by Ally Chan

Created on: May 10, 2008

In 2003, a local English-language newspaper, The Straits Times, carried a series of articles highlighting the phenomenon of insufficient interaction across racial boundaries in Singapore schools Here are some ways in which a teacher can deal with this issue in the classroom teaching or through co-curricular activities.

The study of 4,400 neighbourhood school children that revealed most prefer to stick to friends of the same race is not very surprising. Since time immemorial, people have shown an instinctive desire to mix with those of the same background and it tends to be the case that "same" usually but not always translates into demarcations along racial lines. Furthermore, Singapore is a multi-lingual society, and people tend to lapse into their mother tongues as a natural way of communication, thus leading to these race-based cliques. As a teacher, I do not think this is actually unhealthy unless it translates into incidents of ill-feeling and an atmosphere of hatred and mistrust. So unless the issue is pressing, my decision would be to take a sensitive, indirect and subtle approach.

The first thing I would try to do would be to toggle groups and pair work such that there would be a good racial mix in every group. During discussions I would make sure I walk around and listen in on the kind of communication that is going around. Should there be any difficulties in communication spotted, I would assess the situation and take appropriate measures. For example, if the miscommunication is not of a serious nature, I could simply join in the discussion and try to manipulate matters subtlely. However, if a major quarrel should arise, I would speak to the parties involved after class and ensure that all issues of contention are resolved.

The next thing I would do is to foster informal chat sessions on racial issues. Perhaps, if time permits, I would have a "Culture Focus" session every week to deal with pertinent topics. I would cull reports from the news about race-based issues like riots, fights, genocide and terrorism and put them up for discussion in the class. Events happening in other parts of the world can be used as a springboard from which local issues can be brought out. In addition there are also historical events that can be discussed the Holocaust, for example. I would stay alert during these sessions and suss out any underlying tension. Should there be any unconstructive sentiments like "I simply hate Chinese/Malays/etc" I would try to reason things

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