Multiculturalism and higher education in Malaysia

Ibrahim, Rozita; Muslim, Nazri; Buang, Ahmad Hidayat

doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.229

Cited by 36 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Most people in Malaysia are Muslim, but there are other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. While the official language is "Bahasa Melayu," people also speak English, Tamil, Chinese, and Punjabi (Ibrahim et al, 2011). In contrast, Iran is a monocultural country that has diverse ethnic groups such as Azeris, Fars, Kurds, Balochs, Arabs, Turkmens, Pashtuns, Armenians, Georgians, and Assyrians, but they share a common nationality which is Iranian (Library of Congress-Federal Research Division: Country Profile [Iran], 2008).…”

Section: Iranian Adolescents In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Others came to Malaysia only with their siblings or alone to study in international schools, which offered all lessons in English. Malaysia is an example of a pluralistic society in practice (Ibrahim, Muslim, & Hidayat Buang, 2011) as Malaysians have been exposed to cultural and religious diversity in the society (Ahmad, 2007). The major ethnic groups in Malaysia are Malays (50.3%), Chinese (23.8%), and Indians (7.1%).…”

Section: Iranian Adolescents In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Monocultural to Multicultural

Arbabi

Yeh

Mahmud

et al. 2016

Journal of Adolescent Research

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Migration to a new country can be very difficult for adolescents as they are also experiencing a critical transition into adulthood. The current study investigates cross-cultural transition issues facing Iranian immigrant adolescents living in Malaysia. Data were gathered from individual interviews with 100 Iranian adolescents (ages 14-18 years), who have lived in Malaysia for between 2 months and 5 years. Descriptive phenomenology qualitative research was used to explore the impact of the migration process on Iranian adolescents. Analysis revealed five major themes regarding participants' life experiences in Malaysia: (a) initial expectations; (b) differences in ethnicity, religion, and beliefs; (c) communication barriers; (d) differences in personal evaluations; and (e) psychological issues. The results of this study clearly show that migration for Iranian adolescents in Malaysia is a time of unexpected challenges that may not be experienced by other migrant adolescents in other countries. Our findings contribute to the literature on the unique experiences of Iranian adolescents living in Malaysia and also build on the current research on adolescents who have recently immigrated. In addition, our results further uncover the process of immigration for individuals who

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Section: Iranian Adolescents In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Iranian Adolescents In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

From Monocultural to Multicultural

Arbabi

Yeh

Mahmud

et al. 2016

Journal of Adolescent Research

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“…Likewise, cultural acceptance permeates the Malaysian education system (Ibrahim, Muslim, & Buang, 2011;Jelas & Mohd Ali, 2014;Omar, Noh, Hamzah, & Majid, 2015). Though certain schools are categorised as Religious-Islamic, the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MOE, 2012) stipulates the national responsibility to provide education to all children regardless of their race and religion.…”

Section: Malaysian Online Journal Of Educational Management (Mojem)mentioning

confidence: 99%

International School Leadership in Malaysia: Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives on Leading in a Culturally Diverse Environment

Velarde¹,

Ghani²

2019

MOJEM

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International schools present a promising setting in the exploration of leadership in culturally diverse organisations. Due to heightened global interconnectivity, the increasing number of international schools in the Asia Pacific region leads to the evergrowing formation of multicultural learning environments. Aside from being one of the countries with the largest number of international school students in Southeast Asia, Malaysia offers a socio-culturally distinct venue for understanding the organisational dynamics of international schools in a heterogeneous society. Hence, this study primarily aims to present the perspectives of international school teachers on the practices and programmes employed by school leaders with respect to cultural diversity. Taking the viewpoints of school teachers, this case study focuses on how school leaders perform in the midst of the culturally diverse environment of an international school in Malaysia. Thirteen teachers from a prominent international school in Kuala Lumpur were purposefully selected to participate in semi-structured interview sessions. To substantiate the responses from the interviews, five teachers from the same school participated in a focus group discussion. The data from the individual interviews and focus group discussion were triangulated with observation field notes and document analysis. The collated data were thematically analysed using Atlas.ti. The emerging themes revolve around the following: leadership practices with respect to cultural diversity; programmes and policies promoting cultural awareness; and, leadership effects on the school community. Having students and teachers coming from different socio-cultural backgrounds, international schools pose both opportunities and challenges for leadership. Guided by the findings of this study, international school leaders and teachers may design their curriculum and initiate new co-curricular or organisational programmes promoting cultural diversity to benefit students and teachers. More than identifying leadership practices and institutionalised programmes in managing cultural differences, this study calls for further introspection and action to harness the potentials of leadership in promoting harmony in diversity for societal development.

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“…Tanah Melayu was now culturally and linguistically diverse. Rather than forging an integrated multiculturalism, the British defined and divided Malaya along ethnic lines that had become dialectally synonymous with language and socioeconomics (Ibrahim et al, 2011).…”

Section: Malaysian Language Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Criticism of these arrangements can amount to sedition (Sedition Act 1948 Article 3) and is curtailed by 'restrictive speech laws and politicized prosecutions of opposition leaders' (Freedom House, 2017). Nonetheless, non-Malays have typically retained their heritage languages or are experiencing language shift to English or Mandarin, rather than to Bahasa (Coluzzi, 2017;David, 2017;Ibrahim, Muslim, & Buang, 2011). This begs the question of what Malaysians themselves claim to know about Malaysia's language policy and how they explain it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between public perception and government intent in national language policy

Albury

2018

Current Issues in Language Planning

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Multiculturalism and higher education in Malaysia

Cited by 36 publications

References 7 publications

From Monocultural to Multicultural

From Monocultural to Multicultural

International School Leadership in Malaysia: Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives on Leading in a Culturally Diverse Environment

Between public perception and government intent in national language policy

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