本研究主要從國民教育體系內的改制華文中學(國民型中學/National Type Secondary School/Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan/SMJK)探討馬來西亞的國族建構過程與問題。馬來西亞是個多元的國家,其多元性體現在境內不同的族群、語言、文化和宗教等的現象上。雖然已經獨立超過半個世紀,國家仍然努力於培養各族群的國民意識,試圖將各族群塑造成擁有共同語言與文化的單一民族,以達到建構國族的目標。 由於教育具備了整合族群的工具性角色,因此在建構國族的過程中,它經常被當作統合國內不同群體的首要工具。本研究以馬來西亞雪蘭莪州加影育華國民型中學(Yu Hua National Type Secondary School/SMJK Yu Hua)為個案研究對象,探討國民教育政策背後的國族建構論述,這樣的論述如何透過國民型中學傳達給各族學生與教育工作者,其所欲建構的國族是什麼?又,在國民型中學的教育場域中,也就是學校日常生活中,是如何論述與呈現國族這個概念的?
This research mainly discusses the process of nation building in Malaysia via the Chinese-conforming secondary school (National Type Secondary School/Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan) which belongs to a compulsory national education system. Malaysia is a multi-racial country, its pluralism manifests within the boundaries with different ethnic groups, languages, cultures and religions. Although the country has already independent for more than half a century, the country is still diligently in raising its national consciousness among various ethnic groups, and attempts to create a nation-state which having a common language and culture, and therefore, achieve the goal of nation building. Since education has the instrumental role in integrating different ethnic groups, therefore, in the nation building process, it is treated frequently as the most important tool to gather the different communities in a country. This research targets on Yu Hua National Type Secondary School (SMJK Yu Hua) located at Selangor, Malaysia as a case study, and bring out the discussions on the nation building process behind the national education policy, how does the national consciousness or nation building discourse penetrate to those students and educators of different ethnics in the school, and what are the implications of this nation building in terms of the “nation”? Last but not the least, how does this concept be presented to various ethnic groups through the daily schooling life?