across three projects.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Professional identity and ‘shapeshifting’ in Singapore’s freelance adult education

Research approach and data analysis

Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 54, Number 3, November 2014 Staying in a certain state of mind: becoming and being a freelance adult educator in Singapore Peter Rushbrook Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University Annie Karmel Helen Bound Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore Over recent years Singapore has developed a strong adult and vocational education system based on those of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Its Continuing Education and Training (CET) sector makes use of competency-based training in the form of Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQs) which are delivered in mainly small private providers by learning facilitators qualified through a range of WSQ-based training programs. Most facilitators are mature-age and second-career people drawn from diverse career backgrounds and employed on a casual and part-time rather than ongoing basis. They identify themselves as ‘freelancers’ in the training marketplace and compete vigorously for the work opportunities available. In the paper we argue that continued workplace success is premised on a strong sense of professional identity and its management through a process of ‘shapeshifting’ according to the diverse requirements of the adult 416 Peter Rushbrook, Annie Karmel and Helen Bound education industry. We explore this idea through revisiting three of our projects examining Singaporean CET educators and ask of our data a new question: ‘How do individuals “become”and “be”Singaporean adult education freelancers?’ We draw our insights from interviews with freelancers, Singapore’s political and economic context and a range of literature drawn principally from a socio-cultural theoretical perspective. Keywords: Adult education, vocational education, workplace learning, professional identity, Singapore education Introduction It is not just about getting the work; it is about staying in a certain state of mind. It is about, I think, having a high level of personal mastery and being able to just weather through, whatever the world holds. (Debra, adult educator for sixteen years) Debra is an experienced Singaporean adult educator, but like the majority of her colleagues she is part of a contingent and self-labelled‘freelancer’ workforce that facilitates learning in the country’s mostly private adult Continuing Education and Training (CET) sector providers. Her capacity to gain ongoing but impermanent work is shaped unpredictably by forces she can and cannot control. While she has a hold on how she learns new skills and gains new knowledge, mostly informally and in workplaces, via carefully cultivated friends and networks, and occasional formal programs, she must compete in the open market for work against rather than with her colleagues. While some providers remain a steady source of income, though rarely high, others come and go, and there is the pressure of developing new opportunities. To achieve her deft weaving through the system she has developed a strong sense of self, a deep sense of resilience, a capacity to be a permanent learner, as well as excellent time management and business planning and self-marketing skills. And then there is the delicate dance of balancing home and work, for engaging in the life of the freelancer easily blurs these boundaries (Campbell Clark, 2000) . Staying in a certain state of mind: becoming and being a freelance adult educator in Singapore 417 But, and again like many of her fellow ‘trainers’, she chooses to be a freelancer for the work flexibility and freedom it offers. The same high perceptions and management of a malleable self cannot be claimed by many of her less experienced colleagues, which give her a market advantage against some, but not all. In the end it is a social Darwinian world of winners and losers, the fit and the not-so-fit. Unlike the world of permanent or ongoing work, where employees are relatively more stable, can predict the near future and have many learning n

FAQs

What does the paper suggest about staying effective as a freelance adult educator?

It suggests effectiveness depends on maintaining a certain state of mind and a strong professional identity, managed through ‘shapeshifting’ to fit shifting industry requirements.

Which evidence does the paper use to develop its insights?

The paper draws on 68 interviews and uses a socio-cultural theoretical perspective, along with observation notes and document analysis across three research projects.

Why is professional identity described as pivotal for freelancer workplace engagement?

Freelancers must continuously adapt and reinvent themselves to secure and create opportunities in a competitive market, and without these identity-related skills they struggle to thrive.

Oct 15, 2026

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