10th APEID International Conference 2006
(Asia-Pacific Program of Educational Innovation for Development)
UNESCO Bangkok
6 - 8 December 2006
Culturally Competent Leadership for Diversity:
Case Study of a Malaysian Vision School
Suseela Malakolunthu Ph.D
Department of Educational Management, Planning and Policy
Faculty of Education
University of Malaya
E-mail:
ABSTRACT
In a multicultural setting such as in Malaysia, education is seen as a viable avenue for promoting racial coexistence and cultural pluralism. The government, realizing the importance of schools as the common grounds for bringing together the children of different race, ethnicity and language, established “Vision Schools” that would house all the three major – Malay, Chinese, and Tamil medium elementary schools in the same compound sharing common physical facilities and events. But this over simplistic notion of the concept of multiculturalism and the ways to go about in achieving the goals of racial integration and unity seems to be problematic.
This paper based on a qualitative case study of a Vision School in Malaysia, highlights that the lofty idea of racial integration cannot be attained merely by following a standardized curriculum or by sharing common physical facilities. It takes school leadership anchored on the ideals and processes of multiculturalism and is competent in creating, managing, and sustaining culturally responsive teaching-learning community and environment.
And the paper also provides a model that states the leadership prerequisites to act as ‘culturally competent and responsive leaders’ to lead the Vision School towards the successful practice of multicultural education that celebrates unity in diversity.
Key words: Multicultural education, culturally competent leadership, school redesign.
Malaysia is a nation diverse in its ethnicity, culture, and religion. It’s multiethnic, multiracial, and multi-religious nature poses unique challenges to the government in keeping the Malaysian people united. Since independence, the Malaysian government through its various education policies has been trying to promote racial integration and unity among its multiracial population. One such effort was the Vision School concept that was introduced in 1995. The Malaysian Ministry of Education realizing the importance of schools as the common grounds for bringing together the children of different ethnicity, race, and language have come up with the idea of creating “Vision Schools” (Sekolah Wawasan) that would house all three – Malay, Chinese, and Tamil medium schools in the same compound or school campus.
The aim of the Vision School concept is to foster racial integration, harmony and unity among the different ethnic/racial groups (Ministry of education, 1995). And this is going to be achieved via the sharing of common amenities and physical facilities such as the field, multi-purpose hall, cafeteria, etc. and the celebration of cultural events and festivals. But it is not clear to what extent the provision of a formalized common curriculum or the sharing of the physical amenities and facilities, and the celebration of national holidays are sufficient to result in racial integration and harmony among the students and help build a united Malaysian citizenry for the future.
In any reform activity or school redesign project such as the Vision School initiative, in addition to infrastructural and physical changes, there is always a need for a reorganization and alignment of the various policy tools such as the curriculum framework, instructional materials, mode of assessment, and teacher professional development that would suit the new demands and expectations. And such a systemic approach which can reform the total school environment to implement multicultural education that may eventually lead to social justice and racial integration may require strong leadership capabilities.
Effective leadership at the school level that is focused on diversity can establish the school as a social system that may enhance multiculturalism in all aspects. The chance of achieving culturally responsive teaching and learning community and environment is higher with the support and supervision of a culturally responsive leadership. The awareness and understanding of the leadership about the processes involved in the attainment of multiculturalism at the school level can play crucial role in making the implementation of multicultural education a success. The contributions and involvement of ‘culturally responsive’ leaders can be effective agents of change for transforming education and learning experiences for the students in the Vision Schools.
Based on the above arguments, this paper sets out to examine the role of the Vision School leadership in realizing the objectives of fostering racial integration and unity among the multiracial students and the challenges and constraints they are faced with in the implementation process. Firstly, this paper explains the concept of Vision School and its aspirations as put forth by the Ministry of Education. Secondly, it discusses multicultural education and the processes of multiculturalism that is used as the framework to understand the current practices of the Vision School leadership. Following this, it provides the analysis and discussion of the findings of the study in the selected Vision School. Finally, it presents a model specifically developed for building leadership competencies for multicultural education.
Vision Schools
The Vision School (Sekolah Wawasan) is a relatively new school redesign concept that was created to house three different schools with different ethnic groups and medium of instruction (Malay, Chinese, and Tamil) in the same compound. Under this project, selected vernacular (National Type Chinese and National Type Tamil) primary schools and National primary schools (Malay medium schools) are placed in the same compound but with different administration without losing the identity of each school.
Under the Seventh Malaysia Plan (1995-2000), seven Vision Schools were planned to be established throughout Malaysia as pilot projects (Education in Malaysia, 2001). As of 2005, only six schools were reported to be operating as Vision Schools. Among these six schools only one school is in its full operation as a Vision School where all three schools (the National, and the National type Chinese and the National type Tamil schools) are functioning in one compound or campus as outlined by the Ministry of Education.
The aim of the Vision School concept is to promote integration among children of different ethnic, racial, and language backgrounds through conversation and interaction with each other and to inculcate cooperation, understanding, and tolerance among multi-racial students (Ministry of Education, 1995). This ideal is going to be achieved via two major strategies. First, the three schools will share the common facilities such as the school cafeteria, courtyard, multi-purpose hall, library, and school field. Second, all three schools situated in the same compound will host their weekly events such as school assembly and co-curricular activities, and the annual school events such as the sports day, excellent award and prize giving day together. It is the belief that the sharing of physical facilities and the organizing of certain school events together are going to provide students of the three schools situated in the same compound with opportunities to mingle and interact with each other. By doing this it is hoped that there will be racial integration and harmony among the students and in the long run Malaysia would be able to enjoy unity in diversity.
While the concept of Vision School sounds interesting, it is not clear to what extent the objective of racial integration or cultural pluralism is going to be attained via the above mentioned strategies. The process of attaining multiculturalism is long and complex and involves change in the outlook and transformation in the behavior of the students. Achieving these ideals will take a well designed and delivered multicultural education program developed based on the processes of multiculturalism.
Multicultural Education
Multicultural education can be defined as a structured process designed to foster understanding, acceptance, and constructive relations among students. It should provide space for students to see different cultures as a source of learning and to respect diversity in the local, national, and international environment. Multicultural education should be able to help students understand one’s own culture and at the same time understand that no one culture is intrinsically superior to another. It should be able to elevate a student from the state of ethnocentrism to multiculturalism - which is an ideal state and an ongoing process that takes a student from the lowest stages of ethnocentrism where one views one’s own culture and traditions as the only best one in the world to different stages of understanding, accepting, respecting, appreciating, and finally affirming other peoples’ cultures and practices (Babtiste, 2002; Komives, 1998; Nieto, 2002). And this can be achieved through a well developed multicultural curriculum that organizes concepts around contributions and perspectives of several different groups and cultures Banks, et al. 2005; Gay, 2000; Powell, 2001). And the content developed can be based on the stages of the Hoopes Intercultural Learning Process model (as cited in Komives, 1998, pp. 146-147). The various stages prescribed in the Hoopes model (Figure 1) which a person needs to go through from the state of ethnocentrism to multiculturalism can be used as taxonomy for multicultural development. The various stages in the multiculturalism process students go through are important steps in developing their cross-cultural understanding and intercultural maturity.
Figure 1: Adapted from Hoopes Intercultural Learning Process Model
Since true multicultural education is transformative in nature, it cannot be an additive to the existing curriculum or content but has to be conceptualized and implemented broadly (Banks and Banks, 2004; Nieto, 2002). This will need a more holistic approach that may require the restructuring of the existing curriculum and pedagogical practices. It has been suggested that a comprehensive implementation of multicultural education will have to focus on the (a) content integration process where teachers use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts, principles, generalizations and theories in a particular subject area or discipline; (b) the knowledge construction process that relates to the extent to which teachers help students understand, investigate, and determine how the implicit cultural assumptions, frames of references, perspectives, and biases within a discipline influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed; (c) the practice of equity pedagogy whereby teachers modify their teaching in ways that facilitate the academic achievements of students from diverse racial, cultural, and social class groups that are consistent with the wide range of learning styles of multiple groups; (d) prejudice reduction process that focuses on the characteristics of students’ racial attitudes and how they can be modified by teaching methods and materials; and (e) by creating an empowering school culture and social structure that may allow full participation of all students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups in every aspect of school life (Banks and Banks, 2004).
Multicultural education when constructed carefully and implemented well, can pave way for self expression, open dialogue, critical thinking, and analysis of alternative viewpoints among students (Sleeter and Garnt, 2003). Multicultural education that emphasizes the learning about the history, traditions, and cultural practices of one’s own culture and the others can help students feel comfortable to communicate effectively with people from many cultures and in many situations thus overcoming the feeling of alienation and isolation. When done effectively, multicultural educational practices can help students transcend identities, self-concept, and outlooks about life and thus create attitudes that may make them more open to new experiences and help students develop multiple perspectives (Powell, 2001). And these practices would need culturally responsive leadership that envisions multicultural education as the major focus and develops strategies that would lead to the creation of a culturally responsive teaching-learning organization.
Analysis and Discussion of Data
The qualitative data collected from the three schools situated in the Sinar Jaya Vision School compound – Kurnia National Primary School, Haojing National Type (Chinese) Primary School, and Ananda National Type (Tamil) Primary School, were analyzed. The major units of analysis of data were the three school headmasters. Based on the data analysis, a number of assertions have been derived.
Assertion 1:
The heads from the three schools housed in the Sinar Jaya Vision School appreciated the ideals of the Vision School concept, but were not able to clearly indicate the vision of the Vision School and its strategic plans to achieve the targeted goals.
The three heads of the three elementary schools in the Sinar Jaya Vision School understood the concept of vision school as it has been stated in the Vision School Report by the Ministry of Education. All three heads repeatedly stated that they share the field, the auditorium, and the school canteen/cafeteria. According to them, sharing of these facilities will provide the space and opportunity to students from the three different cultural backgrounds to interact with each other. This fact was clearly emphasized in one interview where one of the headmasters, Mr. Sidek said,
Sharing of the canteen is a great idea for encouraging integration among students of different culture. I see students from the Tamil, Chinese, and the Malay medium schools are given the opportunity to freely mix around and have their meals together under one roof. I think this a great opportunity to interact and have fun together.
Another headmaster, Mr. Loong added that the common school field they all share also provides their student the opportunity to play together and become friends. According to him,
After school hours, students stay behind for co-curricular activities such as games and uniform units. During such activities, students may get a chance to play and interact with each other. We conduct our annual sports day together. This is another avenue for our children to compete together and feel the oneness.
This point was reiterated by the third headmaster Mr. Veloo who was very positive that the Vision schools concept is excellent for it provides an avenue and creates a platform for interaction of students from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. He reiterated this point by adding that,
This Vision School is a great avenue for students from different ethnic groups to interact and share the facilities. Hopefully, by sharing the various facilities and by mingling around together, the children from the three schools will be able to become friends.
From the above mentioned quotes, it is clear that the headmasters strongly believed that the Vision School will definitely help students mix around, especially during the recess time at the cafeteria and the after-school activities and sports day event and therefore, they should become integrated! However, the headmasters’ views of sharing, mixing-around, and becoming integrated sounded shallow and unfounded for a number of reasons. Firstly, they seem to be associating racial integration with student interaction and playing together. In their explanation they did not seem to say anything deeper than this. It was again and again ‘mixing around,’ ‘interacting with each other,’ and ‘playing together.’ Secondly, they seem to be operating under the assumption that merely by being in the same compound, students will be able to interact and integrate. This implies that there is a lack of understanding among the headmasters with regard to the intensity of the concept of racial integration and multiculturalism. Thirdly, they were not able to explain in concrete terms the different strategies or action plans that would lead to increased student interaction and racial integration.