TITLE:
Cultural Citizenship and the Malaysian “Salad Bowl”: Teaching Students to Be “Culturally Responsive” at Schools
AUTHORS:
Nur Atiqah Tang Abdullah, Anuar Ahmad
KEYWORDS:
Education, Cultural Diversity, Cultural Citizenship, National Identity
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.12,
November
29,
2019
ABSTRACT: The role of schools in terms of integration and attaining national unity has recently become a recurring question in Malaysia. Different ideas and emphasis of what each group“wants”of education and a nation have already existed among ethnic groups since the pre-independence period. This paper aims to discuss how cultural diversity fosters a sense of competing and contested“nation-of-intent”on these characteristics as perception on denominators such as inculcation of cultural competencies would eventually construct and contain cultural citizenship. Students of each ethnic group still perceive and continue to see“things which matter”pertaining to social interaction and national unity, only from their acute and myopic perspectives. The novelty of this paper provides rationales as to why cultural citizenship should be addressed as it requires enhancement of students’ understanding of causes and consequences of ethnic diversity and their readiness to take actions to address national unity. Hence it is apparent education stakeholders have yet to develop a coherent framework for cultural citizenship education and this paper underscores the critical role that education should play in addressing and responding to the schools in all of its complexity.