Maisarah Hasbullah

Agricultural education as a medium for the transmission of Western science during British rule in Malaya, 1905–1957

Abstract This paper traces the transmission of Western science through the agricultural education sector during the British colonial administration of Malaya. This education system included three levels: elementary, intermediate and the school of agriculture. To understand the process by which Western science was transmitted in Malaya, Basalla’s model was adopted to clarify the vectors of Western science and the types of knowledge disseminated by these vectors, and to identify the mechanisms sustaining scientific research activities outside Europe. This paper shows that the transmission and the diffusion of Western science through education were highly centralised under the British colonial umbrella and closely associated with the agricultural economy.

The Rise of Modern Science: Islam and the West

Abstract:This article looks at the discourse in the history and philosophy of science in both Islam and the West in the larger context of the discourse on modernity. A comparison is made between the discourses of science and modernity in the West and Islam so as to identify the similarities and differences in their outlooks. It also describes separately the discourse in both traditions, followed by an analysis of their similarities and differences. In the case of the discourse on Islamic philosophy of science, the ideas of Nasr, Naguib, al-Faruqi, and Sardar were discussed. Finally, it is concluded that the discourses on philosophy of science in both Western and Islamic intellectual traditions are prompted by the same factor, namely how to deal with the problems and challenges of modernity, which is substantively and symbolically related to science.

Knowledge Structures of City Innovation Systems: Singapore and Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Cities are naturally the center of attention when innovation and its geography are discussed. This paper seeks to elucidate the knowledge structures of the city innovation systems of Hong Kong and Singapore, and shed light on the performance of knowledge production, networks, and features in accordance with: (1) patent portfolios and fields of technology; (2) the patent landscape; and (3) the correlation map between fields and entities that produce patents. Findings indicate that private firms dominate the patenting landscape for the selected economies. Scientific activities performed by universities and public research institutions are converging with technological knowledge performed by firms. Hong Kong and Singapore sought to attain a co-evolution process for science-based industrial development.

Swimming against the tide in STEM education and gender equality: a problem of recruitment or retention in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is acknowledged as one of the key drivers of technological innovation. Malaysian women join the educational pipeline as equals to their male counterparts. Nevertheless, women are persistently under-represented in technology and engineering, but over-represented in other STEM fields. Using data provided by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, our results suggest that under-representation of women in engineering was attributed to low recruitment at the point of entry. Such a finding thus begs the question as to why women were not recruited into engineering. Malaysian policymakers and educators need to address under-representation of women in order to achieve gender equality in STEM, as part of the goals of Millennium Development and Vision 2020; to become a nation that is competent, confident and innovative in harnessing and advancing science and technology.