Browsing by Author "Nik Muhammad Hanis Nek Rakami"

This study was conducted with manifold objectives which are to profile the acceptance of Malay teachers towards egalitarian education in a multiracial society, explore the attitudes towards egalitarian education, identify the level of Malay teachers' self-concept, establish whether the four proposed dimensions of attitudes towards egalitarian education were in fact construct valid, meaningful and interpretable, establish whether the four proposed dimensions of self-concept constitute meaningful and interpretable dimensions of self-concept, examine the significant difference in attitudes of egalitarian education on gender and school area, explore whether there is any relationship between the level of self-concept and attitudes towards egalitarian education and finally, identify the predictors of acceptance towards egalitarian education. The respondents comprised 793 Malay teachers from 15 states and federal territories in Peninsular Malaysia and the instrument used was a scale with total 61 items rated on a 5-point Linkert-type categories on the attitudes towards egalitarian education and self-concept. The scale was developed based on extant literature and 4 focus group discussions involving 26 Malay teachers in four different regions. The results indicated that a majority of the Malay teachers believe in implementation of fair and just education for all races in Malaysia (52.7%) while (51.4%) believe that the government should implement fair and just education for Malaysians. The majority of Malay teachers are ready for the implementation of a standardized single school system for all Malaysians. The researcher found that the level of self-concept among Malay teachers was generally high. A series of independent samples t-tests returned non-significant difference between male and female Malay teachers in terms of the attitudes towards egalitarian education dimensions however, results for national school system showed a significant difference between the two groups with male Malay teachers reporting a higher score than female Malay teachers. Yet, the effect size of the difference was small (Cohen's d 0.27). In the context of school areas, the results of independent samples t-tests showed that all four dimensions of attitudes were found not significantly different between Malay teachers from urban or rural school areas. The procedures extracted four underlying dimensions of egalitarian education – which comprised Malay privileges, education funding, national school system and environmental support for least advantaged students. For self-concept scale, the PAF analysis explored four dimensions of Malays teachers' self-concept. The dimensions had met the proposed conceptual model with four dimensions earlier, namely selfefficiancy, self-esteem, motivation and self-representation. The result of Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive correlation between Malay teachers' attitudes towards egalitarian education and their self-concept. The MRA procedures indicated that Malay Privileges, Environmental Support for Least Advantaged Students, Education Funding and Self-Representation significantly predicted the acceptance towards egalitarian education. Given the findings, the study makes six important recommendations that the Ministry of Education may consider in order to provide fair education to all Malaysians. These include conducting activities that promote implementation of Just and Fair Education, empowering National Schools, abolishment of National Type Schools, preserving Malay Privilege, supporting of Least Advantaged Students and developing Self-Concept Module for Teachers.