Last week, a colleague (Zi Hui) commented on my previous post saying that it seems that the harder task seems to be creating lifelong attitudes that allow students to see that they should collaborate and be willing to be open with one another. In this post, I want to reflect upon some of the challenges we face, some truly surprising positive examples, as well as some failures I have had in this regard.

Note: I have sought consent from the students to share these experiences, and they have been anonymized.

A Surprise

I teach a class “Democracy and Inequality”. One of the key aims of the class to get students to think about, critically examine, and discuss inequality primarily in the Singaporean and Southeast Asian context. Students are expected to share their own thoughts, their experiences, and to critically reflect upon how their lives have been shaped to some degree by social equality and inequality. In the course of the class, we discuss emotive issues, such as meritocracy; multiculturalism; educational inequality; and gender equality.

In this context, creating a safe space where students free comfortable to share their personal experiences and where individuals feel that they are respect despite their different ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds is highly important. Typically, I do this by getting the class to form small groups and come up with dialogue norms that will govern their own groups. Using these rules, we also come up with class-wide rules that govern how we will behave and discuss ideas with one another.

A few years ago, when COVID-19 struck, and we had to move online, I was very concerned about creating a similar environment online. I had to make some tweaks, including creating an introductory video where I walked through how online learning can be challenging but also provide us with new opportunities, and use the discussion forum board as a launching pad for introductions. We also used breakout rooms to attempt to recreate the same kind of discussion and dialogue we have in face-to-face classes.

I taught online for 1.5 years, and I was never sure if I managed to create a conducive and respectful environment. I received some positive feedback, but as I was still relatively green as an educator then (I had only taught for one semester before COVID-19), I did not think properly about how to capture students’ experiences and feedback.

Fast forward to this August. I received a text from a student from one of the online courses, who is now working at a big tech company. I was surprised to hear from him, and it turned out that he wanted to get dinner. I was even more surprised when he said that his entire discussion group was actually hoping to have dinner with me.

At dinner, I was really surprised to learn that the students had a deep connection with me and the course material. All of them reported that they felt that the class was a good space to explore these issues, and they felt that they were able to share things that were difficult for them. I was especially surprised to hear that the student who invited me to dinner, who is of a minority race, often felt that it was hard to have conversations with other students about inequality. “Your class”, he told me, “was a space where I felt that I could discuss these issues properly for once”.

I was genuinely surprised to hear that, partly because I was very concerned and anxious that things that might have gone well in the physical classroom might not translate to the online classroom.

Just one more quick thought: a few years ago, I got this email out of the blue from a student. The email said that through the course, the student realised that they had made a mistake in brushing aside the feelings of their parents in their disagreement over social equality and politics. But they said that from the class, they had “a starting point … to talk about our own lived experiences and what it means to participate in the democratic process”. Again, this was a very pleasant surprise.

A Failure

Things however, have not always gone so well. As I have mentioned, the class focuses mostly on the Singapore and Southeast Asian region, with particular emphasis on Singapore. One of the benefits this has I believe, is that students are better able to connect and relate to the material, and we can have difficult but important discussions about social issues.

One challenge however, is that while this makes it comfortable for students who are Singaporean or have gone through the Singaporean education system for many years to share their experiences, it can be difficult for foreign students to relate. It can also make it hard for them to share their own thoughts and experiences, especially when there are important material and political differences.

This was something I had recognized, but often did not address adequately. I realised that I should do something about this one day after an online class when one of my students and I were still in the zoom meeting after everyone had left. Then, the student (a foreign student) started to tear, telling me that some of the discussion in their breakout room was hard for them to process, especially because the Singaporean students concerns were very different from theirs. While Singaporean students were concerned about grades and future pay, the foreign student said that their primary concern was trying to adapt to a new system, and also try and sort out a way to stay in Singapore after graduation.

Listening to the student, I realised that I not adequately created a space where students could be sensitive to other important differences such as nationality or different cultural and material expectations. I learned from that lesson and am now mindful of ensuring that students are cognizant of how they can create a welcoming space for students from different national origins. This is still a delicate balance, as the course still has a primarily Singapore and Southeast Asian focus, so I am still in the process of working this out. That interaction, however, showed me an important gap that needed correcting.