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Asian Ethnicity
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Study of social interaction among students of Vision Schools in Malaysia

Najeemah Mohd Yusof
a a

School of Educational Studies, University Science of Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia Version of record first published: 24 Jan 2012.

To cite this article: Najeemah Mohd Yusof (2012): Study of social interaction among students of Vision Schools in Malaysia, Asian Ethnicity, 13:1, 47-73 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2012.625697

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Asian Ethnicity Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2012, 4773

Study of social interaction among students of Vision Schools in Malaysia

Najeemah Mohd Yusof*
School of Educational Studies, University Science of Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia

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The purpose of this study is to examine the social interaction among students of various ethnic groups at Vision Schools in Malaysia. The focus is mainly on Malays, Chinese and Indians with a sample size of 642 students. This research applies the quantitative and qualitative approach. For the qualitative approach, the researcher used focus group interviews and observations to examine social interaction among students of various ethnic groups. In this research there is one independent variable to explain and predict eleven independent variables. Hypotheses were analysed using post-hoc and multivariate analysis at a p 5 0.05 signicance level. Findings of the study indicated there were signicant dierence in the mean score levels for all the independent variables. Study showed high social distance scale for Malay and Chinese students. All the dependent variables eected social interaction among students. Based on the results various suggestions have been recommended and it is hoped that these suggestions will help those involved in teaching and learning to have a better understanding concerning social interaction among Malay, Chinese and Indian students at Vision Schools in Malaysia. Keywords: Vision Schools; multiethnic; Malays; Chinese; Indians; social interaction

Introduction The establishment of a country which contains various ethnic groups very much depends on its stability of politics, economy and society. Ethnics harmony would only be achieved through social interaction. Closer social interaction that developed between ethnics causes stronger unity amongst people of the country. Social interaction of the people will determine the stability of the politics, society, economy and the entire citizens well-being. Social Interaction between various ethnic groups can be nurtured through the national curriculum which orientates harmony.1 Socialization should be sown to children at an earlier age and schools are the perfect place to cultivate this skill. Malaysia is one of the examples of multiethnic (multiracial) countries around the world. In fact Malaysia represents the true meaning of a diverse society in many ways such as; race, language and religion. Population wise, Malaysian society is consisted of Malays 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indians 7.1% and others 7.8%. In term of language we witness a huge variety such as; Bahasa Malaysia (ocial), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan and
*Email: najineen@usm.my 1 Vander Zanden, American Minority Relations.
ISSN 1463-1369 print/ISSN 1469-2953 online 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2012.625697 http://www.tandfonline.com

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Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai and several indigenous languages which most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan. The same goes to religion as Malaysian society practices many dierent religions like; Islam, Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism, Bahaism and also Shamanism in East Malaysia. Looking at this scenario shows us how dicult it can be to keep such diverse texture of society in harmony and provide a fair and equal system of education for it based on understanding and respect. In such a diverse society, the education system should be able of adopting a guideline to address the cultural and ethnical needs of each group and at the same time keep the society in the frame of national community. The Malaysian education system is consisted of three dierent forms of schools; rstly the government-sponsored schools (National Schools), secondly, private schools and thirdly, home- schooling. As the matter of fact, the Malaysian system of education is extremely centralized especially when it comes to primary and secondary schools. Based on the Malaysian constitution, the Malaysian Ministry of Education is responsible of providing the National Education Policy based on the National Ideology or as it called Rukunegara in Malay language. The principles of the National Ideology are; Believing in God, Loyalty to the King and the country, Upholding the constitution, Rule of law and Good behaviour and morality. The main aims of the Government Educational Policy are to: (1) Equip students with the essential skills in a holistic and integrated manner, in order to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced; as well as functionally literate; (2) Inculcate and nurture national consciousness by promoting common ideals, values, aspirations and loyalties to foster national unity and national identity; (3) Produce skilled manpower for economic and national development; and (4) Instil desired moral values in students so that they can contribute eectively towards nation building. Statements of problem Education system practised in Malaysia in primary level shows students being segregated according to all dierent ethnic school, which is Malay students will go to National Schools, Chinese students go to National Chinese Schools and Indian students go to National Tamil Schools. Nungsari Ahmad Radhi2 states that during the past three decades, clearly there has been a compartmentalization of race and type of schools. Hence, an environment for all ethnics will speed up the process of national integration. In order to tackle these issues, the Malaysian government decided to introduce a new type of primary schools in 2004 under the name of Vision Schools. Vision schools are primary schools with the concept of children learning together within an area without regard for race or religion. Under this concept, two or three primary schools of dierent streams are placed in the same area. Each school will have its own building which can be joined to the other schools by a link-way. This system is at its testing period and there are just ve of them throughout Malaysia. In this system, as it has mentioned before, three main types of schools (National, National Chinese and National Tamil) gather together

Nungsari Ahmad Radhi, Is Malaysia Going Supply Side?.

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at a same place under the name of Vision School Complex. Each school is separated from the other one and acts independently from its administrative system to its curriculum. Each school follows its national curriculum without interfering with the other one. The most important factor which makes this type of school dierent from the ordinary schools is the notion of making students from dierent ethnic backgrounds enable of interacting with each other during the break times and also some other joint co-curriculum activities. This plan is being considered as an innovative option to address the main issues of preserving ethnic cultures and supporting inter-racial integration to sustain the national unity of the country. Some of the main objectives of this system of schooling have been demonstrated by the Malaysian Ministry of Education as: fostering solidarity among the pupils of dierent races and backgrounds, instilling the spirit of integration among pupils of dierent streams, producing a generation that is tolerant and understanding so as to realize a united nation and encouraging maximum interaction among the pupils through the sharing of school facilities and implementation of other activities at school.

Objectives of the study (1) To identify the dierence of social interaction between same ethnics or dierent ethnic groups among students in Vision School. (2) To identify the variables of factors that motivates and restricts socialization among students in Vision School. (3) To identify the role of teachers and administrators in developing social interaction among students of dierent ethnic in Vision School. Matters of the study There are several questions below that emerge from this study: (1) Is there any dierence between the factors of the motivation and restriction in the social interaction among students in Vision School? (2) Are teachers and administrators responsible of promoting social interaction among students in Vision School? Conceptual frameworks of the study Based on the factors explained above, a conceptual framework is drawn to explain the study. Figure 1 shows the conceptual frameworks of the study. Importance of the study Information from this study can be applied by various parties such as Ministry of Education Malaysia, State Education Department or District Education Oce in implementing any programme in multi-ethnic schools. This study is relied to help the ministry to examine characteristics of surroundings that need to be given attention especially those that can aect the socialisation among children.

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Figure 1.

Conceptual framework.

Figure 2.

Model 1: limited interaction pattern among ethnics.

Review of related studies Social interaction pattern Social interaction pattern can be categorized to a few models.3 Model 1 as shown in Figure 2 shows the interaction pattern that develops when two or more ethnic group socially interact using the same language According to the Figure 2 above, x is the Malay language used to socially interact and the social interaction pattern between the ethnic groups of Malay, Chinese and Indian is limited.4 The situation mentioned above can happen during the early stage of going to a Vision School where students have not know their classmates who are from dierent ethnic groups.
3 4

Miller, The Analysis Of Subjective Culture. Ibid.

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Figure 3.

Model 2: minimum interaction pattern among ethnics.

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Figure 4.

Model 3: maximum interaction pattern among ethnics.

Figure 5.

Prole of students according to type of schools.

Figure 6.

Prole of students according to gender.

Figure 7.

Prole of students according to race.

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Figure 8.

Mothers primary education.

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Figure 9.

Mothers secondary education.

Figure 10.

Mothers tertiary education.

Figure 11.

Fathers primary education.

Figure 12.

Fathers secondary education.

Figure 13.

Fathers tertiary education.

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Model 2 as shown in Figure 3 shows the social interaction pattern is at a minimum level.5 At this level, students start to know their classmates of other ethnic groups. Model 3 as shown in Figure 4 shows a better social interaction pattern has been developed. At this level, students can interact well because they understand and respect the dierences among various ethnic groups. Based on Figure 4, the black spot shows the interaction is maximum. At this level, students can interact better in a multi-ethnic cultured environment. School environment

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This study will focus on identifying the environment which can increase the social interaction between students of dierent ethnic groups in a Vision School. Role of teachers Brophy6 states teachers provide environment for students to learn. According to Levine & Levine (1996), an eective teacher is able to give time and space for students to learn, communicate well, give orders at a level which students can understand so that they can success eventually. Role of administrators In a school management system, the cooperation between administrator, teacher and support sta is very essential to achieve education goals.7 Many administrators only give emphasis to academic aspect and neglect social interaction problem between various ethnics of students.8 They play an important role not only ensuring students can get the best academic achievements but also ensuring students from dierent ethnic groups can socially interact well. Factors which inuence the social interaction pattern There are many factors that inuence social interaction. In this study factors that are considered are language, ethnic boundary, ethnic identity, social distance, friendship pattern, prejudice, stereotype and family background. According to9 language is a device to speak and communicate.10 views language as a symbol that shows the society social integration pattern. Ethnic boundary is a nature of social interaction pattern which reinforces an internal groups identication. A thick or thin ethnic boundary is determined by the ethnic identity and the social distance among various ethnic groups. If the ethnic boundary is thick, the social interaction is less; and if it is thin, the social interaction is good. One of the factors which aects ethnic boundary is ethnic identity. The development of ethnic identity among multi racial students is one very important
5 6

Miller, The Analysis Of Subjective Culture. Brophy, Teacher behavior and its eects. 7 Fitz, The School in the Multicultural Society. 8 Ibid. 9 Asmah, Patterns of Language Communication in Malaysia. 10 De Vos, Back In Black.

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assignment which is to be carried out in schools. Ethnic identity includes ethnic consciousness, ethnic identication, ethnic attitude, ethnic behaviour which will all aect the ethnic boundary. Social distance is a separation or social dissociation which really exists among individuals, or groups. Social distance scale designed by Borgardus is applied by many researchers in measuring the majority groups perception over the minority group.11 Willmont12 describes friendship as a voluntary and close relationship. Friendship provides one the opportunity to socialize. Allport (1978) states prejudice is one kind of antipathy based on wrong and stilted generalization. Prejudice can be felt or stated. On the other hand, Vander Zander13 denes stereotype as less scientic and less trusted generalization about what others do to others whether as individual or group. Stereotype is closely related to category, where a group of individuals is put together as if they all have the same characteristics. Prejudice is the attitude or subjective feelings whereas discrimination is an obvious behaviour. Discrimination means dierent treatment to those who belong to some particular category. According to Berry14, even though prejudice and discrimination often closely related to each other, we cannot tell which is the cause and which is the eect. Sometimes, prejudice can exist without discrimination and discrimination can exist without prejudice. The context of family background in this study is socialization, accommodation, and family socio-economic status. The focus of the study is on the social interaction of parents with various ethnics. According to Coombs15, the style of rearing children inuences how children interact at schools. Children who are seldom taught about his or her surrounding environment (neighbour) do not often mix around with other children of dierent ethnics. From the survey of Najeemah Mohd Yusof in several primary schools at Sungai Petani, Kedah, result shows many students are from the same environment or having neighbours of the same ethnic (95%). Thus, the opportunity to socially interact with other ethnics is minimal. Hence, the multi-ethnic environment in National Secondary Schools is hoped to create interaction opportunity. As such, the focus of this study is related to the study of Coombs.16 Methods of research Designs of quantitave and qualitative Study This study will apply the qualitative and quantitative methods in the collection and analysis of data. A combined model named Model Quan-Qual is applied in this study. Discussion will focus on the strategies and approaches of quantitative and qualitative research. This research uses questionnaire instrument. There are a total of 116 questions in the questionnaire which is divided into three dimensions: Structure Dimension, Behaviour Dimension and Process Dimension. The structure of the research questions formation is based on the model of Bloom and Dahlo in Wright.
11 12

Bois, Racism and Education. Willmont, Polarisation and Social Housing. 13 Vander Zander, American Minority Relations. 14 Berry, Acculturation As Varieties of Adaption. 15 Coombs, Race Dierences in Childrens Friendsip. 16 Ibid.

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The questionnaire has been rearranged and divided into three main parts: (1) Family Background Inventory (2) Language, Ethnic Boundary, and, Prejudice and Stereotype. (3) Outdoor Interaction, Teachers Role, and School Administrators Role Inventory All information obtained in the questionnaire will be analyzed using Statistical Packages For Social Science programme (SPSS). Overall information will be presented in descriptive form which shows the percentage and mean. At the same time, dierential test also will be conducted to further strengthen this study by using Anova Post-Hoc as a measurement.

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Findings of study In this section testing of the hypothesis will be discussed All examination has been done using the ANOVA test. If the result shows the probability value is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis (Ho) will be rejected. Examination of hypothesis No. 1
Ho1: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the language factors. Ha1: There is a signicant dierent among students of dierent schools with the language factors.

The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the language factors. Examination of hypothesis No. 2
Ho2: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the ethnic or cultural boundary factors. Ha2: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the ethnic or cultural boundary factors.

The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the ethnic or cultural boundary factors. Examination of hypothesis No. 3
Ho3: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the ethnic identity factors. Ha3: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the ethnic identity factors.

The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the ethnic identity factors.

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Examination of hypothesis No. 4

Ho4: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the prejudice factors. Ha4: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the prejudice factors.

Table 1. School

Signicant dierence in the language factor. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 2.77 2.11 2.32 2.42 Standard deviation 0.30 0.39 0.37 0.46 F-value 222.862 Signicance 0.000

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SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Table 2. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Signicant dierence in the ethnic or cultural boundary factor. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 1.84 2.11 2.36 2.06 Standard deviation 0.35 0.41 0.39 0.43 F-value 86.111 Signicance 0.000

Table 3. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Signicant dierence in the ethnic identity factor. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 2.06 2.25 2.41 2.21 Standard deviation 0.26 0.25 0.30 0.30 F-value 81.934 Signicance 0.000

Table 4. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Signicant dierence in the prejudice factor. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 2.19 2.45 2.55 2.37 Standard deviation 0.26 0.25 0.30 0.34 F-value 78.020 Signicance 0.000

Table 5. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Signicant dierence in the sterotype factor. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 2.58 2.70 2.54 2.62 Standard deviation 0.38 0.34 0.54 0.41 F-value 8.843 Signicance 0.000

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The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the prejudice factors. Examination of hypothesis No. 5
Ho5: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the stereotype factors. Ha5: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the stereotype factors.

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The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the stereotype factors. Examination of hypothesis No. 6
Ho6: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the outdoor factors. Ha6: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the outdoor factors.

The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the outdoor factors. Examination of hypothesis No. 7
Ho7: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the teachers role factors. Ha7: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the teachers role factors.

The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the teachers role factors.
Table 6. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total Signicant dierence in the outdoor factor. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 1.67 2.03 2.27 1.94 Standard deviation 0.42 0.44 0.48 0.50 F-value 91.036 Signicance 0.000

Table 7. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Signicant dierence in the teachers role. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 2.47 2.61 2.48 2.53 Standard deviation 0.37 0.33 0.33 0.35 F-value 12.409 Signicance 0.000

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Examination of hypothesis No. 8

Ho8: There is no signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the school administration factors. Ha8: There is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the school administration factors.

The probability value shows 0.000. Hence, examination proves that there is a signicant dierence among students of dierent schools with the school administration factors.

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Observation The observation is on every Thursday and Friday from 8.00am to 2.30pm in Kedah, Penang and Northern Perak as well as on Saturday during the co-curriculum activities. Summary of the observation is as in Table 9: Problems or conicts
Language is the problem in interaction. Chinese and Indian students from SRJKC and SRJKT seldom speak Malay. They only mix with their own race. They also seldom speak to their teachers except those who are prefects. Class teacher, Male. Problems do happen because of stereotype, but, not very often. They ght because Malay students call Indian students pariah and Indian students call Malay students babi. These problems cannot be avoided. We punish them, but, it happens again with other students. Administrator, Male.

Table 8. School SK SRJKC SRJKT Total

Signicant dierence in the school administrators role. N 254 248 140 642 Mean 2.19 2.56 2.64 2.43 Standard deviation 0.40 0.43 0.44 0.46 F-value 69.703 Signicance 0.000

Table 9. Venue

Observation check list. Results of observation Generally, students eat with friends of their own race. Only a few students is friendly and sometimes sit with friends of other races. Generally, students only play with friends of their own race. Generally, students line up with friends of their own race. Some do talk with friends of other races. Generally, students have the activities with friends of their own race. They will only mix with other races when forced by teachers. Sometimes, they even go back to their own group after a while. Generally, students wait for their transportation with friends of their own race.

School canteen School eld Assembly hall Co-curriculum places

Gathering places after schools

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Table 10. Race of neighbours parents. Number 5 97 40 58 4 95 19 8 9 187 16 3 2 99 642

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Race of neighbours parents Unknown Malay Chinese Indian Others Malay and Chinese Malay and Indian Chinese and Indian Chinese and others Malay, Chinese and Indian Malay, Chinese and others Malay, Indian and others Chinese, Indian and others Malay, Chinese, Indian and others Total

Percentage (%) 0.80 15.10 6.20 9.00 0.60 14.80 3.00 1.20 1.40 29.10 2.50 0.50 0.30 15.40 100.00

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Table 11.

Parents encouragement in making friends according to race. Number 15 152 112 57 15 52 9 5 7 1 123 4 1 89 642 Percentage (%) 2.4 23.7 17.4 8.9 2.3 8.1 1.4 0.8 1.1 0.2 19.2 0.6 0.2 13.9 100.00

Race type which parents encourage to befriend with Unknown Malay Chinese Indian Others Malay and Chinese Malay and Indian Chinese and Indian Chinese and others Malay, Chinese and Indian Malay, Chinese and others Malay, Indian and others Chinese, Indian and others Malay, Chinese, Indian and others Total

Female students always come to see me to complain that Malay male students who pull their coifs. They also tease them with words like achi, lembek, seksi, ada parut, gemuk to Chinese and Indian girls. So, I always report to discipline teachers for afraid a ght may occur. Chinese and Indian students seldom tease at Malay female students. Counsellor, Female. Fights and misunderstandings are common between students of dierent ethnic and mostly among students of Standard 6. Sometimes, misunderstandings can happen simply because of touching shoulders only. This can lead a ght and spread to other groups of ethnic. Other students will just support their own ethnic group without even care who is at fault. Discipline teacher, Male. Social interaction phenomenon among students of multi-ethnic in school is not too bad. Female students can interact well. I always stress about good relationship in the assembly. I ask teachers to involve their students from dierent ethnic groups in school activities. There is no problem in this Vision School. Administrator, Female.

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I think students from Vision School can interact better. They already know students of other ethnic groups. In this school, there are many students from SRK. I see them discussing their study together. In the canteen, they can interact well. Sit and eat together and also at the same time chatting. Administrator, Male.

Opinions Some suggestions have been provided by teachers and administrators regarding the factors which aect the social interaction among the multi-ethnic students as below:
Although students are from city or rural area, they do possess some similarities from the language and cultural aspect. Administrator, Male.

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Students should respect the culture and religion of others. Teachers have to stress this point in classroom. Discipline Teacher, Male. Students have problem to adapt themselves between home and school. At home, they speak dierent language, free, no need to interact with other race, eat and wear dierently as well. This makes them more easily to interact with their own race. Counsellor, Male.

Teachers play an important role in exhibiting healthy way of social interaction in school. In school, there are always teachers who sit with teachers of the same ethnic group in the oce. During assembly as well, teachers sit with their own race. This situation often is watched by students and they too follow this negative behaviour.
As for me, if we want to produce harmony in school, principal and teachers should play their own part. They have to interact with students regardless of race and also fair and square. Administrator, Male.

Findings, implications, conclusions and suggestions Findings and discussions Students residence environment and social interaction pattern Based on the analysis of the questionnaires, majority of the parents went to monoethnic primary schools namely National Schools, National Chinese Schools and National Tamil Schools. According to the research of Lemore and Romo, parents in multi-racial society often send their children to mono-ethnic schools because parents do not have the chance to fully assimilate. Parents feel more comfortable by sending their children to mono-ethnic schools. As many as 642 schoolchildren were taken randomly from schools selected as sample for this research. From the total, as much as 39.60% is from National Schools (SK), 38.60% of National Chinese Schools (SRJKC) and 21.80% of National Tamil Schools (SRJKT) The number of male students is 251 (39.10%), wheeras the number of female students is 391 (60.90%). From the aspect of race, there are 269 (41.90%) Malay students, followed by 233 (36.30%) of Chinese students and 140 (21.80%) Indian students. It is imperative that family background of students is highlighted because the quality of childrens social interactions increases as their parents education levels decreases. 70% of students whose parents are from National Secondary Schools (SMK) had

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Table 12. Malay language as students communication language. Never Items of language factors Speak Malay in classroom Speak Malay during co-curriculum activities. Read books or other materials in Malay. Malay as the main communication language used in school Malay language is the restraint of communicating with other races. No. 37 117 23 133 465 % 5.80 18.20 3.60 20.70 72.40 No. 292 235 260 221 107 Seldom % 45.50 36.60 40.50 34.40 16.70 No. 313 290 359 288 70 Always

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% 48.80 45.20 55.90 44.90 10.90

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positive social interactions with their peers often or very often, compared with more than 80 percent of those whose mothers possessed a diploma or college degree. In this study most of the parents are from the National Secondary Schools (SMK). The background of neighbours is vital because individuals who regularly talk with their neighbours are less inuenced by the racial and ethnic character of their surroundings than people who lack such social interaction. Racial composition of neighbours in this study is more multi-ethnic which shows that social interaction is more multi-ethnic. Language and social interaction pattern Based on the quantitative data in Table 12, Malay language is always used in speaking among students of various ethnics in the classrooms, co-curriculum activities and also a communication language in Vision Schools. However, many Chinese and Indian students state that they are afraid being teased when mispronounce or use the intonation and sentence wrongly in Malay language because they are used to speak in their own mother tongue. According to Jacob and Beer17, language is a tool to convey ideas, values, skills and aspirations among people and strengthen relationship among people. Based on the qualitative analysis, Malay language is seldom used as a tool as mentioned above because the usage is less comprehensive. Ethnic boundary and social interaction pattern Entailed in ethnic or cultural boundaries of students are situations of social contact between persons of dierent cultures: ethnic groups only persist as signicant units if they imply marked dierence in behaviour, i.e. persisting cultural dierences. Yet where persons of dierent culture interact, one would expect these dierences to he reduced, since interaction both requires and generates a congruence of codes and values - in other words, a similarity or community of culture. Thus the persistence of ethnic groups in contact implies not only criteria and signals for identication, but also a structuring of interaction which allows the persistence of cultural dierences. The prole of students towards factors of ethnic or cultural boundary must be
17

Jacob and Beer. Interventions Against Racial Disadvantage.

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general for all inter-ethnic relations is a systematic set of rules governing interethnic social encounters. In all organized social life, what can be made relevant to interaction in any particular social situation is prescribed. If people agree about these prescriptions, their agreement on codes and values need not extend beyond that which is relevant to the social situations in which they interact. Stable inter- ethnic relations presuppose such a structuring of interaction: a set of prescriptions governing situations of contact, and allowing for articulation in activities as shown in Tables 13 and 14. The result of the quantitative analysis proves that the ethnic boundary of students in Form 2 and Form 4 is signicant and less on the whole. When is less, then the ethnic boundary is thick. This also proves that although students are in a multi-ethnic environment, they do not try to understand the culture of other ethnics. If the ethnic boundary is thick among students of various ethnic, the countrys aim to achieve unity through Dasar Pendidikan Malaysia may be dicult. Prejudice and social interaction pattern According to Allport18, individual who has think ethnic boundary often has high prejudices. These two factors are said to be closely related. The attitude that has been developed after six years in one environment in Vision School is negative which cause prejudice to develop. Stereotype and social interaction pattern Based on the ndings, Malay and Indian students are having the most stereotypes on them compared to Chinese students. In a plural society, emotions and feelings are too exible.19 Hence, any dierences will cause anathematization. According to Katz20, obvious prods such as lazy, dirty, and noisy produce stereotypes between dierent ethnic groups. Also, Katz21 mentions that if a student who has more friends of outgroups, and then there will be fewer stereotypes because the dierence between them have been identied and understood. Findings prove Katzs statement where students from mono-ethnic environment only befriend with in-groups. Outdoor interaction and social interaction pattern Result from the analysis in Table 17 shows that students seldom socially interact with other ethnics when they are already out of the classroom. Only during camping activities, students of dierent ethnics often socially interact with each other. According to Theory of Group Relationship, there are four processes which closely related during a relationship: learning of out-groups, exchange of behaviour, creating objective ties, and re-evaluation of in-groups. This theory can be applied during camping activities. A set of questions was given to students to gauge their social interaction outside the classroom. Table 17 shows the items with the students input.
18 19

Allport, The Nature of Prejudice. Katz, The Acquisition Of Racial Attitudes. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid.

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Table 13. Prole of students towards factors of ethnic or cultural boundary. Never Items of ethnic or cultural boundary factors Follow friends normal customs when visiting to their house. Parents scold their children if they bring friends of other races to their house. Celebrate Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali together with friends, share snacks in class. Send greeting cards and birthday cards to friends of other races. Eat other races food. Listen songs and see pictures of other races. Same hobby with friends of other races provides opportunity to interact. Exchange food, drink, clothes, books and notes with friends of other races. No. 223 506 246 254 180 78 165 429 % 34.70 78.80 38.30 39.60 28.00 12.10 25.70 66.80 Seldom No. 148 100 209 234 249 261 267 151 % 23.10 15.60 32.60 36.40 38.80 40.70 41.60 23.50

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Always No. 271 36 187 154 213 303 210 62 % 42.20 5.60 29.10 24.00 33.20 47.20 32.70 9.70

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Table 14.

Prole of students towards factors of ethnic identity. Never Seldom No. 143 252 131 87 107 286 242 211 263 142 256 146 % 22.30 39.30 20.40 13.60 16.70 44.50 37.70 32.90 41.00 22.10 39.90 22.70 Always No. 278 46 42 20 31 252 328 317 181 51 134 396 % 43.30 7.20 6.50 3.10 4.80 39.30 51.10 49.40 28.20 7.90 20.90 61.70

Items of ethnic identity factors Only interact with friends of same race Only interact with friends of other races. Will be derided by friends of own race if seen eating with friends of other races. Will be derided by friends of own race if seen helping friends of other races. Will be derided by friends of own race if seen going out with friends of other races. Feel comfortable with friends of other races. Feel pleasant seeing friends of own race with friends of other races. Buy things at shop owned by people of own race. Talk about the good of own race to friends of other races. Invite friends of other races to join my races religion activity. Sing songs of Malay, Chinese and Indian with friends in the class. Feel angry when my friends do not respect the national anthem

No. 221 344 469 535 504 104 72 114 198 449 252 100

% 34.40 53.60 73.10 83.30 78.50 16.20 11.20 17.80 30.80 69.90 39.30 15.60

Teachers role and social interaction pattern According to the research, students state that teachers do not play their part responsibly in developing social interaction among students of various ethnic. Teachers should not have prejudices on ethnics because in a Vision School, students are of dierent ethnics. Throughout the observation, teachers only teach and seldom

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Prole of students towards prejudice factors. Never Seldom No. 129 121 105 239 213 199 167 227 206 172 124 % 20.10 18.80 16.40 37.20 33.20 31.00 26.00 35.40 32.10 26.80 19.30 Always No. 20 182 34 82 45 59 95 101 35 378 58 % 3.10 28.30 5.30 12.80 7.00 9.20 14.80 15.70 21.00 58.90 9.00

Table 15.

Items of prejudice factors Think of friends of other races as not as clever as his or her own race My own religion is higher than other races religion. Feels pointless in befriending people of other races. My own race is the most successful compare to others. Feel uncomfortable going to other races house to celebrate birthday or any other celebration. Feel disgusted with the food of other races. Feel uncomfortable to eat at a friends house of other races. Lend money to friends of other races. Trust friends of other races to keep my money or things. My race is given better hospitality in school. The school management favours to a particular race.

No. 493 339 503 321 384 384 380 314 301 92 460

% 76.80 52.80 78.30 50.00 59.80 59.80 59.20 48.90 46.90 14.30 71.10

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Table 16.

Prole of students towards stereotype factors. Never Seldom No. 179 225 73 76 107 % 27.90 35.00 11.40 11.80 16.70 Always No. 91 69 57 26 36 % 14.20 10.70 8.90 4.00 5.60

Items of stereotype factors My race is being mocked at with particular appellation. Students of other races cannot be close friends of mine. My religion is being ridiculed. Must speak rudely with friends of other ethnics. My race is being humiliated in school.

No. 372 348 512 540 499

% 57.90 64.20 79.80 84.10 77.70

pay attention to the social interaction pattern among students of various ethnic. Herrington and Curtis22 states that teachers should prepare material, information and visual teaching aids about multi ethnic so that students have the exposure of multi-ethnic society. Teachers and administrators can play an extremely valuable role in creating a truly multicultural environment in their school by giving a prominent place to students culture in everyday school life. This means going beyond the annual multicultural food festival, or the occasional lesson. Creating a truly multicultural school milieu implies viewing every aspect of the curriculum from the perspective of other cultures. By doing so, students, who are typically perceived as being in need of remediation, gain signicant status as valuable resources. Students perceptive of teachers and administrators are shown in Table 18.
22

Herrington and Curtis, Education And Multiethnic Integration.

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Table 17. Prole of students towards outdoor interaction factors. Never Items of outdoor interaction I go to canteen with friends of other races I talk with friends of other races while waiting for parents. I choose association which has most of the members of my race. I interact with friends of other races in some activities. I help friends of other races during cocurriculum activities. I involve in activities of association with friends of other races. I have the chance to interact with friends of other races during co-curriculum activities. I choose association which has members of other races. I have interest in activities which has multi races. I support friends of my own race in a competition. No. 294 196 125 186 178 199 199 264 118 227 % 45.80 30.50 19.50 29.00 27.70 31.00 31.00 41.10 18.40 35.40 Seldom No. 224 258 219 264 263 229 278 252 324 218 % 34.90 40.20 34.10 41.10 41.00 35.70 43.30 39.30 50.50 34.00

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Always No. 154 188 298 192 201 214 165 126 200 197 % 19.30 29.30 46.40 29.90 31.30 33.30 25.70 19.60 31.20 30.70

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Administrators role and social interaction pattern The analysis of the hypothesis examination shows that administrators do not play their role in developing social interaction among students of dierent ethnics. Students state that teachers and administrators only emphasize on academic achievements. Although Wawasan Pendidikan has planned an education programme to achieve the zero defect target in all aspects of education, this vision is less eective in exhibiting the role of administrators in increasing the social interaction pattern among students of various ethnicities. This statement is proven by the observation done in Vision School during the assembly every Sunday and Monday morning where harmony of various ethnic is very seldom being mentioned by administrator. Principal also seldom reproach teachers who always like to sit together according to their own ethnic group in the oce and even during assembly. The administrator has to be free of racial prejudices and ethnocentrism when dealing with students of dierent religion and ethnic. This is very important because Malaysia has population of multi-ethnic. Role of administrators is shown in Table 19 below

Implications Theory/model implications According to Bronfenbrenners Ecology Development Theory, the childrens residence environment, family and everything else which has contact with them will aect the interaction. This theory proves students in Malaysia of multi ethnic can socially interact if there is frequent contact among them. Findings on the study show that students environmental factors are very important in developing social

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interaction. Thus, the combination of Structure Dimension, Behaviour Dimension, and Process Dimension will make a comprehensive explanation on the social interaction phenomenon. Research implications This research will help local researchers who wish to replicate with the measuring tools used for this study to investigate other phenomenon related with social interaction pattern in the future. Apart from that, this study will also contribute to the improvement of the quality for the eects of variable on the social interaction

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Table 18.

Prole of students towards teachers role factors. Never Seldom No. 120 72 199 104 116 188 132 132 151 175 65 % 18.70 11.20 31.00 16.20 18.10 29.30 20.60 20.60 23.50 27.70 10.10 Always No. 482 64 100 471 496 349 466 480 389 415 69 % 75.10 10.00 15.60 73.40 77.30 54.40 72.60 74.80 60.60 64.60 10.70

Items of role of teachers Teacher gives equal chances to all races Teacher favours over one particular race only. Teacher assigns seats so that everyone sits with friends of other races. Teacher cares about all races in classroom. Teacher explains the importance of respecting the culture and religion of all races. In all group activities, teacher assigns student to mix with students of other races. Teacher encourages harmony. Teachers interaction with students of all races is good. Teacher creates opportunity for all races to interact in class. Teacher gives equal chances for all to participate in every activity. Teacher derogates students because of their races.

No. 40 506 343 67 30 105 44 30 102 52 508

% 6.20 78.80 53.40 10.40 4.70 16.40 6.90 4.70 15.90 8.10 79.10

Table 19.

Prole of students towards schools administration factors. Never Seldom No. 189 153 145 194 191 222 % 29.40 23.80 22.60 30.20 29.80 34.60 Always No. 399 445 449 39.4 22.7 295 % 62.10 69.30 69.90 61.80 35.40 46.00

Items of prejudice factors There are activities which create interaction among all races During assembly, administrator always reinforces the importance of interaction among multi races. Interaction between administrator and students of all races is good. When there is conict between students of other races with administrators, problem is always solved. Canteen sells all races foods. Celebration of every races is celebrated together.

No. 54 44 48 51 224 125

% 8.40 6.90 7.50 7.90 34.90 19.50

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pattern if the measurement scale for the variables of this study can be taken in as the norm together with other measuring methods. Suggestions The ministry of Education and schools should plan some programmes which can raise awareness about ethnocentrism behaviour and at the same time encourage Malay, Chinese and Indian students to participate in various physical and academic activities. The National Service programme should also be participated by every students to strengthen personal and family relationships. To reduce the ethnic boundary, Multi Cultural Education (Pendidikan Pelbagai Budaya) has to be implemented in schools. Ministry of Education should continue launching programmes or trainings in service so that teachers have the attitude and belief to prioritise harmony. Schools should also organize programmes and activities which encourage participation of students of dierent ethnics. One of the program which can be organized is the orientation activity to help new students in adapting to new environment. The rst important principle in this issue is that the Ethnic and cultural diversity should be advocated in whole school environment. The sense of celebrating, accepting, understanding and respecting dierent cultures and ethnics should be well portrait not only in the subjects and the ocial curriculum of the school but the setting, atmosphere and the climate of the school as well. The unocial curriculum of the school is as important as the ocial one in recognizing the ethnic diversity of the society and trying to address everyone equally. To promote the understanding of ethnic diversity in whole school environment, the students should be able of accessing to rst hand updated materials such as books, notes, audio-video resources, magazines, newspapers and internet which provide correct reliable information on dierent racial groups of their society, their beliefs, their traditions, etc. this can be achieved through at-school libraries or media centres. This issue has been well understood in the concept of Vision Schools in Malaysia and all the Vision Schools throughout Malaysia are equipped with libraries which provide such information for the students in order to increase their level of understanding about dierent ethnic groups at their school and society. These libraries contain an acceptable range of materials like literature, music, history, etc on dierent racial groups of the society. The setting of the classes, gathering halls, corridors, cafeterias and oces of the schools should also reect the notion of multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism. The decorations of the spaces at school play a very important role to make students from dierent ethnic backgrounds aware and familiar with each others traditions and cultures. In term of Vision Schools, although the administrative oces and classes of each school are separated, however, all the students share many common spaces such as the cafeteria, school yard and gathering halls. Based on the notion has been mentioned above, all these common areas are decorated by cultural signs of each dierent main cultures namely Malay, Chinese and Indian. In one of the Vision Schools which is located in eastern part of Malaysia, we can see more cultural signs of the indigenous cultures of that are in compare with mainstream cultures. Co-curriculum activities occupy a very important position in term of advocating and making students aware of the cultural diversity of their society. Participation of

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students from dierent racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds should be promoted. Such activities can provide priceless opportunities not only for the development of self-esteem, but for students from dierent ethnic and cultural backgrounds to learn to work and play together, and to recognise that all individuals, whatever their ethnic identities, have worth and are capable of achieving. In Vision Schools as the ocial curriculum of the school is the same as the national one, co-curriculum activities are the most important ways of encouraging students to mix together and work for a common goal. As a multicultural society, Malaysia celebrates many dierent cultural events of dierent races and cultures. These celebrations provide a unique opportunity for the students to experience the cultural diversity of their society in a rst hand way. Vision Schools celebrate some national cultural festivals such as Hari Raya (Islamic festival of ending the fasting month), Deepavali and Thaipusam (Hindu festivals), Chinese New Year and Malaysian National Day with participation of all students from dierent racial background to make the sense of national unity and promote the understanding and respect for other cultures. The students participate in dierent activities such as drawing competitions, singing competitions, etc in order to celebrate these events together. Some other activities such as visiting mosques, temples or churches are provided by the school ocials to make students familiar with each others cultural and traditional backgrounds. The second important factor or principle in multiethnic system of education is the issue of school rules, regulations and policies. These rules and regulations should serve the process of cultural understanding among dierent racial groups of students with respecting to each individual cultural and religious belief. In order to keep the school in order, we need some rules and regulations and implementing these rules and regulations can be challenging at some schools especially with a diverse racial and religious background of their students. This is a challenge most multiethnic schools face everyday. This issue will lead us to a very important fact which is the issue of equality for everyone in a multiethnic society and how to maintain this equality without disturbing the harmony and sustainability of the diverse racial texture of the school. The issue of being fair in a multiethnic school is too dierent form a school with homogenous texture. In a multiethnic school we have to be aware that the denition of being fair is too dierent. We cannot use the same rule and logic to treat everyone with it. Something which looks fair to one special racial or religious group may seem unjust to the other. That is why the school administration in a multiethnic school has to adopt a policy to attend each ethnic group individually based on respect for their cultural identity and beliefs. This concept can be translated into everyday rules and regulations of the school. For example in case of Malaysian Vision Schools, there are some certain concerns about the food which should be served at the school cafeterias. As each school has many Muslim students, the food in cafeteria should be Halal (prepared based on Islamic regulations) and at the same time to respect the Hindu students, beef should be eliminated from the menu. The same policy should be taken during the Muslims fasting month of Ramadhan to ensure the equality for Muslim students. On the other hand, any kind of discriminatory policies or regulations based on racial, religious or cultural stereotyping should be removed from the schools and classrooms. It has been cases that the academic achievements of the students have been tied to a stereotypical interpretation of their races and this matter has to be

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carefully monitored in multiethnic schools to prevent any kind of tension or discrimination. The third important principle that has to be addressed is the ethnic texture of the academic and non-academic stas of the school. It is a vital fact for a multiethnic school to have teachers, administrators and other stas from dierent racial and cultural background. We have to keep it in mind that especially in primary schools; students view their teachers and school stas as their patterns. At this stage, teachers and ocials of schools have a great impact on shaping the personality and character of each student and this process should be carefully observed. A multiethnic texture of teachers and ocials will help the student to practically experience a constructive interaction among dierent members of their society with dierent ethnic and cultural backgrounds. So as to reduce such diculties and problems at Vision Schools, the attempt has been made to choose the students and the administrators with dierent racial and cultural backgrounds in order to sustain the stability and secure the maximum interaction among dierent races at schools. There are teachers from dierent races who teach dierent courses at Vision Schools. This policy provides a trustful positive environment for the students to enjoy the interracial interactions. The role of teachers to navigate these interracial interactions to the proper channel is central on this issue. The fourth imperative principle that has to be paid attention in a multiethnic education system is the concept of making students aware of their unique racial identity in the frame work of respecting the ethnic and cultural pluralism of their society. The curriculum and co-curriculum activities of schools should be designed in the way to help students to discover their ethnic identity and feel positive and proud about it. The school activities should be planed to enable each student from dierent ethnic backgrounds to learn more about his/her ethnic history in a positive way. Students should be celebrated and positively encouraged for who they are. Establishing a consciously positive ethnic identity can help the students to form a solid personality for themselves in future life. Students should feel safe and proud of expressing their ethnic identity and history. They have to be assured that in a pluralist society; every one would be treated equally regardless of his/her ethnicity. At the same time, the multiethnic education system has to be aware that this sense of self identity has to be dened in the frame work of the pluralist society. Students should be taught that pluralism is against polarization. Students should be guaranteed that having a unique identity or ethnic background does not cause any kind of superiority or inferiority in their social life. At the same time, students should be informed about the realities of the situation. They have to know that there can be conicts in their society over the ethnic issues; however, many of these conicts can be avoided by understanding and respecting other cultures and ethnicities. They have to feel that the example of harmony at their school as a sample of their multiethnic society can be expanded to their society in larger scale. In order to full these concepts, Vision Schools teach the mother tongues of students from dierent ethnic backgrounds as a tool to make students aware of their roots and ethnic backgrounds. Language can be used as a very powerful mean to make students aware of their cultural identity. Apart from this, there are many cocurriculum activities provided by the Vision Schools for each ethnicity to celebrate their identity like art and cultural classes. At the same times, all the students from dierent ethnic background are obliged to learn Bahasa Malaysia the ocial and

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national language of the country in order to be able of communication with other ethnicities and also to comprehend the notion of national unity. During the curriculum materials and also co-curriculum activities, students are being informed of their ethnical and at the same time national heroes and heroines to make a balance of their self and national identities. Attitudes and values of living in a multiethnic society are always promoted by the curriculum materials and also co-curriculum activities at Vision Schools. The fth main element which has to be considered in a multiethnic education system is the subject of promoting personal cross-ethnical communication among students. This is one of the vital elements in order of having a sustainable multiethnic society in future. The students from dierent ethnic backgrounds should learn how to communicate with each other without any sort of religious or racial prejudices. Personal interactions between students should be promoted constantly by the education system. These kinds of close interactions will bring a greater scale of understanding for students from dierent ethnic backgrounds and it will prevent any kind of cultural and racial stereotyping or misunderstandings in future. These kinds of cross-ethnic personal interaction should be endorsed from early ages at primary schools where the basis of social identity and personality of each student is under construction. Students should be well educated to realize that ethnicity is just one of the aspects of each human life and there are so many other aspects of human being which are common among all of us. Promoting the common aspects of social and personal life of human being can prevent many ethnical disputes and clashes in future. In fact to achieve such goal, Vision Schools encourage students to mix up together during class time and especially the break time. Students from dierent ethnic backgrounds are encouraged to play together, eat together at school cafeteria, participate in group games and also in the process of decision making at school like student committee elections. These active participations will help students to have a better understanding of each others culture, traditions, beliefs and way of thinking. The above principles are some of the key factors which have to be considered in every multiethnic education system. In term of Malaysian Vision Schools, as it can be seen, there has been a tremendous eort to make a fair and ecient education pattern (from designing those schools to running them) to address the needs of each student group based on the main principles of the multiethnic education system. Deciencies However, as it has been mentioned before, Vision Schools are new to Malaysian education system (established in 2004) and therefore they have still a long way ahead of themselves to reach the ideal point. However, it seems there are some urgent deciencies which have to be addressed sooner than others to maintain the sustainable multiethnic education system at these schools. The rst important deciency in this case is the lack of cooperative teaching. Co-teaching is a service delivery model in which two (or more) educators or other certied sta, contract to share instructional responsibility, for a single group of students, primarily in a single classroom workspace, for specic content (objectives), with mutual ownership,

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pooled resources, and joint accountability. This style of teaching will give the students this opportunity to learn the subjects from dierent points of view (in this case dierent ethnic pints of view) and it will enable them to have a better comprehension of issues regarding to social and ethnical issues. The second important deciency which has to be considered seriously is the lack of special trainings for Vision School teachers. Although all the Vision School teachers are trained in Teacher Training Centres or universities; but all of these trainings were mostly focused on the academic parts of their career. The teachers of such schools should be specially trained on some vital issues such as intercultural communication skills, history of dierent racial groups of the society, cultural sensitivities, etc. A well-trained teacher on these issues can be very helpful in maintaining the harmony among dierent ethnics at school. The trainings can be easily obtained in short term courses, programs or workshops by the Ministry of Education with the help from dierent ethnic societies or associations. The third vital issue which should be taken more seriously by the Vision Schools is the social background of the teachers. It is extremely important to make a balance between the social background of the students and the teachers in order to make them enable of understanding each other. It is proven that students from lowerincome levels of the society are having more loyalty and sensitivity to religious and racial values and attitudes than those from upper classes of the society. These students may nd the regulation and value system of their multiethnic school more dicult for them to adapt. It is caused because of their stronger belonging to their racial and religious values. Here, teachers who are familiar with such ideas and thinking can be a great aid to keep the school in harmony and manage the conicts. Challenges Apart from all the positive aspects and also the deciencies of this plan, Vision Schools face some challenges from the public sectors and communities. There are Chinese Schools that refused to join the Vision School plan and they said that joining such complex will end up Chinese students to lose their culture and identity. They argue that having dierent races at one school can damage the sense of racial nationalism and in long term will make students to forget their roots and culture. In another incident, there has been a number of complains from some of the parents of Muslim students at Vision Schools who were not agree with some of the crosscultural activities at schools. They were arguing that some of these intercultural activities such as visiting Hindu or Chinese temples or introducing other religions and traditions to Muslim student can be considered as an act to convince Muslim students to convert to other religions. Conclusion The idea of Vision Schools has been introduced to the Malaysian Education System in order to increase and promote the sense of understanding and respect among the students from dierent racial and cultural backgrounds of the Malaysian diverse society. The long term goal of this plan is to educate students with a deeper degree of respect towards other members of the society who are racially and culturally

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dierent from them. The Vision Schools follow the National Curriculum of studying however, what makes them dierent from other schools is the multiethnic environment of them. This environment gives the students this unique opportunity to foster their sense of solidarity with other races through some special cocurriculum activities. As the matter of fact, there are always deciencies and challenges ahead of them; however, most of them can be solved by time and also fair careful planning and evaluations. Generally, national integration can be achieved by education integration through national education system to create knowledgeable and virtuous citizens. The success in increasing the social interaction among students of various ethnic depends on the scope of programmes and plans introduced and the success of launching by various level of government agencies. If there is no social interaction among various ethnic, then One Country One Nation will only be a slogan without appreciation from citizens of Malaysia. Note on contributor
The author is a senior lecturer at University Sains Malaysia, Penang, currently teaching undergraduates and postgraduates. He has done research pertaining to social integration among various ethnicities in Malaysia.

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