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TEACHING HISTORY IN SINGAPORE: THE STATE OF THE CRAFT

A Roundtable Presented by the Singapore Heritage Society

Imagination Room, Level 5, National Library, 30 November 2009

Abstracts

Towards a Responsive Pedagogy: Engaging Students’ Ideas to Enhance History Teaching and Learning. Suhaimi Afandi & Mark Baildon

Among the fundamental questions about history teaching in Singapore is the role of the prior ideas students have about the past. Yet, it is unclear whether teachers consider these preconceptions of history. In using the concept of ‘responsive pedagogy’, we posit that 1) students have a range of initial ideas about the nature of history; 2) teachers should engage these understandings to help students make sense of new knowledge and develop their appreciation of the past; and 3) tensions and constraints within the education system be resolved in order to develop both a teaching approach and learning experience that engages the students’ ideas about history.

What were you thinking? Entering the Minds of Students. Candice Alexis Seet

Teachers struggle to engage unmotivated students who would rather style their hair than lift a finger to flip open their textbook. In light of such struggle, what quality of work do we expect our students to produce to demonstrate that some learning has taken place? Moving away from historical content, what about citizenship education? How effectively are students able to internalise values that the curriculum hopes to instill in them? Should the teacher be the voice of authority or should students reason the issue out for themselves?

‘I don’t know who Lim Bo Seng is … I only know Lee Kuan Yew’: Forgetting What My Teacher and Textbook Told Me. Kevin Blackburn

This presentation examines the impact of compulsory history education. For history enthusiasts in Singapore, Lim Bo Seng is a national icon, a war hero, who looms larger than life in the primary school studies syllabus and secondary history syllabus. But a surprising number of young university students just out of the Singapore state education system have no recollection of him. Why does the such figure like Lim Bo Seng and other iconic historical characters and moments in Singapore’s national history generally make such a faint impression on students fresh out of the education system? Is historical knowledge just confined to individuals who have an interest in history, with the general population unable to recall little more than the barest knowledge of the national past? This presentation includes a few minutes of a vox populi, ‘voice of the people’, video of interviews with the undergraduates on campus to basic questions about the past.

Conceptions, Communication and Confidence: Challenges to Studying History. Henry Liu & Joshua Jeyaraj

This presentation explores challenges faced by students in our study of history. Notably, the conception that correctness is valued above validity and the resultant lack of confidence in expression and communication are identified as inhibitors. At times, these undermine key fundamentals of the discipline. Usual assets for study, such as extensive historiography, even become stumbling blocks that detract us from what is truly important. Instead of being holistic thinkers in development, we slip into the rigid organisation of other’s ideas, and hence lose the full potential of the experience.

History in the University: Beyond The Facts and Exams. Eisen Teo

Local university students of history experience a paradigm shift from foundational to higher level modules, because while the former generally focuses on history and ‘why it happened’, the latter concentrates more on historiography and ‘how historians have tried to explain why it happened’. Might the craft be done more justice if historiography and historical methods are introduced at lower levels? Also, how useful truly is the closed-book examination for the subject? What’s the optimal class size for effective classroom interaction? These issues and more at tertiary level have implications for how history is taught and enjoyed at other institutional levels.

The Reality of Teaching (History) in Singapore. Lim Cheng Tju

Concerns about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are common for any teacher in Singapore. But for the history teacher, the extra burden of a nation wide shortage for Humanities teachers has resulted in increased workload, class size, marking, and other demands. These issues need to be addressed.

Sources in Social Studies Beyond Assessment Needs. Lee Si Wei

Since the implementation of the upper secondary Social Studies curriculum  in 2001, students have been well-trained to excel in examinations. The official assessment needs are to test students’ ability to draw inferences, compare sources, and evaluate their utility and reliability. The larger aim, however, is to cultivate the skills of critical inquiry, investigation and reflection, so that students can appreciate how the sources throw light on important social, economic and political issues. In a neighbourhood secondary school, students can be readily horned in examination skills without necessarily grasping the underlying significance of the sources. As the study of sources is an important platform for developing students into adept thinkers, teachers need to move beyond simply satisfying assessment needs and help students understand the relevance of the sources.

Adopting the Historical Reasoning Framework in the Classroom. Gullnaz Baig

The zeitgeist of history teaching in Singapore seems to be shifting away from the orthodox content-based approach towards greater recognition of the value of inculcating key reasoning skills in our students. Indeed, the current History curriculum, as embodied in ministerial documents, provides for such an approach. Nevertheless, there seems to be uncertainty as to how such an approach can be practiced in classroom teaching. The model proposed here is based on research conducted by Drie and Boxtel who argue for the value of the ‘Historical Reasoning framework’ in developing students’ reasoning about the past. The key attraction of this model lies in the ease with which it can be applied in lesson planning without introducing radical and drastic pedagogical changes.

Singapore History and the Singapore Story: The Roles They Play in Citizenship Education and the forging of the ‘Singapore DNA’. Junaidah Binti Jaffar

On 17 May 1997, National Education (NE) was launched by Deputy Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong. NE has since been explicitly taught in the Social Studies syllabus and gradually, all subjects have become NE-infused. Simultaneously, citizenship education is arguably as important a thrust as the other learning outcomes of the Singapore education system. It is through NE that the official strain of Singapore history, popularly known as ‘the Singapore Story’, is ingrained in Singapore’s youths. This presentation attempts to delineate: (1) the role of history in citizenship education, Social Studies and National Education, with a focus on the primary education sector, (2) how educators can explore alternative narrations of the Singapore story without censure so as to provide pupils a holistic and nuanced picture of the past, and (3) the achievements and difficulties in this enterprise to synthesise all this and forge what the Director-General of Education, Ms Ho Peng, termed as the ‘Singapore DNA’ – a people imbued with resilience, tenacity and adaptability. The presentation will tap on the frameworks of NE, Social Studies, key speeches and policies, supplemented by anecdotes of practitioners of the trade.

The Weakening of Empathy: A University Experience. Loh Kah Seng

Having taught different cohorts of history undergraduates, it is becoming clear how often students are lacking in historical empathy even if they do well in other areas like reading, writing and analysis. While this may be partly due to teachers not focusing enough on empathy, the greater problem, I think, lies in the social norms and demographic trends in contemporary Singapore. Empathy for the past as a ‘foreign country’ has in some ways been dramatically eroded by the changes which have transformed the society in the last fifty years.

Dear fellow Singaporeans

I am a Singaporean historian looking to speak to people who remember the British bases and their withdrawal in the early 1970s. The withdrawal was the first major crisis independent Singapore faced. The 56 bases, contributing a fifth of the country’s GDP, were its largest industry, and the pullout threatened the livelihood of one-sixth of the labour force, including an estimated 8,000 amahs.

The pullout also transformed the economy, society and landscape of Singapore in the 1970s. Most of the bases were converted to commercial use, while many base workers underwent a 3-month retraining crash course. Technical and vocational education also expanded, as new laws sought to increase labour productivity and attract foreign capital investment.

These developments resonate with us today: the retraining programmes, the mobilisation of the young, the philosophy that ‘no one owes Singapore a living’. There is also a forgotten social history to unearth: how retrenched base employees coped with the crisis and how workers adjusted to new work routines.

If you remember the British bases and rundown, or have a family member, relative or friend who does, kindly contact me to lend your voice to an important episode of our national story.

Please pass this message along to those who might be interested.

Thank you.

Loh Kah Seng (Dr)

Visiting Research Fellow

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

Email: LKSHIS@GMAIL.COM

Mobile: +65 81981172

CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference on Historical Fragments in Southeast Asia:
At the Interfaces of Oral History, Memory and Heritage
Organised by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Singapore Heritage Society
23-24 June 2010

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, together with the Singapore Heritage Society, is revisiting oral history in Southeast Asia two decades since it co-organised the first conference. Historical Fragments in Southeast Asia will bring together the latest oral history and ethnographic research on the region and explore its links with two exciting fields which investigate the same content in different ways, namely, memory and heritage studies.

Historical Fragments in Southeast Asia serves as an important platform to explore the interfaces between oral history, memory and heritage and formulate new ways of approaching Southeast Asia’s fragmented pasts. Traditional oral history work in the region, which seeks to retrieve what Paul Thompson called ‘the voices of the past’ to complete or contest historical narratives, has largely been concerned with questions of objectivity and reliability. Memory studies, by contrast, has attempted to analyse the deeper politics and subjective meanings of the fragments that people remember or forget. Both oral testimonies and memories are also closely connected with the emerging and topical field of heritage in its intangible, cultural and everyday forms.

Important note: Proposals should make an attempt at this preliminary stage to consider oral history’s convergences with memory and/or heritage and not merely situate the discussion within the originating discipline or methodology. Proposals should be centered around oral history or ethnographic work. We welcome submissions from, among others, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, architects, public officials, activists, and social workers, as well as approaches from academic and advocacy perspectives.

The conference organisers are pleased to be able to offer partial financial support to participants, although they are also encouraged to seek funding from their home institutions. Selected papers from the conference will further explore the interfaces between the three fields and will be published in what we hope to be a path-breaking edited volume.

Submission of Proposal
Those interested in presenting a paper at the conference are invited to submit a proposal which includes a working title, 500-word abstract, CV, and an indication of your funding requirements by 14 December 2009 to Dr Loh Kah Seng kahseng@iseas.edu.sg.

Suggested Themes
Crisis of Memory. What and how Southeast Asians remember or forget are often narrowly channeled into narratives of loss or nostalgia. What are the influences of major historical and contemporary forces on oral history such as colonialism, developmentalism, urbanism, architectural modernism, cosmopolitanism, and globalisation? What will these developments mean for the forms of heritage that Southeast Asians can adopt? What is the impact of Internet technologies in rendering oral histories and individual memories public?

Politics of Memory. Oral history remains a deeply contested field in an era of Southeast Asian nationalism. What are the influences of the official mass media and the prerogatives of nation-building and social engineering on memory? What are the silences or social rumours of the past? What is the role and impact of the political biography and the official myth in the region? Does oral history affirm or contest dominant narratives? Does it accentuate historical agency and empower the informants?

‘Difficult’ Heritage and Identity. The nation-state remains the primary organising actor in Southeast Asia. Yet, there are important forms of memory, heritage and identity which exist outside or even in direct opposition to the national paradigm, along the divides of locality, gender, ethnicity, class, age, among others. How can communities and oral historians attempt to recover these interstitial, everyday or local forms of heritage and memories that exist ‘between the cracks’ or ‘out of sight’ of the dominant paradigm? How should we negotiate between national, transnational, community, and local identities?

Trauma and Reconstruction. Since World War Two and the subsequent decolonisation which has transformed Southeast Asia, political conflict, economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics, and social upheaval have been marked features of everyday life in the region. How have memory and heritage been affected by these developments and does oral history help redress the personal and social traumas experienced in the process?

Contact Details
Dr Loh Kah Seng
kahseng@iseas.edu.sg
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Loh Kah Seng. Making and Unmaking the Asylum: Leprosy and Modernity in Singapore and Malaysia. Petaling Jaya: SIRD, 2009. Pp. 189. ISBN: 9789833782765. Product ID: 434.

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‘An outstanding and timely contribution to the historiography of Malaysia and Singapore: well-written, comprehensive, compelling, and poignantly illustrated. The stories present a striking and moving narrative of life on the margins of society. Highly recommended reading on the social history of Malaysia and Singapore’. Dr Ernest Koh, Lecturer, School of Historical Studies, Monash University

‘This book awakens us to the final remaining agendum for people affected by leprosy: a challenge to society, and to each of us as members; how we chose to respond is a measure of our conscience and sense of justice’. Kay Yamaguchi, Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation