My spirit of nationalism is not something I had ever consciously thought about. Growing up in the eighties the issue of who I am in relation to the island I live in did not exist. That my friends spoke a different language at home and were of a different colour did not occur to me to be anything that made it necessary that we consciously work towards understanding each other. To me, I was no different from my classmates of other races.
We ate, played, hung out and even stayed over at each other's homes. By virtue of being the only or one of a few in the cliques I was in, I even picked up a decent amount of my friends' language that I am able to understand and reply to basic conversation. However, nothing made me feel more unwelcome in my own land than when I entered the workforce, the real world. If I was accepted for my race, I was not accepted for my faith. Either way I never felt really accepted. I was always 'the other'.
On reflection, after more than a decade out of the education system, I believe the homogenous school environment creates a false construct that falls apart in the real world. We have all been literally dressed into our prescribed roles that we grew to believe as reality. After 9/11, the marginalisation grew even worse, with society scrutinizing our every move and fellow Muslims fervently apologetic for actions hardly of their doing. In the midst of all this, my country has been welcoming various nationalities to work and live here that I now not only have many native Chinese neighbours but a few from India, Myanmar and even Japan in my public housing .
Initially. I saw this as a further threat to the already marginal opportunities of my community. However, whether real or portrayed, I sense in my daily interactions, in the media and in the generally accepted school of thought that finally society has woken up to the need to be inclusive and not only tolerant of but to celebrate our differences. Five years from now, I would like to look back and honestly say that I, a native, feel that I am a part of this country. A sentiment, at least based on what is in the media, that immigrants already feel.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Curriculum Mindshift
I read with interest Tuesday's article in the main local English papers about how parents have turned to tuition centres to conduct tests and exams for their children and thus having exam-centred learning for primary one and two students when exams are soon becoming non-existent at these levels.
Such a change in the system shows a strong commitment by the government to implement more developmentally appropriate teaching and evaluation methods which at the general level of reflection in my limited knowledge of the field of education has been scientifically proven.
This brings to mind the complexity of curriculum innovation in relation to the community outside the school. You may get the go-ahead at the policy, administrative and teaching levels but you still need to convince parents and other role players.
Tuition centres, as commercial entities, can be a good indicator of what parents really think their children should get from their schooling. At this point, that seems to be , ironically, a scientific way of measuring their child's competitiveness. As pointed out by one of the interviewees in the article, students eventually after all have to sit for high-stakes examinations.
What I hope though is that this will not cause a turnaround in the government's policies towards implementing holistic changes in the system. It does have a trend
over the years of trying out new programs like SAIL, the initial SEED program, the 'freer' English syllabus in the 80s and eventually regaining control of the 'freedom' given in content and method to implement state level programs.
The difference I hope is that like other 'process' as opposed to these 'content' changes, the elimination of examinations at the foundation levels will, like the implementation of independent schools and 'alternative' schools and examinations like NUS High, SOTA and the IB, will see the light of day and not be buried under public pressure.
Maybe one way to do so is to convince the government of the economic benefits of a more holistic method of education (which I think they are already slowly warming up to as seen in the implemented changes)....that's a question the academics will have to answer. Although we can look at the Scandinavian countries and the United States, we can also question why we cannot follow Germany.
Then there's always the question of context. Education is seen as the labour producing machine of a country and we are always being told that we cannot afford to be anything but the best to survive as a small nation (although at this moment I wonder at this because we seem to be trying to fill our population to the seams with people of whatever educational level to satisfy the population ratio but that is another story) hence we must optimise every cohort that goes through the system.
As for me, I'm convinced that mass schooling in general is problematic and ,as can be seen in the 1001 policy changes, a reactive generator to the economic changes. In the end we have recreated society as it was before mass education and industrialisation in another form.
Now back to my domestic chores...
Such a change in the system shows a strong commitment by the government to implement more developmentally appropriate teaching and evaluation methods which at the general level of reflection in my limited knowledge of the field of education has been scientifically proven.
This brings to mind the complexity of curriculum innovation in relation to the community outside the school. You may get the go-ahead at the policy, administrative and teaching levels but you still need to convince parents and other role players.
Tuition centres, as commercial entities, can be a good indicator of what parents really think their children should get from their schooling. At this point, that seems to be , ironically, a scientific way of measuring their child's competitiveness. As pointed out by one of the interviewees in the article, students eventually after all have to sit for high-stakes examinations.
What I hope though is that this will not cause a turnaround in the government's policies towards implementing holistic changes in the system. It does have a trend
over the years of trying out new programs like SAIL, the initial SEED program, the 'freer' English syllabus in the 80s and eventually regaining control of the 'freedom' given in content and method to implement state level programs.
The difference I hope is that like other 'process' as opposed to these 'content' changes, the elimination of examinations at the foundation levels will, like the implementation of independent schools and 'alternative' schools and examinations like NUS High, SOTA and the IB, will see the light of day and not be buried under public pressure.
Maybe one way to do so is to convince the government of the economic benefits of a more holistic method of education (which I think they are already slowly warming up to as seen in the implemented changes)....that's a question the academics will have to answer. Although we can look at the Scandinavian countries and the United States, we can also question why we cannot follow Germany.
Then there's always the question of context. Education is seen as the labour producing machine of a country and we are always being told that we cannot afford to be anything but the best to survive as a small nation (although at this moment I wonder at this because we seem to be trying to fill our population to the seams with people of whatever educational level to satisfy the population ratio but that is another story) hence we must optimise every cohort that goes through the system.
As for me, I'm convinced that mass schooling in general is problematic and ,as can be seen in the 1001 policy changes, a reactive generator to the economic changes. In the end we have recreated society as it was before mass education and industrialisation in another form.
Now back to my domestic chores...
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