Formal Schooling and the Process of Identity Construction: Experiences of Malaysian Youths in ‘Bad’ Schools

Abstract

In human lifespan development, identity construction is central within social and personal experiences, even more so for teenagers and young adults (youths) who are looking for their sense of self and own identity. The construction of identity involves the growth of a whole person and the development of a stable sense of self. At the same time, the process of identity construction causes some youths to become self-conscious about how others perceive them; this usually results in repeated self-discovery and identity experiment cycles. Their identities are thus constructed and reconstructed as they try out different role types in different settings, such as in schools. The focus of this research paper is to examine the experience of formal schooling and how it relates to the identity process of Malaysian youths. Employing qualitative face-to-face interviews, data were collected from six research participants from a private university in Selangor, Malaysia who were purposively selected for this empirical research. Three criteria for participant selection were used: That they have been in rural schools for most of their lives, the schools adopt a very didactic focus, and the schools have a limited number of highly trained and motivated teachers; in other words, they have experienced being in ‘bad’ schools. The research participants were selected from two different academic programs: Three undergraduate students from Bachelor in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and another three from the Bachelor in Law program. Two research questions were posed. First, where does the experience of formal schooling figure in the identity construction of these youths? And second, what roles do the formal experience of schooling play in the lifespan identity development of these youths? Although not generalisable to all youths in Malaysia, the experiences of the participants contribute to advancing our knowledge of identity construction through the process of formal schooling.