Navigating diversities: experiences of youths in one Singapore school

ABSTRACT Singapore has established a reputation as a country with social harmony. But in recent times, increasing reports on issues of social cohesion have begun to emerge in the media about tensions among its citizenry and between foreigners and migrants. Yet, little is known about youths’ lived experiences of everyday multiculturalism amidst this changing demographic landscape. The discourses on diversities in Singapore classrooms have remained largely within the State’s narrative of race-based harmonious multiculturalism based on inherited colonial racialised categories. This paper investigates the understanding and lived experiences of multiculturalism of students in one secondary school, situating the analysis of everyday multiculturalism within the complexities of local diversities and the structure of schooling in a postcolonial multilingual society.