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- 1. Cultural Diversity inour Social Studies Syllabus Vani | Bernard | Zinc | Winnie | Priya
- 2. Quiz 1. What is the significance of Vesak Day? 2. What is the difference between Hari Raya Haji and Hari Raya Puasa? 3. Why is Christmas celebrated? 4. Why can‟t the Muslims eat pork? 5. Why can‟t the Hindus eat beef? 6. Why do Hindus wash their feet before they enter the temple? 7. Why do Christians celebrate Thanksgiving? 8. Why do Muslims wear „tudong‟? 9. Why do Chinese celebrate Mooncake festival? 10. Why do Sikhs wear „turban‟?
- 3. What is culturaldiversity? Definition: -To have a diverse range of culture in a common shared space, to take pride in one‟s own culture, yet respect, accept, maybe even celebrate other‟s cultural uniqueness.
- 4. What do somestudent teachers say? Chinese respondent: Cultural diversity is about different culturally Differences in ethnicity, language, religion, customs and beliefs Messages of the importance of racial harmony and being tolerant of other ethnic groups was taught to her when she was a student Indian respondent: Cultural diversity is something whereby you get to experience and learn each other‟s culture, tradition and practices and why they do things in certain ways and why festivals are celebrated When she was a student: Racial harmony, IFD, different festivals to teach them In contract teaching: NE camp for P4 students, 2D1N camp, Incorporate cultural diversity aspects in camp (meals-breakfast, lunch n dinner from different groups) and practices (sitting on the floor, sharing plates etc) Malay respondent: Cultural diversity was explicitly taught and modelled as a student, through school celebrations during festivals, through curriculum (maths problems has representation from diff ethnic grps) In contract teaching: Students in other ethnic grps join CCAs that are not of their own ethnicity
- 5. What do youthink? Video: http://www.google.com.sg/webhp?source=search_app
- 6. Why do weneed to think about cultural diversity? National Day Rally Speech 2012, PM Lee Hsien Loong
- 8. In Schools: 21stCentury Competencies
- 9. Inquiring Into OurWorld: P2 Bernard & Zinc
- 10. Development of P2syllabus P2 Syllabus Chapter Chapter 1: New Girl in Town Key Concept Cultural Appreciation Guiding Question Who are the people living in Singapore? How do we practise our customs and traditions? Chapter Chapter 3: Things so Singaporean Key Concept National Identity and Shared Experiences Guiding Question What makes us people of Singapore? Chapter Chapter 6: Show some respect Key Concept National Identity, Shared Experiences and Harmony Guiding Question What makes us people of Singapore? Total no of chapters 3 out of 6 chapters
- 11. Critique syllabus withregards to teaching Cultural Diversity
- 12. Approach The three stories to cover New Girl in Town Things so Singaporean Show Some Respect
- 14. Our Diversity Makesus Unique New Girl in Town Learn about different celebrations in Singapore through Noi, a transfer student and appreciate other races‟ cultures and traditions. Cultural Appreciation
- 15. Block of Study:Our Diversity Makes Singapore Unique Concept: Cultural Appreciation Guiding Questions: (1) Who are the people living in Singapore? How do we practice our customs and traditions? Generalisation: Pupils will be able to know that we have diverse communities in Singapore and to appreciate the many customs and traditions of the communities in Singapore.
- 16. Content of Story Positives Encourages locals to be open and receptive towards foreigners, and vice versa. Ending teaches students to look at one another as individuals. (Good ending ++)
- 17. Content of Story Cons Only Noi was demonstrated acceptance. Examples shown are poor representations of races Lack of meaningful participation
- 18. Activity Book Positive 4 major races Educates students on basic information of major races.
- 19. Activity Book Cons Traditional Costumes Christmas Merely feeds students knowledge without promoting cultural understanding and acceptance.
- 20. Visuals Look at the faces of the children. What do you think they are trying to indicate? Appreciation Participation Acceptance Amount of Interaction?
- 21. VISUALS Look at the various communities depicted. How do you think they are being potrayed? Traditions and Customs Traditions and Customs of a community of a Community Traditions and Customs of a Community Variety of Positive communities Amount of Interaction? Representation portrayed
- 22. Activity (Public Holidays inSingapore) Look at the various PH and festivals. Can you organise them into the various communities that celebrate them? Holidays New Year’s Day Hari Raya Pussa Chinese New Year National Day Good Friday Teachers’ Day Labour Day Children’s Day Vesak Day Hari Raya Haji Youth Day (School Holiday) Deepavali Christmas Day
- 23. Rationale of Activity Gainawareness that Different festivals are celebrated by various communities Communities can also involve different race and religions Unique communities makes Singapore Unique Each community can enjoy or share traditions and customs
- 24. Recommendations Discuss various festivals celebrated by different communities Show pictures of how different communities enjoy and interact with one another
- 25. Recommendations Sharing of our own experiences Up to 2 chapters could be used instead Students can learn more about the finer aspects of each others' culture: Their lifestyles, recreations they like, preferences for food
- 27. Our Common Identity,Shared Things So Singaporean Think about what makes Singapore Singapore, and in turn, makes us Singaporean. Induces pride and belonging through facial looks, the cultures they originate from, their festivals and foods. Celebrates uniqueness whilst reminding us our togetherness.
- 28. Block of Study:Our Common Identity, Shared Experience and Values Unite the People in Our Country Concept: National Identity, Shared Experiences Guiding Questions: (1) What makes us people of Singapore? Generalisation: Pupils will be able to understand that shared experiences bind us together as a nation.
- 29. Content of Story Positives Promotes racial pride Reminds students to enjoy our diversity is a strength, not a weakness.
- 30. Content of Story Cons Multi-culturalism is a characteristic trait of Singapore, but it does not correctly define Singapore.
- 31. Activity Book Positive Serves as a possible branch to inculcate the value of Gratitude
- 32. Activity Book Cons Is that all students can love about Singapore?
- 33. Visuals Look at the faces of the children. Are all the 4 races (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) depicted accurately?
- 34. Visuals Look at the pictures of the each community. Do they show interaction? Do the different communities interact in reality?
- 35. Activity (Who are myfriends?) Can you name some of your friends? Why are the two (few) of you friends? How do you interact with each other?
- 36. Rationale of Activity Points out that Singapore is a place where we can find many communities living together This makes Singapore Unique
- 37. Recommendations Make use of the diversity that pupils can observe around them Example: Observe our canteen, what kinds of food are there? Why are there so many different kinds of food? Pupils need to know that all races have their rights to live in Singapore. They share many things with other races.
- 39. Our Common Identity,Shared Show Some Respect Looks into how easily our harmony can be destructed, and, sometimes even by ourselves The best protection is respect, sensitivity and personal maturity.
- 40. Block of Study:Our Common Identity, Shared Experience and Values Unite the People in Our Country Concept: National Identity, Shared Experiences Guiding Questions: (1) What makes us people of Singapore? Generalisation: Pupils will be able to share that common values on racial and religious harmony based on consensus and not conflict.
- 41. Content of Story Positives A reminder of a possible future, and reinforces the need to maintain cultural harmony. Forgiving and Respect is the value taught here.
- 42. Content of Story Cons It‟s always the same song.
- 43. Activity Book Positive Encourages students to get to know their friends‟ culture through their friends, and not using a stereotypical template.
- 44. Activity Book Cons Given our food culture, how successful is the activity?
- 45. Visuals Look at the costumes of Mrs Joseph. Can you tell what she is wearing? Mrs Joseph willing to accept the cultural costumes of the other communities
- 46. Visuals Look at the pictures. What do they tell about how communities interact? Cultural diversity exists across generations and this should be
- 47. Inquiring Into OurWorld: P4 Priya & Winnie
- 48. Let’s Look atthe Syllabus! Can you pick out the chapters that you think show / teach cultural diversity? Chapters 1-4: Different people who contributed to Singapore‟s early growth Chapters 5-8: First-Gen political leaders‟ contribution (included people of different races)
- 49. Let’s Look atthe Syllabus! However… Covers breadth but not depth Content is “history”- heavy Isit enough to learn about cultural diversity of people in the past?
- 50. Let’s Look atthe Syllabus! History-heavy Job stereotypes? Race Stereotypes?
- 51. Let’s Look atthe Syllabus! History-heavy Job stereotypes? Race Stereotypes?
- 52. Let’s look atthe Textbook! The PAST “Mascots” for textbooks
- 53. Let’s look atthe Textbook! The CURRENT “Mascot” for textbooks
- 54. Why did theychange the “mascot”? More than 4 main races in Singapore! Influx of foreigners Singapore as a country But… has Sir Stamford Raffles ever become a Singaporean? Is he a good representation?
- 55.
- 56. REPRESENTING INDIA P.31: More exposure given to India. In Singapore, being Indian has come to being Tamil, which is wrong. For a long time, the representation of Indians in books has been largely been influenced by Tamil/South Indian culture. 58% Tamils 42% Non-Tamils
- 57. Representing India Differencesamongst a race of people who have been forcefully misrepresented for the convenience of textbook writers/educators!
- 58. REPRESENTING INDIA Thereis now a detailed description of where Indians come from and that they speak more languages other than Tamil and Hindi (which are the languages people would associate Indians with, in Singapore).
- 59. REPRESENTING INDIA Spot the error on page 30! (clue: Something wrong with the languages) *It is also great that Indians are depicted as more than coolies shown carrying heavy sacks of goods upon emaciated bodies.
- 60. REPRESENTING MINORITIES WITHIN MINORITIES P.38-41: Excellent coverage for minorities within minorities groups such as the Jews and Chitty Peranakans *Children of today are ready to hear more about greater diversity of people such as the ones mentioned in these pages.
- 62. REPRESENTING MINORITIES WITHIN MINORITIES Interesting! Did you know that David Marshall is a Jew? He has always been mentioned in the SS textbooks when teaching students about the political aspects of Singapore
- 63. REPRESENTING MINORITIES WITHIN MINORITIES Forexample: There are synagogues around in Singapore, but no heritage tours (learning journeys for s/s) made to them. Were/Are we too comfortable with sticking to the FOUR MAIN GROUPS?
- 64. REPRESENTING MINORITIES WITHIN MINORITIES Personal experience: Never knew who Chitty Peranakans were until I was 14 & my mother told me about them. Recommendation: Include more variety in heritage tours. Move away from the usual Hindu temple and church visit during learning journey...go to Jewish synagogue and Sikh temples.
- 65.
- 66. REPRESENTING MALAYS How well do we know the people of our region?
- 67. REPRESENTING MALAYS Malays from Malacca The Javanese The Boyanese THE MALAY The Bugis ARCHIPELA The Minangkabaus GO What is the meaning of ‘archipelago’?
- 69. Recommendations Problem Recommendations • Content is too • Teacher can plan a „history‟ heavy. consolidation There are minimal lesson to tie links to the present. everything up • Strong focus on the together. past can lead to • Link what they have students forming learnt in the past stereotypes. chapters to people in the present.
- 70. Recommendations Chapters 5-8: How our first-generation political leaders have contributed to Singapore • Make a link to present-day people: President SR Nathan, etc
- 71. Recommendations Problem Recommendations • Sir Stamford Raffles • We still need to build our “Mascot” for textbooks national identity – so the 4 races are still important. may not be a good • However, have more different representation of representations of the 4 races in Singaporeans Singapore!
- 72. Recommendations Problem Recommendations • SS learning journeys focus • For heritage-based more on sites which have fieldtrips, Include more to do with the four main variety! races • Break away from the usual hindu/ chinese temples. • Instead, go to Jewish synagogue and Sikh temples
- 73. Conclusion: The Vision….movingforward • To see commonness and togetherness beyond the cultural sphere. Mdm Nisa Understand and respect one‟s identity, cultural and religion • Students must be more sensitive to others than before as you will definitely Mr Arbind find more mixed races around nowadays
- 74.
Editor's Notes
- #11 Use this to show how the rest of the discussion will proceed.Inform them about the percentage of cultural diversity covered in the P2 instructional materials. However, we feel that the topic on integration is not thorough enough.Link generalisations in SOW to story books and explain how each of them is represented. Get them to agree that there cultural diversity is a recurring topic within the books.
- #13 Present story books to class
- #17 encourages Singaporeans to be open and accepting to foreigners, whilst introducing foreigners to the various practices in Singapore and encouraging their participation. The ending was appropriate; it teaches students (both Singaporeans and foreigners (PR) alike) the most important thing - To look at one another as individuals, while understanding that they belong to a collective.
- #18 Whilst it shows Noi, the foreigner, as an accepting and open foreigner (directed at PRs), it fails to "teach" how Singaporeans could have, in turn, accommodated to Noi's customs or way of life, and by extension, those around them.The activities mentioned are of a diverse nature; students may be unable to fully grasp the concept of the activity to understand its relation to ehri culture. This is not properly explained. Moreover, the activities chosen are not necessarily race exclusive. Ex, Malay Christians can choose to have a church wedding, but that doesn’t make them less Malay. This may confuse the child even further.“Participation” of different celebrations limited to “showing up”. Noi could have played a more active role to encourage students to have deeper and more meaningful participation with their friends’ cultural activities.
- #19 The activities in the book focus on the 4 major races of Singapore, including Eurasian, which we tend to leave out. Moreover, the activities found inform Singaporeans of the costumes and festivals associated with each race.
- #20 Traditional Costumes – All different ‘Others’ summarised under Westerners without a proper portrayal of their outfits. All summarised under the suit. (Insert Barney Stinson)Christmas--often being confused as a festival for celebration (religious customs or tradition). This will be revisited in the second book.Moreover, the activities do not help promote understanding and acceptance. This burden falls totally on the teacher. Therefore, we feel that the activity book could have been adjusted to let students paste stickers or cut outs of ethnic costumes on other races.
- #30 Urges students to take pride in their race way they look, the cultures they originate from, and their festivals. Each race has a part of their culture which we can enjoy, be it as simple as Music or food, to other more complex aspects like Dance, Ways of thought, or Language and Literature. At least we get to enjoy their public holidays, right? (JOKE)
- #31 Singapore is Cultural Diversity.Cultural Diversity does not solely means different races being forced to live together. There is no diversity if we are not united, only cultural division. Teacher must explain multi-culturalism is useless and even harmful unless we learn to live together in harmony. A Singapore with multi-culturalism but without racial harmony will not last for long.
- #32 Encourages student to remember the joyous times they had in Singapore and be thankful. Teacher can use the chance to branch into the value of gratitude.
- #33 May limit the children to very shallow thinking: They like Singapore because they enjoy a comfortable, materialistic life here. What then when life gets tougher? Teachers should get students to imagine about the bad times (especially like now). What will their students do, and why? Do they think that that is the right thing to do? Why?
- #42 From the two boys, it is possible to deduce a possible future in which Singaporeans turn against one another and live in unrest due to a poorly spoken remark.Refer to previous topic, remember cultural diversity is not cultural division.
- #43 Link with Racial Harmony Day, where a similar method of encouraging national safety was used. (Bring up the benefits of having a harmonious multicultural society--do not always focus on the negative)
- #44 Students will most probablyquestion their friend about their choice of ingredient. This way, students exchange cultural and personal information instead of being fed from a book.
- #45 Singapore is flooded with the huge variety of food from many cultures found all over the world. Do we still possess tastes unique of a certain race, or have we been westernised?
- #49 Chapter 2 shows more sign of branching out farther than the 4 races in Singapore.
- #51 Students who may not have contact with other races may just form their opinions based on this… because this is what they know.Also, westerners / europeans were always merchants, so there may even be a sense of inferiority.
- #70 Through this, they will get rid of job stereotypes and race stereotypes
- #71 Medical Social Worker in 1955In the Laju incident on 31 January 1974, members of the terrorist Japanese Red Army bombed petroleum tanks on PulauBukom off the coast of Singapore; Nathan was among a group of government officers who volunteered to be held hostage by the JRA to secure the release of civilian hostages.Singapore’s High Commissioner to MalaysiaAmbassador to USADirector of Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at NTUPresident of Singapore