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1. What do you think of Ms A’s actions?

2. How would the class perceive Ms A’s actions and what could be the impact on them?

3. If you were Mrs D, what would you do and why?

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What can we do to enhance diversity in our school?

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1. Ms A should speak in English and address the situation, instead of brushing it aside.

2.   Teacher is not giving due importance to the situation and just pass it on. Bala will feel that no one is helping him. That will make the other students think that its perfectly fine and okay to continue such actions.

3. If we are Mrs D, we will stop the lesson and use it as a teachable moment. We will address the issue and highlight the importance of respecting others. We can also ask questions and flip the situation to let the students reflect on the situation. This will allow students to put themselves in others' shoes.

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1)Should addressed in English not in Chinese, language understood by all.  Ms A should address the issue and not concluded her lesson.  She could have chat with Bala and check on Bala.
2)Teaching values is more important than delivering the curriculum, teach them what is right, we are role-models to them, sending the right message.
3)Mrs D should investigate privately, console Bala and addressed the issue in class. Correcting the behaviour of the students.

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Case Study:
- Ms A should not have responded in the MTL language, but address the issue in EL, as there are students not well-versed in the language. In addition, even though there is only 5 minutes left, the issue should have been addressed, with a follow-up with the students involved in the situation. Let us not waste a teachable moment.
- The class might feel that Ms A encourages racism remarks/teasing, which might escalate the situation.
- Mrs D will need to do some forms of 'damage control', by addressing the class how inappropriate such actions are (e.g., through perspective taking). In addition, Mrs D should discuss with Ms A on what could be done better (in a diplomatic way). As a reflective practitioner, we are hopeful Ms A will go back to the class and address the issue again (properly) since she knows better than Mrs D what actually happened.
-Additional point: even between same races this is still inappropriate and guidance must still be provided to students.

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1. Ms A should not have ignored the issue. Immediate intervention should have taken place. If there is no time left, at least address the issue with Bala first and reassure him that Ms A will speak to the class about it. Ms A should not have scolded the students in mandarin as well but in a common language.

2. The class may think that it is OK since the teacher did not point it out. Bala may have felt helpless and disturbed by the comments from his classmates.

3. Mrs D's awareness of her students is good. She should speak to Bala to find out what happened. To prevent the incident from escalating, it would be good to call Bala's parents to inform what steps were taken to handle the matter as well.

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1.NE events, to teach diversity.
2.Recruiting CCA, not based on gender, race, but based on competent- driven.
3. Groupings- make sure there is a good mixed of race and gender.
4.Stellar bks- talked about food, culture; expose the students to different cultures and customs.
5. Not to be judgmental, teachers should be more mindful; eg boys cannot cry, like pink.
6. Children sometimes learn from adults.

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Q1:

a. It was wrong for Ms A to speak in Chinese to the rest of class as Bala would not know what she said.

b. Bala might think Ms A didn't care.  Ms A should have addressed the issue first as the racist comments could have been repeated again within a few minutes.  If time was an issue, Ms A could call out either Bala or the other children who passed the hurtful remarks to talk to him/them after the class.

c. Ms A needed to be more aware of her own prejudices.  She was not sensitive that Bala might identify with the migrant workers and thereby feel hurt.

Q2:

The class might feel it’s okay (not serious) for them to “joke” like that since the teacher did not intervene much, therefore it must be dealt immediately.  Motivation of the student would be affected as he/she is portrayed in a negative stereotype

Other students in the minority might also feel unsafe, just a matter of time/opportunity/topic at hand.

Q3:

Do a bit of background check why Bala was like that.  If it tracks back to the incident:

Revisit the pledge to emphasise the importance of racial harmony

Do circle time to connect the students.

Approach Ms A, tell her about it, and then get Ms A to address it with the class at the earliest opportunity.

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Quote:
- Celebration of festivals and NE events, through helping students understand and appreciate differences better.
- Got to move beyond just races in Singapore, but to include diversity from different nationalities (SS is one such platform).
- excursions with families around Singapore, buddy programme

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- Appreciating everyone's culture. Only through understanding and being mindful of our own words, then we can know how to respect the others. When we learn different culture, we can understand the stories behind different celebrations.

-Acknowledging our differences but focusing on our similarities. Be open.

- We can choose class monitors of different races to include and allow everyone to have a fair chance to lead.

- By focusing on the importance of group work in class, focusing on task and not on their race.

-Emphasizing of building a culture of respect and as a family and to help one another

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1) It was inappropriate and Ms A never showed sensitivity to Bala’s feelings.

2) The class will assume it is alright to continue to make such racial comments/jokes, since Ms A never address the issue immediately. The teacher should pause the lesson immediately and address the inappropriate comments immediately. A learning opportunity should be raised at that moment.

3) Mrs D should ask the class what had happened and intervene the incident immediately and use it as a teachable moment. She should state the importance on racial harmony in Singapore and give real-life examples of countries facing racial tensions. She should also tell the students to put themselves in one’s shoes.  Mrs D should also talk to Ms A about the incident and share with her how Bala felt.

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Changkat has done well in this area by having celebration for different festivals like Chinese New Year, Deepavali etc.
We also have the home class system where we have a mixture of different races in a same class.

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1. To ensure a good racial mix of students when forming groups or choosing leaders
2. Suggestion to try getting prefects to say the pledge in different languages within a week
3. To have a programme for the students to experience sports for our differently abled athletes (blind soccer, wheelchair basketball, blind track and field...). This allows our students to experience how para athletes compete and raises empathy for challenges for the differently abled.
4. To teach students life skills on how to disagree respectfully.

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-To continue to commemorate the 4 NE events in school. Give students opportunity to wear racial ethnic costumes of other races during Racial Harmony Day.

- Giving different races opportunities to lead in duties. Grouping them in different races when possible.

- Addressing insensitive remarks in class to set the correct tone in what is acceptable when communicating with friends of other races.

-Highlighting the words of the pledge and its deep meaning.

-Teachable moments during lessons when incidents or remarks are made by students and observed by teachers.

-Sharing newspaper articles in class which concerns racial discrimination.

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For discussion

a.What are the issues presented in this case?

b.How would you advise the teacher?

c.How would you help the student who shared this reflection?

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a. Issues presented
Make reference to the skin of the student when explaining the term 'melanin'.
Teacher might have done so unintentionally.
Stereotyping -food with race
Build up of issues with friends-about the student's skin colour

b. Advice for the teacher
Not to use the student as an example to    explain the term melanin.
Speak to the affected student once she/he is aware of the situation.

c. Speak to the student and the group of friends to get a clearer picture of the situation.   Advise the student to voice out her feelings to her friends.

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A. Differentiating student by their skin colour. Formed opinions of certain race.

B. Teacher could have shared positive examples about melanin. Teacher would have address the issue when students laughed over the incident. Counselling session could have been arranged for students and teacher to understand the consequences of casual remarks.

C. Bringing forward, we can do a class discussion to understand the feelings of students involved. Bring greater awareness to the class. Learn to put your shoes into others' position.

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a) What are the issues presented in this case?
- Friend teasing her about her skin tone.
- This student has been targeted/singled out.
- The remark was made by the teacher and this gave the 'green light' so the other students thought it was alright to do so as well.
- Teacher was not a good role model.

b) How would you advise the teacher?
- Teacher should address the entire class and reflect about it. The teacher should not simply leave the incident as it is.
- Teacher could educate students about cultural difference.  He/she could use food as a teaching point. For example not only a particular race eats curry.
- Colour pigmentation/melanin is not specific to a certain race.
- Stick to the SOW closely and not to deviate too much so that teacher would not risk saying something incorrect. Do not use personal examples, do not quote or pinpoint specific people.
- Teacher could find out what triggered the whole situation.

c) How would you help the students who shared this reflection?
- Check in with the student to see how he/she is coping.
- Get to the root of the problem and find out more.
- Educate our students on how and where to seek help.
- To get the involved parties to come together to discuss/reflect/be more aware of casual racism.
- School counsellors to step in to help counsel on the incident.

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a)       Classmates making fun of the student’s skin colour.

Teacher indirectly condoning the act that the student has melanin.

b)      The teachers has to be selective of her choice of words when speaking to her students regardless of what subjects she is teaching.

The teacher has to be  mindful of the feelings of others.

The teacher does not need to make the relevance to a particular student.

Teacher needs to think through carefully before engaging the students. The teacher should engage the students by not relating to race and not stereotyping

c)       She can share her feelings with her friends about how she feels.

She can approach her teacher and reflect her feelings about the teacher’s comments.

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a.       Issues: Victims of racism or any other issues are normally from the minority / less advantage group. Lack of empathy amongst students; unable to understand how someone would feel. There is a great need to be more sensitive. There is no need to stereotype.

b.       I will speak to her to clarify. I will be frank to her and explain how her comments affected this particular child. She can mention factors that affects melanin instead of focusing on a specific group of students. We need to build a good relationship with our students first. They must believe in that we care about them and that we would not do anything to hurt them.

c.       Help to rationalize with the student. Teacher may not mean it. Encourage the student to approach and clarify with the teacher. Student may want to consider the frequency he/she felt offended by what the teacher said. However, onus is on the teacher to reflect and approach the student.

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a)  - Pass casual racism remarks
- associating his race with his skin
colour and his diet
b) The teacher may not be aware that she is passing racist remarks,
- the child is being offensive as the remarks were made one after another,  from the skin colour to the diet.
- Teacher should not refer to a specific students when giving examples, instead be more general like saying 'people with dark coloured skin have more melanin ....
We need to refrain using some trigger words that could be interpreted differently and may appear to be racist and may unintentionally hurt the feelings of others
c) when kids get offended easily --> does it mean that he is not proud of his own race, he has low-esteem of his own skin colour.
Teacher should speak to the boy to understand if such casual racism has been directed to him frequently or occasionally and how he feels about it.