Teaching teachers about racism

Teaching teachers about racism

Aizuddin Danian

The Ministry of Education released a statement recently directed to teachers and school administrators to be careful about making racist remarks.

In the circular dated Aug 26, ministry director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said he viewed seriously the allegations against a small group of people for making racist remarks in school.

"They are insensitive to the Government's efforts to make schools the place to cultivate the 1Malaysia spirit," he said.

"If investigations show that principals or teaching staff are guilty of racism, the ministry will take serious action against them."

Malaysian pupils should think of themselves as Malaysian

Better late than never, I'd say. Too late to stop the silly trainwreck of recent weeks, but probably good enough to ensure that future occurrences are much reduced. If there is one thing i like about Government servants, it's that they are highly predictable, and very lemming-like in their behaviour. If you tell them to jump, they'll jump. If you tell them to shut up, they'll shut up.

The thing that concerns me is that while we can control their behaviour, i wonder how much control to we have over their thoughts and hearts. Racism, as i mentioned earlier, is an ideological social disease. Just like any disease, doctors can suppress the symptoms and often completely miss the root cause.

Greater efforts need to be taken to ensure that racism stays out of our schools. Circulars and memos are simply not enough. Consider what was done in the US, perhaps we could do the same:

During the 2004-05 school year, site- and district-level administrators and the Board of Trustees went through the PEG's foundational two-day Beyond Diversity training. Beyond Diversity provides participants with agreements and conditions for having courageous conversations about race.

Many teachers expressed feelings of guilt and anger. Some teachers felt like they were being accused of being racist. Requiring teachers to select focal students based on race, language acquisition and academic status was questioned. Teachers wondered if focusing on a few students was fair to other students in the class.

Alimuddin

Addressing personal and institutional racism in schools is the challenge of the 21st century. Many educators are now calling the achievement gap the civil rights issue of today. Progress will be made only if educators are committed to continuing the conversation that focuses on race and student achievement.

Addressing personal and institutional racism will not be without conflict, as described by Frederick Douglass: "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."

Racism is not something that can be swept under the carpet with the hope that it will go away. You can't beat an ideological social disease by ignoring it. You need to confront it head on, you need to talk about it openly, you need to ensure that whatever deep-seated ill-feelings in the hearts of our teachers are flushed out into the open and debated.

Teachers are human beings too, they have feelings, thoughts, beliefs, likes, dislikes, loves and hates. But unlike other humans, they are directly responsible for the growth and development of our future. It makes perfect sense to invest positively in their role to eliminate racism from our children. - Volume of Interactions

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