Multicultural Early Childhood Education: Practices and Challenges in Malaysia

Autor/inn/en	Phoon, Hooi San; Abdullah, Melissa Ng Lee Yen; Abdullah, Anna Christina
Titel	Multicultural Early Childhood Education: Practices and Challenges in Malaysia
Quelle	In: Australian Educational Researcher, 40 (2013) 5, S.615-632 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0311-6999
DOI	10.1007/s13384-013-0120-1
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Early Childhood Education; Multicultural Education; Cultural Pluralism; Preschool Teachers; Teacher Role; Questionnaires; Teaching Methods; Educational Resources; Teacher Education; Malaysia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Multikulturelle Erziehung; Kulturpluralismus; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Erzieher; Erzieherin; Kindergärtnerin; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Lehrerrolle; Fragebogen; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Bildungsmittel; Lehrerausbildung; Lehrerbildung
Abstract	Multicultural early childhood education is necessary in a culturally diverse country like Malaysia. Preschool teachers play an important role in implementing multicultural education in the classroom. This paper reports the findings of a self-report questionnaire involving 854 preschool teachers in Malaysia. The preschool teachers disclosed their current multicultural education practices as well as the challenges they encountered when implementing multicultural education. While the majority of teachers claimed that they implemented multicultural education, a closer examination revealed that most of them used the tourist or contribution approach which focuses on only the outward manifestations of a culture when dealing with multicultural education. The transformation or anti-bias approach was used by only a small number of teachers. The teachers identified some challenges in multicultural education implementation, such as lack of instructional resources and the lack of stakeholder support. Thus, it is important to ensure teachers develop more critical understandings of multicultural education through teacher education training and programs. Other efforts to help teachers overcome challenges in implementing multicultural education include producing and developing more instructional materials and learning aids, which are suitable for young children and appropriate for the local context. Preschool teachers also need stakeholders to give more support and to acknowledge the importance of implementing multicultural early childhood education. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10