Beginning Teachers encounter many challenges during their initial years and this can be a particularly difficult time for these teachers as they learn to integrate into the education service (Rogers & Babinsky, 2002). This cannot be any truer, especially in the light of the many new initiatives launched in the local education sphere. Beginning Teachers in Singapore are increasingly confronted by various challenges in implementing novel introductions and amendments in the education system; one of which is the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE). Another challenge facing beginning teachers arises from working with the first point of contact with the external community; the parents (Boon, 2011) - the most important stakeholders in education outside the domain of the school's administration. Apart from these, teachers are also face the obstacles in delivering quality education equally to all students, as disparity grows in our society in numerous ways.
In 2011, the Minister of Education, Mr Heng Swee Kiat, announced the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) for Primary Schools, promising to "reaffirm the re-affirm the central place of values and character development in the education system" (Heng, 2011a). This change implied that CCE would now be integrated into the main curriculum in both the formal subjects and informal subjects by adopting a total curriculum approach, thereby making CCE both "pervasive" and "systemic" in the school (Heng, 2011b). This implementation "in a coordinated manner through though the different programmes and platforms" (MOE Singapore, 2011) would mean that the responsibility of rendering of CCE would fall on all teachers to ensure that "the whole school becomes a community that enhances civic virtues" (Lee, 2012). .
The first challenge in the implementation of CCE would be the lack of clarity and uncertainty on what CCE entails.