What reasons were there to explain the disproportionate number of Malays in this study? I drew upon the findings of Takei et al. (1973) and Wang (1983, 1980, 1977) who examined how political structures influenced the distribution of students in various fields of study.
With the introduction of the New Economic Policy in 1970, the Malaysian government has actively pursued a national policy of positive discrimination to reverse prior patterns of stratification by instituting various structural modifications to the educational system.
Malaysian policy makers were anxious to make up for past under-representation of Malays in all fields of study (Wang, 1983). The NEP is enshrined in the Malaysian constitution. The policy makers had set educational quotas for targeted Bumiputra groups that exceeded their proportion in the population because in the past they had been underrepresented in all these fields (Wang, 1983). Wang (1983) found that the government reserved 80% of government scholarships for Malays; it used ethnic quotas in educational selection, especially at the tertiary
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level; and it lowered entry requirements for Malays into scientific and technical courses of study. In addition, recruitment into, and promotion within, government and quasi-government services, which employed most of the educated manpower in the country, were done with the primary goal of ethnic restructuring (Wang, 1983).
Wang (1977, 1980, 1983) and Takei et al. (1973) showed that income and the lack of ability were of little or no influence on individual Malay students' decisions to invest in further
education and because of preferential government treatment Malay students perceived that they would face better job opportunities in the public sector, especially in the civil service and teaching profession.
The findings of Wang (1977, 1980, 1983) and Takei et al. (1973) supported and provided possible explanations for the disproportionately high number of Malays in this study. The Malaysian government has often called upon Malay parents to encourage their children to work hard and to take advantage of the government's structural programme to aid in their social mobility (Takei et al., 1973). In patriarchal Malaysian society, authority resides in parents and family elders. Their advice and counsel should be adhered to as they are seen to be wiser than the young (Abdul Rahman, 1988). Parents of my students emphasised long term security over immediate monetary gains. Thus it was not surprising to hear from the Malay pre-service teachers that they followed their family's advice by applying for and taking up, the offer made by the TTC. The support given by the government also explains why the Malay women pre- service teachers saw their position as teachers and mathematics teachers as a stepping stone to further their education. Because of official support structures they had a better chance than non- Malays of being promoted, although promotion chances for teachers are much less than in other civil service departments (Nawi Jusoh, 1989). I gathered from my Malay colleagues that, because qualified professionals in the field of science and mathematics are not very common among Malays, those with such qualifications would face even better chances of promotion as the government proceeds with its ethnic restructuring programme.
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The findings of Takei et al. (1973) and Wang (1977, 1980, 1983) also help to explain why there were no Malays among the mathematics lecturers of that particular age group. They found that non-Malays, in particular the Chinese, consciously chose jobs in scientific and technical fields where they could compete in the private sector. Thus these Chinese lecturers, in particular the men, chose science as their undergraduate field of study, hoping for jobs in the private sector.
These lecturers initially went into science and mathematics teaching on a temporary basis.
Teaching gave them the financial stability necessary to support younger siblings in furthering their education in the absence of the degree of sponsorship enjoyed by their Malay
counterparts. Takei's (1973) study also presented a possible explanation as to why mathematics achievement is along racial lines. As a disenfranchised group the Chinese perceive the need to succeed in mathematics to take the opportunities in both the private and public sectors (See Ogbu, 1983 for similar trends among American Chinese).
Lecturers were concerned that better candidates were not selected because the quota system favours the targeted Malays. As a result many students of non-targeted groups with better examination results were not selected into the programme. This was possibly the case in this study but it could also be that non-Malays, particularly the men, being more competitive compared to the Malays (Mahathir Mohamad, 1970) would not choose to be trained as teachers for economic reasons (Wang, 1980). Thus there is persuasive evidence that the constitutionally sanctioned ethnic restructuring programme has affected the racial composition of the group of pre-service teachers and their lecturers.
How do I account for the fact that more Malays with lower mathematics qualifications were selected for entry into the TTC? In my opinion this could be a result of the positive
discrimination policy of the government. Because of the early tracking of Malay students, many of the more able were tracked and siphoned off from mainstream schools to FRS (New Straits Times, 3/12/1992; Wan Fauzi, 1989) and foundation science courses run by local universities to prepare them for degree science courses in local or foreign universities.
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Those who are less successful are those who continue their education in secondary schools and teaching appears to be an option still available to them. It would suggest that Malays who apply to be primary teachers are more likely to be those who are less successful in their schooling, did not perform as well in the major national examinations such as the UPSR, SRP, SPM or the STPM and have stereotypical negative images of themselves as learners of mathematics. This helps to explain why some of the Malay women pre-service teachers had low self-images and attributed their selection into the TTC to luck. Moreover, as mathematics achievement in these examinations is used as one of the yardsticks for selection and because of the feelings described by these pre-service teachers and my own teaching experiences, it seems likely that these pre- service teachers had experienced difficulties in mathematics during their formative school years.
7.7. Summary Of Discussion
In this chapter I have given some background to explain who teaches mathematics to pre- service teachers and who the student body is. Chinese and men were the predominant racial and gender groups among the lecturers with Malays and women predominant among the pre-service teachers. The lecturers' contention that they were given candidates who had weak subject- matter knowledge was supported by empirical evidence from studies conducted by members of the Ministry of Education. What has emerged from the discussion suggests that due to socio- cultural and political factors, those candidates who were chosen to be trained as primary teachers in this particular TTC were more likely to have obtained lower mathematics scores.
In July 1993, the Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Fong Chan Onn (New Sunday Times, 25/07/1993) announced that primary mathematics teachers would be trained specialists. Yet this study has shown that the first batch of specialists were not chosen from the best candidates.
Furthermore, there was no shortage of applicants for the posts of teacher trainees (New Straits Times, 01/06/1993). The questions that need answering are "Is it possible to select candidates with better mathematics scores from all races? and "If these are the best candidates available
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then what are the strategies adopted by the teacher training colleges to improve the
mathematics subject-matter content and develop the pedagogy of these pre-service teachers?"
This suggests a possible area of research.
The lecturers and the pre-service teachers in this study were the products of the traditional mathematics curriculum and had not encountered KBSR at all until they joined the college.
This would imply that the pre-service teachers' beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning were consistent with the traditional curriculum. Are the pre-service teachers' beliefs affected by their one and a half years teacher training experience? What are the beliefs of these lecturers as they try to introduce KBSR to the pre-service teachers, whom they consider to have weak subject-matter knowledge?
Having established their biographical background, I will discuss the beliefs about mathematics that both the lecturers and pre-service teachers had acquired from their school and teacher training experiences in the next chapter.
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Chapter Eight
Lecturers and Pre-service Teachers' Beliefs about Mathematics Based on their Experiences in Schools and College