Ganakumaran Subramaniam

Institutional Practices Versus Student Needs and Its Implications for the Development of a Holistic Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) Framework

Sustainable development (SD) competences feature prominently in the 2012 Malaysian Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) manual. The manual outlines 12 outcomes that undergraduate engineering students of Malaysian universities are expected to develop upon completion of their studies. These 12 outcomes, specifically those in relation to SD competences, are open for interpretation, in accordance to the vision, mission and educational philosophies of the respective universities and undergraduate engineering programmes. This paper highlights a Malaysian private engineering university’s endeavours to include SD competences within its undergraduate engineering programmes. The paper first focuses on the extent to which SD is featured within the institution’s programme educational outcomes and common modules. This was explored through qualitative means, namely manifest and latent content analysis. This is followed by a survey, to explore the present pedagogical practices within the undergraduate engineering programme to ascertain the extent to which it conforms to philosophies of education for sustainable development. Also highlighted are student stakeholders’ views on approaches best suited to teach sustainable development within the undergraduate engineering programme. The paper then discusses findings of a thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses on students’ needs that should be considered to help develop the desired sustainability learning experience in the university. A total of 12 categories were identified as a result of this thematic analysis, of which eight of these categories encompassed the common engineering modules i.e. (i) Practical versus Theoretical, (ii) Real sustainable development issues and situations, (iii) Sustainable development learning activities and assessment, (iv) The need for heightened exposure and awareness to sustainable development post-graduation, (v) Teaching and learning of sustainable development via knowledge of current technological trends, (vi) Sustainable development awareness through exposure within the engineering industry, (vii) Sustainable development content within current learning modules and (viii) Approach to teaching sustainable development. The remaining four categories identified were for the common non-engineering modules, namely (i) Communication and sustainable development, (ii) Approach to teaching sustainable development for non-engineering modules, (iii) Bringing real life sustainable development issues and situations into non-engineering modules and (iv) Relating engineering aspects with human and societal aspects. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the development of a holistic engineering education for sustainable development framework.

Nostalgic advertisements in multicultural Malaysia: A multimodal analysis

Advertisements that feature nostalgia as a theme have been highly successful in their ability to evoke an emotional reaction in consumers thus connecting them to the brand and product being advertised. Nostalgic advertisements are memorable as they prompt consumers to draw from their own past experiences in a positive manner therefore creating a “feel good” factor in consumers. Nostalgia has been a popular theme in many Malaysian television commercials (TVCs) in the past decade. This study examines a Malaysian national day TVC using a thematic multimodal approach to analyse how nostalgia is reinforced through the multimodal elements in the TVC. The analysis includes a discussion of the types of nostalgia elicited by the multimodal elements in the TVC in reference to the socio-cultural context of multicultural Malaysia. The findings reveal how specific multimodal elements in the TVC are used to evoke a sense of collective nostalgia among Malaysians of diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. This study shows that personal, collective, historical or national nostalgia is reinforced in a Malaysian national day TVC by making references to dates, events, images, relationships and values that are significant and meaningful to all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, religion or belief. Such advertisements serve to transcend ethnic and religious boundaries to create a national mindset that the whole nation can connect with instead of communal or ethnic based ones.