Education in Multicultural Societies
Perspectives on Education in Malaysia

Edited By Abdul Razak Baginda & Peter Schier
September 2005
ASEAN Academic Press
ISBN: 190191951X
149 pages, 6" x 9"
$42.50 Hardcover


In a multicultural, multireligious country like Malaysia, the role of education as a unifying or diverse force and as an influence on the adaptability of the next generation of Malaysians in the global economy is keenly felt and acknowledged. After nearly half a century of independence, the challenge of building a truly Malaysian nationhood somehow still eludes the nation, while challenges lurk in every corner of an increasingly borderless economy and world order.

The education system was accused of smothering creativity and critical thinking and, more significantly, of engendering racial polarization and parochialism. How far are these allegations true and how do we go about putting the education system on much firmer ground? Have practices in schools and elsewhere deviated from the original noble objectives professed for the education system?

What changes need to be made in the education system to cater to the needs of both present and future generations of Malaysians? Such concerns about the state of racial polarization in society and schools have emerged to provoke a renewal of debate about the state of education in Malaysia today. This book brings additional perspectives to this continuing debate of national importance.

Education

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