A Review of the Literature on Ethnic Identity in Malaysian Indian Adolescent

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume II, Issue V, May 2018 | ISSN 2454-6186

A Review of the Literature on Ethnic Identity in Malaysian Indian Adolescent

Charles Ganaprakasam

Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Malaysia

Abstract:- Positive discrimination or affirmative action is most prevalent issues in Malaysia education context conferring preference on Bumiputera in general and Malay in particular (Hwok-Aun Lee & Muhammad Abdul Khalid, 2015). The greater essence of education in multiethnic societies is to provide great ethnic interaction among students from various ethnic backgrounds (Tan Yao Sua & R. Santhiram, 2014. Diverse ethnic groups are further segregated and this is demonstrated from friendship designs among school children which primarily express a strong in-group partialityTherefore, school is a powerful social climate which has promising capability to encourage interracial interaction by eliminating the presence of discrimination, prejudice and stereotype. Every minority individual should comprehend and educate them regarding the notion of ethnic identity which enables them to cope effectively the occurrences of discrimination and prejudice.The existence of inequality has greater potentiality to lower one’s self-efficacy and will effect academic achievement. According to Ganaprakasam & Abdul Majid (2017) positive ethnic identity contributed to the development of self-efficacy. Given this point, school administration and teacher should abandon the practice of inequality and boost the formation of ethnic identity among minority’s students.This paper reviews the previous literature and the important notion of ethnic identity of Malaysian Indian adolescent.

Keywords: Ethnic Identity, Indian adolescent, Multiethnic, ethnic socialization, discrimination

I. INTRODUCTION

Ethnic identity plays very essential role in developing unity in multicultural society.Creating unity and harmoniousness between rich pluralistic societies is the prime responsibility of education. Everyone of this element possessed distinguish advantage towards the well-being of our society. The growing population of minorities in Malaysia leads to great concern on the notion of pluralism, discrimination and prejudice in various sectors. Very limited study on ethnic identity has been conducted among minorities ethnic in Malaysia, particularly among Malaysian Indians. Within the next few years, the phrase ethnic identity likely to become important notion among researchers in Malaysia to investigated due to the greater impact on individual psychological domain.

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