Amla Salleh

From Monocultural to Multicultural: Adaptation of Iranian Immigrant Adolescents in Malaysia

Migration to a new country can be very difficult for adolescents as they are also experiencing a critical transition into adulthood. The current study investigates cross-cultural transition issues facing Iranian immigrant adolescents living in Malaysia. Data were gathered from individual interviews with 100 Iranian adolescents (ages 14-18 years), who have lived in Malaysia for between 2 months and 5 years. Descriptive phenomenology qualitative research was used to explore the impact of the migration process on Iranian adolescents. Analysis revealed five major themes regarding participants’ life experiences in Malaysia: (a) initial expectations; (b) differences in ethnicity, religion, and beliefs; (c) communication barriers; (d) differences in personal evaluations; and (e) psychological issues. The results of this study clearly show that migration for Iranian adolescents in Malaysia is a time of unexpected challenges that may not be experienced by other migrant adolescents in other countries. Our findings contribute to the literature on the unique experiences of Iranian adolescents living in Malaysia and also build on the current research on adolescents who have recently immigrated. In addition, our results further uncover the process of immigration for individuals who are moving from a monocultural society (such as Iran) to a multicultural context (such as Malaysia).

Message from the Guest Editors

The International Conference on Learner Diversity (ICELD) 2010 is organised by the Learner Diversity Centre under the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia held at the Equatorial Hotel, Bangi in Malaysia on 19-20 October 2010. The Centre strives to enhance awareness to the diversity of learners and their teaching and learning needs at all levels and type of education – preschool, primary, secondary, higher education as well as in formal and non-formal settings. Educators need to develop the capacity to be sensitive and respond appropriately to the increasing diversity in our schools, institutions of higher learning, at the workplace and the community. It is the aim of the Centre to highlight the diversity and inclusion agenda in its biannual conference. Specifically, the objectives of ICELD 2010 are:

The Role of Fathers in Developing Adolescents Personality and its Implication Towards Family Value

The objective of this research was to identify the students entrepreneurial career aspirations in the public instituitions of higher education. The research also was designed to determine the factors that influence the entrepreneurial career aspirations of the students. A set of questionaires were distributed to 420 respondents from three universities namely, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Islamic International University of Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The findings showed majority of the students were not interested to become entrepreneur eventhough more than 80 percent of them have positive attitude towards entrereneurship. Profit-orientation factor and the needs to have a successful life are the dominant factors that influenced the students towards entrepreneurial career. However, the entrepreneurial characteristics of the students was high, except for the willingness to take risks. The finding also showed that there are a positive and significant correlations between entrepreneurial characteristics, interest towards entrepreneurial career and attitude towards students entrepreneurial career aspirations. These findings concluded that races, educational fields and family members are considered as the factors that contributed to the students entrepreneurial career aspirations. Based on the findings, several ways are suggested to inspire the entrepreneurial career among the students in the public higher education. Therefore, the students, the universities, lecturers, the ministry, parents and the public are resposible in realizing and believing that the entrepreneurial career is a career option once graduated.