Examining the self in educational achievement : a comparative study of Chinese and Malay students in Singapore

• Main Author: Low, Fidella Bao Xia
• Other Authors: Patrick Williams
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73722
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study attempts to understand the how the schooling experiences among Malay and Chinese undergraduates construct an identity that sets them on a path for academic achievement. In the process, in-depth interviews are used to explore how one’s successes, failures and challenges faced in school shape their perceptions toward studying and identify the factors that shape the self. Using Sheldon Stryker’s identity theory, this paper argues that strengthening student and familial identities is important in overcoming the academic achievement gap by concurrently using them as forces to alleviate the effects relating the racialised nature of schooling. The impacts of teacher, student, and familial interactions, alongside the notion of race will be analysed.