Diversity, difference, equity: how student differences are socially constructed in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Diversity is a socially constructed idea where differences are assigned values that are in turn shaped by local socio-political exigencies and narratives. Interpretations of diversity in Anglo-Saxon contexts tend to revolve around identity markers, such as race, gender, (dis)abilities and nationalities. Looking beyond Anglo-Saxon contexts, this paper examines how teachers in Singapore understand student diversity through their practices of differentiated instruction and, consequently, how these perceptions and practices engage with issues of equity. Teachers in our study interpreted student diversity primarily as academic readiness – shaped by students’ abilities, attitudes and families. These teachers’ experiences illuminate how analysing practices addressing diversity yields critical insights around dominant narratives and ideologies. In particular, findings point to a contextually situated construction of diversity and understandings of equity that are attuned to the national narratives of meritocracy, multiculturalism and academic excellence in Singapore.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• difference
• equity
• meritocracy
• social construction
• Singapore

Acknowledgments

Deep gratitude goes out to the reviewers for their time and effort in strengthening this article, as well as Lynn Song for her research support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

NTUIRB

2017-10-050

Notes

1. Anglo-Saxon countries share common characteristics, such as the English language, political beliefs and historical ties with the UK. However, we recognise that they are not a homogenous group given their different geographies and historical developments. Further, given the level of attention directed to diversity in the US (Mills, 2008), we acknowledge the US-centric perspectives in this article and have attempted to include literature from other countries, such as Canada and Australia, wherever possible.

2. Given the limits of this article, we draw examples from a few representative approaches to advance our arguments. For an overview of more scholars, see, for example, Aronson and Laughter (2016) and Bennett (2001).

3. Symbolic justice is the honour and prestige accorded to a group based on other markers, e.g. wealth or experience, for compensatory purposes. For instance, veterans are deemed to be accorded symbolic justice through the celebration of Veterans’ Day in the US.

4. In this study, learning profile is defined as students’ preferred approaches to learning (e.g. by visualising or listening, or individually or in groups) while learner profile is defined as the experiences, prior knowledge, values and identities that students hold (e.g. gender, ethnicity, nationality, family background and so on) (Tomlinson, 2014).

5. We are indebted to Reviewer 2 for these insights.

6. Pseudonyms used for all participants.

7. Derived from an average of all classroom observation ratings, with scores scaled from 0 (no evidence) to 3 (strong evidence).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MOE Education Research Funding Programme under OER02/17HTT.