The research adopted a mixed-methods approach with 3 phases: survey, case study and intervention. Concepts grounded in Poststructuralist and Ethical Criticism and multiple data collection methods such as survey, lesson observations, teacher interviews and student focus group discussions were used in the study over 3 years from 2018 to 2020. Phase 3 of the project involved the co-development and implementation of 3 intervention units in Literature secondary school classrooms with the teachers from the 21CC Literature Research Interest Group aimed at understanding Literature’s role in cultivating empathetic and global thinkers for the 21^st century.

Learn more about the research: 21CC Literature

Here are some excerpts of students developing greater empathy, shifting towards greater perspective thinking, discernment and critical thinking skills.

Student A: Reflecting on “What’s it like being Malay?”

“It just made me empathize … I have close friends. I, myself, have experienced it being the one person to represent a whole race. I do know how it feels.”

Student B: Reflecting on “F.A.Q.”

“It does expose a side of society that we’ve never seen before.”

“Many of [us] used to think that casual racism was fine, even me personally. I used to think that when people make casual racism remarks, I do not really take them very .”

Student C: Reflecting on having open discourse on sensitive SG issues in classrooms

“I just wanted to say that we should be more open in discussing these issues like racism in our own classroom … I think that we should be able to establish a safe and comfortable classroom where people can discuss comfortably and share their views on racism”

Student D: Reflecting on how local literature can make students feel represented

“The text in the folder for the reading made me feel represented … I haven’t faced discrimination, racial discrimination at least directly, but I have had family that faced it. We just kind of pushed it under the rug because that’s all we can do. If we try to explain to these people, they don’t acknowledge that it’s wrong. So these texts really help me feel a sense of comfort that I’m being heard and also help me hear the ones that I didn’t know existed.”

“With “Race & Identity”, students were given a rare chance to negotiate different(ly), and even conflicting, perspectives, about a topic that is so close to heart, yet so often neglected. The unit revealed the complex reality of race in a multi-racial country, and the resulting tensions between race and other aspects of our identity. It was through this unit that students appreciated the role of literature in society, that the subject is in many aspects a reflection of their lived reality.”

– Teacher A

“The Asian poetry unit changed the way the students saw the world, not just Asia. It changed the way they approached poetry and Literature as a subject discipline. The poems allowed them to cross many borders: political, cultural, language, stereotypes, self. It was no different for me. The collaboration with NIE and other schools made concrete the hazy, nagging feeling that we could do better to represent the Literature of Asia, and it was the sharing of knowledge and resources and pedagogy that made it possible. It was a most invigorating and expansive exercise indeed!”

– Teacher B

“The inter-school collaboration was an extremely generative experience—both for the students and teachers alike.  For the students, the process of crafting a dialogic poem with counterparts from another school was unfamiliar territory.  Most of them are not writers by nature, and to engage in this creative endeavour with people they have not met prior to this project, made the honest expressions of their views all the more vulnerable.  This discomfort was a key source of learning as they were forced to negotiate uncertainties in the subject matter and learning process.  For the teachers, working collaboratively to plan the entire lesson package allowed us to learn from each other.  This is especially true when we each used the same materials differently in our own classrooms, showing the expansive possibilities in the discipline of Literature.”

– Teacher C

General advice and guidelines

• Design units not around literary texts but around ethical issues especially contemporary issues of the day.
  • This allows students to see how literature can provide a launchpad to exploring such issues from multiple perspectives.
• Discussions should be guided by exploratory questions to unpack key issues alongside close analysis of the writer’s craft.
  • Where possible, show how aesthetics of the text connect with the ethical issues explored in the text.
• Allow students to go beyond giving politically correct answers.
• Encourage a safe space for students to raise questions and share their responses.
• Encourage students to justify, reflect on their own responses, and be willing to have those responses challenged in the class.
• Provide time for inquiry-based learning aside from whole-class analysis.
• Go beyond preparing students for GCE ‘O’ level type questions by giving them the opportunity to conduct further research into the historical background of the issues concerned, the authors, and allow them to compare and contrast other texts related to the issues from various cultures in the world.

Development of Intervention Units

In Phase 3 of the project, the research team worked with teachers to co-develop unit packages that would help students connect texts to society and issues in the world. Lesson packages on three units were subsequently developed in this phase:

• Unit 1: Exploring Asia through Poetry
• Unit 2: Ensemble Drama Pedagogy
• Unit 3: Exploring Race and Identity through Poetry

Unit on exploring race and identity through Singapore Literature

Detailed descriptions of each unit can be found here: https://nie.edu.sg/21ccliterature

• 21CC Literature Research Interest Group
• Project on Young Adult Literature related to Global Themes (ongoing)
• Literature a subject with real-world relevance: NIE study
• SingTeach Issue 47 Mar/Apr 2014 “Citizens of the World”
• SingTeach Issue 47 Mar/Apr 2014 “Literature in the 21st Century”
• SingTeach Issue 72 Mar 2020 “Nurturing Global Citizens through Literature Education”
• ReEd Vol 12 2013 “Nurturing Global-ready Youths” [PDF]

For educators interested in the research methodology behind Cultivating Cosmopolitan Virtues through Literature, you may refer to:

• Choo, S. S., Chua, B. L., & Yero, D. (In-press). The Challenge of Cultivating National and Cosmopolitan Identities Through Literature: Insights From Singapore Schools. Reading Research Quarterly.
• Choo, S, S. (2021). Teaching ethics through literature: The significance of Ethical Criticism in a global age. London: Routledge.
• Choo, S. S., Yeo, D., Chua, B. L., Palaniappan, M., Beevi, I., & Nah, D. (2020). National Survey of Literature Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices. Singapore: National Institute of Education.
• Yeo, D., Ang, A. & Choo, S. S. (Eds.). (2020). The world, the text, and the classroom: teaching literature in Singapore secondary schools. Singapore:
• Loh, C. E., Choo, S. S., & Beavis, C. (Eds.). (2018). Literature Education in the Asia-Pacific: Policies, Practices and Perspectives in Global Times. London: Routledge.
• Choo, S. S. (2013). Reading the World, the Globe, and the Cosmos: Approaches to Teaching Literature for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Peter Lang.
• Choo, S. S. (2020). Developing cosmopolitan habits through dispositional routines. English Journal, 109(4), 107-108.
• Tan, J. P. L., Choo, S. S. L., Kang, T., & Liem, G. A. D. (2017). Educating for twenty-first century competencies and future-ready learners: Research perspectives from Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 37(4), 425-436.
• Choo, S. S. (2020). Examining models of twenty-first century education through the lens of Confucian cosmopolitanism. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 40(1), 20-34.
• Choo, S. S. (2016). Fostering the hospitable imagination through cosmopolitan pedagogies: Reenvisioning literature education in Singapore. Research in the Teaching of English, 50(4), 400-421.
• Choo, S. S. (2015). Towards a transnational model of critical values education: The case for literature education in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 35(2), 226-240.

To learn more about this research, please contact Associate Professor Suzanne Choo at suzanne.choo@nie.edu.sg.

Principal Investigator

• A/P Suzanne CHOO, Office of Teacher Education (OTE), English Language & Literature (ELL), NIE

Co-Principal Investigators

• Dr Dennis YEO, English Language & Literature (ELL), NIE
• Dr CHUA Bee Leng, Psychology and Child & Human Development (PCHD), NIE

Collaborator

• Ms Meenakshi PALANIAPPAN (Assistant Director, ELL (Sec), CPDD MOE)

Research Assistants

• Ms Ismath BEEVI, OER, NIE
• Mr Dominic NAH, ELL, NIE