Educational reform and policy dynamics: a case of the Malaysian “Vision School” for racial integration

摘要

In the multiracial Malaysian society, a new school redesign model called “Vision School” has been initiated as yet another measure to foster racial harmony. In this model, the ethnicity-based schools with the medium of instruction in the respective native languages are located within a common compound to share common facilities and jointly organize select school events. Conceptually, the Vision School model can be argued as a viable avenue for fostering racial unity. However, on the ground, the strategies and planned activities seem to be inadequate, simplistic, and unproductive. A qualitative investigation of a high-profile Vision School indicated that the goal of racial integration/harmonization is far from happening for the approach taken to implement the Vision School is fallacious with the shortfall in the policy formulation and execution stages. It provided evidence that the policy cycle, policy instruments, and critical action domains need to be coherently and sequentially aligned for success.