Cover Image

Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?

School and education system may be a critical and strategic platform for nation-building. At the same time, the politicization of the education system as well as the interdependent nature of schools and external forces may contribute to the destabilization of the role of school in nation building....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sivapalan, Selvadurai, Ong, Puay Liu, Marsitah, Mohd Radzi, Ong, Puay Hoon, Ong, Puay Tee, Badariah, Saibeh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: GEOGRAFIA OnlineTM 2015
Subjects:
L Education (General)
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/17742/1/Debating%20education%20for%20nation%20building%20in%20Malaysia%20%28abstract%29.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/17742/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305496336
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id my.unimas.ir.17742
record_format eprints
spelling my.unimas.ir.177422023-10-02T06:37:37Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/17742/ Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance? Sivapalan, Selvadurai Ong, Puay Liu Marsitah, Mohd Radzi Ong, Puay Hoon Ong, Puay Tee Badariah, Saibeh L Education (General) School and education system may be a critical and strategic platform for nation-building. At the same time, the politicization of the education system as well as the interdependent nature of schools and external forces may contribute to the destabilization of the role of school in nation building. In Malaysia, the issue of mono-lingualism as a medium of instruction in schools has been a contested one with efforts of accommodating bilingualism and multilingualism continue to be attempted with no solutions in sight. The persistence of vernacular schools has generated both intense debates and resistance. This article examines the reasons for the resistance to, and persistence of vernacular schools. The data were drawn from three main sources, namely interviews with heads and/or representatives of 12 schools (mostly national schools and Chinese schools) from four states namely Selangor, Kelantan, Sarawak and Sabah as part of a wider project on social cohesion study as well as newspapers and web sources. The resistance to vernacular schools was premised on the affirmation that national schools rest on the idea of inculcating and sustaining national identity as well as facilitating cross-cultural experience and communication while eliminating the more segregating and divisive forces in vernacular schools. By contrast, the persistence of vernacular schools pertains to the idea of sustaining minority cultural identity, countering the lack of national schools’ sense of accommodation and questionable quality of education, and refuting the perception of vernacular schools as structural cause of disunity. Besides these negotiation difficulties of cultural identities in the school system, wider power politics and market politics interplay in influencing the resistance and persistence of vernacular schools. GEOGRAFIA OnlineTM 2015 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/17742/1/Debating%20education%20for%20nation%20building%20in%20Malaysia%20%28abstract%29.pdf Sivapalan, Selvadurai and Ong, Puay Liu and Marsitah, Mohd Radzi and Ong, Puay Hoon and Ong, Puay Tee and Badariah, Saibeh (2015) Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance? Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 11 (13). pp. 14-23. ISSN 2180-2491 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305496336
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic L Education (General)
spellingShingle L Education (General)
Sivapalan, Selvadurai
Ong, Puay Liu
Marsitah, Mohd Radzi
Ong, Puay Hoon
Ong, Puay Tee
Badariah, Saibeh
Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
description School and education system may be a critical and strategic platform for nation-building. At the same time, the politicization of the education system as well as the interdependent nature of schools and external forces may contribute to the destabilization of the role of school in nation building. In Malaysia, the issue of mono-lingualism as a medium of instruction in schools has been a contested one with efforts of accommodating bilingualism and multilingualism continue to be attempted with no solutions in sight. The persistence of vernacular schools has generated both intense debates and resistance. This article examines the reasons for the resistance to, and persistence of vernacular schools. The data were drawn from three main sources, namely interviews with heads and/or representatives of 12 schools (mostly national schools and Chinese schools) from four states namely Selangor, Kelantan, Sarawak and Sabah as part of a wider project on social cohesion study as well as newspapers and web sources. The resistance to vernacular schools was premised on the affirmation that national schools rest on the idea of inculcating and sustaining national identity as well as facilitating cross-cultural experience and communication while eliminating the more segregating and divisive forces in vernacular schools. By contrast, the persistence of vernacular schools pertains to the idea of sustaining minority cultural identity, countering the lack of national schools’ sense of accommodation and questionable quality of education, and refuting the perception of vernacular schools as structural cause of disunity. Besides these negotiation difficulties of cultural identities in the school system, wider power politics and market politics interplay in influencing the resistance and persistence of vernacular schools.
format Article
author Sivapalan, Selvadurai
Ong, Puay Liu
Marsitah, Mohd Radzi
Ong, Puay Hoon
Ong, Puay Tee
Badariah, Saibeh
author_facet Sivapalan, Selvadurai
Ong, Puay Liu
Marsitah, Mohd Radzi
Ong, Puay Hoon
Ong, Puay Tee
Badariah, Saibeh
author_sort Sivapalan, Selvadurai
title Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
title_short Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
title_full Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
title_fullStr Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
title_full_unstemmed Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
title_sort debating education for nation building in malaysia: national school persistence or vernacular school resistance?
publisher GEOGRAFIA OnlineTM
publishDate 2015
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/17742/1/Debating%20education%20for%20nation%20building%20in%20Malaysia%20%28abstract%29.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/17742/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305496336
_version_ 1779150648797822976
score 13.211869

Similar Items