Jacqueline HO
Jacqueline’s work begins with the premise that how we evaluate “merit” can both generate and legitimate inequality. In the context of growing critiques of meritocracy as an organising system, her work examines the processes that sustain or challenge evaluative practices in education systems. Does the removal of school rankings reduce the perception of hierarchy? Why might disadvantaged youth paradoxically believe that their education system is meritocratic? Jacqueline specialises in in-depth interviewing and brings a theoretical perspective informed by cultural sociology. Her research is focused primarily on the Singaporean education system. At SMU, she teaches Sociology of Education.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. (Sociology), Cornell University, 2024
- M.A. (Sociology), Cornell University, 2021
- B.A. (Environmental Studies), Brown University, 2014
Research Interests
- Inequality
- Education
- Valuation and Evaluation
- Culture
- Singapore
- Qualitative Methods
Research Areas and Areas of Expertise
HighlightsIntegrates cultural and qualitative perspectives to advance understanding of educational inequality and valuation processes; recognized for methodological rigor and policy relevance, especially in Singapore’s education landscape; recipient of prestigious fellowships and awards; contributes to scholarly discourse through publications, reviews, and professional affiliations.
Focused research areas include Competitive behaviour in school choice; cultural foundations of beliefs about meritocracy; educational categories and parental responsibility; moral negotiations in evaluative systems; qualitative sociology and generalisability.
- National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship ($27,500)
- Cornell Graduate School Travel Grant ($1,000)
- Graduate Research Seed Grant, Center for the Study of Inequality ($720)
- Inequality and Decision-Making Graduate Student Fellow, The Tobin Project
- International Research Travel Grant, Einaudi Center for International Studies ($1,100)
Showing up to 6 latest publications from the past 5 years.
- J HoAmerican Journal of Cultural Sociology 12 (3), 379-409, 2024
- Gender, sexuality, and religion: a critical integrative review and agenda for future research [2022]L Schnabel, E Abdelhadi, K Ally Zaslavsky, JS Ho, A Torres‐BeltranJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion 61 (2), 271-292, 2022
Jacqueline’s work begins with the premise that how we evaluate “merit” can both generate and legitimate inequality. In the context of growing critiques of meritocracy as an organising system, her work examines the processes that sustain or challenge evaluative practices in education systems. Does the removal of school rankings reduce the perception of hierarchy? Why might disadvantaged youth paradoxically believe that their education system is meritocratic? Jacqueline specialises in in-depth interviewing and brings a theoretical perspective informed by cultural sociology. Her research is focused primarily on the Singaporean education system. At SMU, she teaches Sociology of Education.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. (Sociology), Cornell University, 2024
- M.A. (Sociology), Cornell University, 2021
- B.A. (Environmental Studies), Brown University, 2014
Research Interests
- Inequality
- Education
- Valuation and Evaluation
- Culture
- Singapore
- Qualitative Methods