Yasunaga, Mari; (2023) Global Influences on Malaysia's Curriculum Reforms: A Critical Review from a Social Justice Perspective. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Modern globalisation with a strong neoliberal capitalist orientation has been impacting how curricula are developed and governed worldwide since the late 1970s. This study critically reviews the content of Malaysia’s 2011 Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) in comparison with the Primary School Curriculum of 1983. Through documentary analysis and interviews at the federal level of Malaysia, it explores discursive influences of global actors, notably multilateral organisations, on the KSSR conceptualisations, how the nature of the global influences have changed, and why. The investigation is framed by a conceptual framework that draws on the critical realists’ meta-theory and Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework. This framework also integrates potential explanations for global influences identified based on a globalisation and policy-borrowing literature. The KSSR reflects distinctive global influences in its three dimensions of justice. Regarding distributional justice of ‘what ought to be mastered by all’ defined as the core subject areas, KSSR is standardised and emphasises science, technology, mathematics, English, 21st-century skills, high order thinking skills and competencies. Standardisation is also visible in its representational justice dimension, interpreted as context-specific elements, notably local language, Islamic and moral education, and programmes for indigenous children, although convergence to the global trends in these elements has been limited. Concerning representational justice, the most significant finding was that standards and frameworks defined outside Malaysia were partially adopted by KSSR. The tentative picture emerged from this study regarding the reasons for these changes is that the global influences induced dominantly by neoliberal capitalism, and by world culture and world system-driven globalisation to a lesser extent, were mediated and recontextualised by vernacular globalisation processes underpinned by communitarian values. Finally, it argues for the potential of the social justice and critical realist perspectives for making curricula socially just, and for helping multilateral organisations act as catalysts of positive transformation.

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