Conclusion
Societal culture is clearly an important concept for comparative studies of school leadership. It draws attention to distinctive patterns of constraints and possibilities, of required and accepted ways of thinking, acting, and feeling that are fundamentally connected to mastery and control of the social and physical world. We have argued for sociopolitical analysis of culture that takes as its starting point the social, economic, and political problems that Singapore faced at independence and that are still grappled with today, though in different forms. We have identified two predominant culture strands, and argued that Singapore culture is best understood as a mix between traditional and modernizing culture, negotiated and legitimized in terms of national interests.