Discussions about issues related to race have gained increasing attention in Singapore. The research team worked with two teachers to design and implementing an eight-week poetry unit exploring race and identity through Singapore poetry. This was implemented to secondary four (grade 10) students in preparation for the Unseen Poetry section of their high-stakes national GCE 'O' level Literature examination.
The purpose of this unit was to:
1. Provide opportunities for students to explore and discuss issues related to identity and race in Singapore;
2. Introduce students to Singapore writers from diverse ethnic backgrounds and perspectives
3. Sensitize students to formal and stylistic qualities in Singapore poetry including translated literature written from the perspectives of other ethnic voices.
This unit culminated in an individual creative writing exercise where students wrote a poem on any aspect of their identity, before proceeding to exchange peer commentary on a digital platform.
Part 1. Who is the other?
In these lessons, students explored the question about who is marginalized in Singapore society through examining advertisements and readings poems depicting heartlanders and minority groups in Singapore. Students discussed ways that marginalization can occur.
Part 2. How are they othered and why?
These lessons focused on ways in which various ethnic groups have been stereotyped and discrminated against. Through reading various poems, students discussed the effects of stereotyping, casual and explicit racism.
Part 3. What are the perspectives of the other?
These lessons focused on understanding and listening to the perspective of various minority groups in Singapore through reading their poems and exploring their various positive and negative lived experiences in Singapore.
Part 4. Negotiating home and belonging
These lessons led students to connect issues of race previously discussed with broader understandings of identity and belonging. Students read and compared various translations of poems about Singapore as home from the voices of minority writers and also wrote their own poem exploring what belonging to Singapore means.
"What's it like Being Malay?" by Riqi Hanzrudyn, from "SG Poems 2017-18" (p.22-23), published by Ethos Books (2018).
"Racial Quota" by Crispin Rodrigues, from "Pantomime" (p.9), published by Math Paper Press (2018).
"Social Studies" by Natalie Wang, from "SINGPOWRIMO 2015: THE ANTHOLOGY" (p.252), published by Math Paper Press (2015)
"F.A.Q." by Luke Vijay Somasundram, from "SINGPOWRIMO 2016: THE ANTHOLOGY" (p.128-129), published by Math Paper Press (2016)
"Di Tengah Alam" by Hadijah Rahmat,
Translated by Rasiah Halil in "Rhythms: A Singaporean Millennial Anthology of Poetry";
Translated by Shaharuddin Maaruf in "Journeys: Words, Home and Nation Anthology of Singapore Poetry (1984-1995)"
"Bangsaku di hari lahirku" ("My People, My Birthday") by Mohamed Latiff Mohamed, Translated from the Malay by Tse Hao Guang