Ethnic diversity has always posed a challenge to national identity and unity in plural societies. The quest of each ethnic group to maintain its culture, religion and language may lead to conflict with the central government’s efforts at nation-building and integration. Given that Malaysia is an ethnically pluralist society, one of the major on-going tasks of the government has been to develop a nation which is harmonious, integrated and ‘democratic’ as a Malaysian nation. The nature of the current Malaysian national vision has been characterized as ‘ethnically differentiated citizenship’ that promotes Malay ness as a national identity whilst at the same time peripherally recognizing others’ cultural identity. Education plays a role in achieving unity among students. It has been the aspiration and vision of Malaysia education proposes for unity and integration through education policy. Malaysia Educational Blueprint 2012-2025 has indicates that for diverse nations like Malaysia to embrace this diversity and prioritize social and systemic inclusiveness exhibit greater unity. Through interacting with individuals from a range of socio-economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds and learning to understand, accept and embrace differences a shared set of experiences and aspirations for Malaysia’s future can be built. This research intends to explore the identity experiences of minority group in Malaysia using Yuval-Davis belonging framework. Identities experiences, such as how they perceived their cultural identity, how they perceived and negotiate with the national identity in their everyday interactions. In the spirit of ethnographic design, ten multi-ethnic student teachers (non-Malay Muslim group) at Sultan Idris Education University (SIEU) will be interview. Data gathering in this research includes focus group activity and in-depth interviews. The data will be analyze using a thematic analysis. The findings may reflect that minority ‘everyday identity experiences’ of multi-ethnic Malaysian marked comprehensive discourse of identity in Malaysia.
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In-Text Citation: (Mahadir, Jamil@Osman, Thambu, & Piang, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Mahadir, N. B., Jamil@Osman, Z., Thambu, N., & Piang, T. B. (2019). Malaysian Unity and Integration Aspiration: Enhancing Cultural Inclusiveness through Investigating Minority Group Identity Experiences. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(10), 51–66.
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