Crises of Common Humanity

Authors: Nur Surayyah Madhubala Abdullah
Publisher: UPM Press
ISBN: 9789673444960
Weight: 470gsm
Pages: 262pp
Year: 2015
Price: RM55

Moral and citizenship education is relevant to the development of society as it provides a normative basis for living together particularly in a plural society like Malaysia. This book is a critical piece of academic work based wholly on my doctoral thesis that offers a philosophical perspective on framing pluralism for moral and citizenship education for Malaysia's plural society.

The focus of the research, on the conceptualization of pluralism within moral and citizenship education, is something that resonates deeply with my experiences as a Malaysian and the challenges of being Malaysian in a country that officially promotes ethnic, religious and cultural segregation. At the core of those challenges was a series of question that answers the key concept -pluralism around which this book revolves: who is a person; what exactly should we respect in the other and what is response to the other? These questions frame the book. 

As the book poses an important question concerning moral and citizenship education in Malaysia - its adequacy as currently practiced for Malaysia's plural society, it offers a critical perspective of moral and citizenship education on how it has come to define the nature of social cohesion and national unity amongst members of its society who have diverse backgrounds. In response to criticisms as to whether our education has been able to provide a cogent basis for living together in terms of the attitudes and dispositions towards others that it puts forward, the focus of the book is on the idea of a person adopted within moral and citizenship education in Malaysia. 

The book addresses a concern that the current idea of a person adopted within it is not substantive enough for an inclusive notion of pluralism. In order to address this question and the related issues that arise, the book examines the notion of pluralism in relation to its adequacy for moral and citizenship education for a plural society specifically in the context of Malaysia.