Equity, Opportunity and Education in Postcolonial Southeast Asia

Cynthia Joseph, Julie Matthews

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317806660
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

Equity, Opportunity and Education in Postcolonial Southeast Asia addresses the ways in which colonial histories, nationalist impulses and forces of globalization shape equity and access to education in Southeast Asia. Although increasingly identified as a regional grouping (ASEAN), Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines are known for their vastly different state structures, political regimes, political economies and ethnocultural and religious demography.

The expert contributors to this volume investigate educational access and equity for citizens, ethnic and religious minorities, and indigenous people within these countries. The subject of education is framed within the broader national and local challenges of achieving equity and social justice.

This book examines the dimensions of (post)colonialism, nationalism, and globalisation as played out within different international educational contexts. Chapters include:

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• Understanding the Cultural Politics of Southeast Asian Education through Postcolonial Theory

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• Downplaying Difference: Representations of Diversity in Contemporary Burmese Schools and Educational Equity

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• Learner Centered Pedagogy in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste: For the Benefit of the Learner or the Learned

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• Technology of Dominance, Technology of Liberation: Education in Colonial and Postcolonial Cambodia

• 
  
  

• Change and Continuity in the History of Vietnamese Higher Education

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• Colonization by Stealth: The Case of Thailand

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• Education Politics in Postcolonial Malaysia: Ethnicity, Difference and Inequalities

• 
  
  

• The Singapore Education Journey: From Colonialism to Globalism

1 Ancient and colonial Southeast Asia

Cultural and educational contexts

Cynthia Joseph

Introduction

Contemporary Southeast Asia is shifting the balance of global geopolitical and economic power. It is a major world region, with population numbers estimated to be approximately 600 million (9 per cent of the world’s population), and a combined GDP of US$2 trillion (Asian Development Bank 2012; OECD 2013). The combined phenomena of the rapid economic growth, an expanding middle class, strong consumption growth, highly skilled labour, rich natural resources, cultural heritage, complex knowledge systems, competitively priced raw materials, and government-private sector innovation in the Southeast Asian region has resulted in its development as an important global socio-economic caucus (Asian Development Bank 2012; OECD 2013).

Southeast Asia (SEA) is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia (see Figure 1.1). Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions. Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as Indo-China, comprises Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. Insular Southeast Asia comprises the island and peninsular countries of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste (SarDesai 2010). Insular Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Maritime Southeast Asia.

SEA is an immensely varied region, with countries in various stages of postcolonial and post-conflict recovery, involving various forms of national identity and position building, which has juxtaposed geographically key players on the world stage. Burma, Timor-Leste and Cambodia, newly emerged from years of external rule and internal conflict, are dealing with raw legacies and infancy of new cultural, political and education systems and infrastructure. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are emerging economic powers within SEA, while Singapore, despite its geographic size, punches above its weight on a global stage in terms of infrastructure, political stability and economic security.

Although increasingly identified as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations – the geopolitical and economic organization of 10 countries located in the Southeast Asian region), SEA countries have vastly different state structures, political regimes, political economies and ethno-cultural and religious demographies. Yet these SEA nations are also intertwined historically. SEA is home to four of the oldest and largest commonly recognized language families (Kumar and Siddique 2008). Three of these are spoken widely in mainland SEA: the Austroasiatic language family (includes Vietnamese, Khmer and Mon); Sino-Tibetan (includes Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages such as Burmese and Karen); and Tai-Kadai (includes Thai, Lao and Shai). The Austronesian language family, including Javanese, Malay, Sundanese and Tagalog, is the most commonly spoken language family in Maritime Southeast Asia.

Figure 1.1 Map of Southeast Asia

Remnants of colonialism and conflict, pressures of reconstruction, national cultural politics and globalization exert complex push-pull demands on governance, social institutions and systems (including education) in Southeast Asian countries. Education systems, like any social institution, are implicated within the wider societal politics and involved in the production of social hierarchies (Apple 2003; Giroux 2001). The collection of chapters in this book addresses the ways in which these legacies and forces shape equity and access to education in most SEA countries. Space precludes covering Laos and Brunei. The authors investigate educational access and equity for citizens, ethnic and religious minorities, and indigenous people within these countries. They frame education within broader national and local challenges to achieve security, democracy and social justice.

Educational institutions, policies and practices are social and political institutions marked by difference. Cultural politics can operate in divisive ways within different educational spaces, not only through policies and curricular practices, but also by their effects on economic and social opportunities, all of which ultimately shape access to education. Global engagements between this region and other parts of the world have also shaped the educational policy agendas in individual member countries. While the global reach of neoliberal policy regimes, including various accountability ‘reforms’, is well noted, little is known of their impact on educational access and equity. In this context, this collection of chapters provides valuable insights into the cultural politics of education within Asian contexts.

The chapters in this edited collection engage with both the micro- and macro-politics of educational spaces that shape culture and identity-driven politics in the context of globalizing forces and influences. On the one hand, education in these nations is constructed as the leveller of socio-economic and cultural disparities through public discourses of educational policies and reforms. On the other, hegemonic representations of ethnicity, race and religion also operate as dominant political discourses within the education machineries, which at times are in contradiction with the official discourses of education.

While government decisions in education policy areas are influenced by the demands from different cultural constituencies, voting blocs and various interest groups, the state in much of the region is instrumental in creating and maintaining a strong sense of cultural/ethnic collectiveness through its education policies and bureaucratic machinery.

The first two chapters in this edited collection are set in chronological order. This introductory chapter sketches cultural and geopolitics of ancient, precolonial and colonial Southeast Asia, and traces the development of education in these contexts from ancient times through to precolonial and colonial eras. It is not the focus of this chapter to provide a detailed discussion of the historical contexts of SEA. For a thorough and nuanced historical analysis, please refer to SarDesai (2010). Rather, this snapshot gives us a window into some of the intricacies of history, culture, economics and politics necessary to understand education in this region. It is through each of the individual chapters and diverse voices of SEA we bring together that we provide a more nuanced critical analysis of diverse educational systems in contemporary SEA.

The second chapter illustrates the power asymmetries and inequalities that exist within and between countries in present-day SEA, in terms of social and economic indicators such as population, ethnic and religious groups, country income level, poverty levels, literacy rate and unemployment rate. It also outlines the key points of debates concerning postcolonial theory for understanding the cultural and educational politics in contemporary SEA.

Mobilities of knowledge and peoples in ancient Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Mobilities of trade, knowledge and peoples have always been a common feature of the SEA region through the ages. Southeast Asian historian SarDesai (2010: 10–11) highlights these mobilities during ancient times that resulted in similarities and differences within and between nations in present-day SEA, saying that:

The largest ethnic group in today’s Southeast Asia is the brown-skinned Malay, inhabiting Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. It is believed that the original home of the Malays was southern China, from where they moved southward at two different times. First, the Proto-Malays, having a clearer Mongoloid strain, arrived in Southeast Asia in about 2500 BC, bringing with them elements of Neolithic culture. They were followed by the Deutero-Malays, who migrated in 300 BC… .Ancestors of the bulk of the present population of Malaya and Indonesia, the Deutero-Malays soon acquired control of the coastal districts as they pushed the Proto-Malays into the interior. The Deutro-Malays spread throughout insular Southeast Asia, diffusing a common culture and a related language.

There have also been some Indian and Chinese cultural, economic and political influences in Southeast Asia given that the geographical land mass of SEA is located between China and India (SarDesai 2010). Burma received a variety of ethnic groups from Tibet and southern China. These groups moved into Cambodia and Vietnam and mixed with Malay people. Of the different communities that migrated, the Thais and Vietnamese had significant contact with the Chinese civilization before migration.

All kingdoms, states and communities in SEA were intertwined with each other. There were also influences from east and west, namely India, China and the Arab traders, and later the Europeans. Within the spiritual realm, there were the religious traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and animism as well. Southeast Asia was an important part of the world trading system, with the spice trade and involvement of Indian and Arab merchants, and later the Europeans. There were movements of scholars and pilgrims between India, China and Southeast Asia in the first millennium. Some aspects of Indian and Chinese cultures have been adopted by communities within SEA. For example, there is the influence of Sanskrit in some of the SEA languages such as Malay. Indian and Hindu literary works such as the Ramayana and Mahabharatta were introduced through the wayang, or shadow play performance, which is still very popular in many parts of Indonesia and some parts of Malaysia. There were highly complex ancient civilizations and kingdoms in SEA such as Ayutthaya on the Chao Phraya River Delta and Khmer Empire on Tonle Sap. Maritime states such as Malacca (located in present-day Malaysia) and Srivijaya, an Indonesian kingdom (located in Sumatera, Indonesia) were important ports. Complex architectural religious monuments sites such as Borobodur and Prambanan (in central Java, Indonesia), Angkor Wat (in Cambodia, and some of Laos and Thailand) also existed in ancient SEA.

The Mongol invasion of SEA, the rise of the Thais and of the Majapahit Empire, the advent of Islam and the rise of Malacca in the thirteenth century resulted in the change of power configuration in SEA (SarDesai 2010). Thailand and Majapahit (consisting of present-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, the Philippines and East Timor) became the dominant powers. The major power centre of SEA before that had been present-day Cambodia and South Vietnam. Islam, the most widely practised religion in SEA, came to the region through the Indian and Arab merchants. During this new era, given its strategic maritime location, Malacca (part of present-day Malaysia) was an important cultural, religious and trade site.

Ancient SEA was a rich tapestry of sociopolitical institutions, and a globalized region with movements of trade, cultures, peoples, ideologies and religions. There were indigenous entrepôt cities and urban centres with its cosmopolitanism (Buang 2007). Difference and inequalities were also played out through the socially and economically stratified kingdoms and communities, with collectives such as royalty, warriors, scholars, traders, villagers, peasants and religious leaders.

Some historical evidences of education in ancient SEA are evident today. Van Mieu, a Confucian ‘Temple of Literature’ or ‘Temple of Confucius’ built in 1070 AD in Thang Long (present-day Hanoi) is one of the oldest universities in the world (Logan and Nguyen 2004). Indonesia’s Borobodur ancient centre for pilgrimage and education in Buddhism was built in 824 AD (SaiDesai 2010). This architectural monument has many carved panels that illustrate Buddhist sutras of an educational nature (SarDesai 2010).

The brief discussion in this section indicates that cultural and social mobility, and knowledge transfer and creation, has a long history in SEA and was already taking place even during these historical times. The different SEA states were also intertwined on these economic, political and cultural scales. Cultural difference within the context of ancient Southeast Asia was played out on a number of levels through the mobilities of peoples, cultures, knowledge and civilizations. The next section in this chapter gives some insights as to which individuals and collectives had access to this knowledge creation and transfers.

Education during the precolonial era

Education involves learning and acquisition of knowledge. Clearly, this has been taking place in SEA since ancient times. There was the transmission of skills and knowledge within families, collectives and communities where the younger members, through informal apprenticeships, learnt skills and trades that prepared them for their roles in life such as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and occupations, such as farming, fishing, warriors, performers and crafts (SarDesai 2010).

Religious institutions also took on the role of education during the precolonial SEA era. In countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Burma, religious leaders took on the role of intellectuals and teachers. Education was largely religious and ethical rather than secular and economic. In Cambodia, Buddhist priests traditionally provided basic education, moral training and the fundamentals of a literary culture to children in the temple schooling system (Sideth 2004). Formal learning was for boys and not girls, as the Buddhist monks were males and students were required to stay and work at the temple (Sideth 2004). Women’s education was informal in the family context for rural women or in royal compounds for elite women. In Burma, the history of monastic education dates back over 1,000 years, and was the main education system during the rule of Burmese kings (Lall 2011).

Madrasas in precolonial Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei functioned as educational institutions. The focus of these schools was Islamic religious teaching. Such schools were usually held in the houses of the village headmen or in the local mosque, and were generally for the wealthier families (Saxena 2011). Religious education also took place in the courts of sultans. The education system of these madrasas was further developed in the British colonies of Singapore, Malacca and Penang such as the Madrasah al-Iqbal al-Islamiyyah (Singapore), Madrasah al-Hady (Malacca) and Madrasah al-Mashoor (Penang) (Noor et al. 2008). These madrasas were also the first Malay-Muslim institutions to ‘pioneer the methods of the modern printing press, publishing not only religious texts, but also journals and magazines that helped to create the fledgling imagined community of a literate public in the Malay Peninsula’ (Noor et al. 2008: 16). Madrasas in Indonesia during the colonial era also combined both religious and modern curricula. A detailed critical discussion of madrasas is provided in Buang (2007) and Buang and Masturah (2007). In the Philippines, there is some historical evidence of a unique system of writing known as baybayin (Guillermo and Paluga 2011). Children were provided vocational training and informal education by their parents and in the houses of community teachers and leaders using this writing system.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Ancient and colonial Southeast Asia: cultural and educational contexts
• 2 Understanding the cultural politics of Southeast Asian education through postcolonial theory
• 3 Downplaying difference: representations of diversity in contemporary Burmese schools and educational equity
• 4 Learner-centred pedagogy in post-conflict Timor-Leste: for the benefit of the learner or the learned?
• 5 Technology of dominance, technology of liberation: education in colonial and postcolonial Cambodia
• 6 Change and continuity in the history of Vietnamese higher education
• 7 Colonization by stealth: the case of Thailand
• 8 Paradoxes of discriminatory policies and educational attainment: Chinese Indonesians in contemporary Indonesia
• 9 Education politics in postcolonial Malaysia: ethnicity, difference and inequalities
• 10 The Singapore education journey: from colonialism to globalism
• 11 Unravelling the palimpsest: cultural layers of discomfort through three Southeast Asian literary texts in English
• Index