Lifelong learning in hindsight

• Main Author: Hazidi Abdul Hamid,
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education
• Online Access: http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/899/1/library-document-899.pdf; http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/899/

This paper builds on the work enculturation which apprears prominently in the Malaysian Life-long education blueprint. This paper explores how the notion of life-long and life-wide education has been present in the Malay culture, as depicted in its classical texts; mainly the Hikayats, through the use of Proudfoot’s concordance of Malay literature. The concordance was searched for the term, “belajar” which Malay for ‘learn’ or ‘to learn’. The results are analysed to decipher the kind of educational practices depicted in the narrative in direct relation to the term searched, ‘belajar’. This paper will show that the notion of introducing life-long education into the Malay / Malaysian culture is inaccurate because that notion, and that of life-wide education is already present in the Malay culture. This has implications particularly on the way we promote life-long education in Malaysia, particularly to Malays: instead of promiting a new ‘thing’, should instead be promoting it as a continuation of a cultural legacy. (Abstract by author)