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This book offers a compelling examination of Malaysia's ambitious ‘60:40 policy’ which prioritises science education as a pathway to national development.
Drawing on personal narratives and rural experiences, including the author's own family stories, this ethnographically rich study reveals how young Malaysians navigate aspirations for development through STEM education with profound ambivalence rather than wholesale acceptance. Aizuddin demonstrates how these experiences constitute critiques of development orthodoxy, challenging dominant narratives about science education's transformative power.
Essential for scholars of postcolonial studies, education policy and Southeast Asian development, this work provides nuanced insights into how peripheral communities negotiate the promises and contradictions of science-driven modernisation in postcolonial nation-building.
“A beautifully written ethnography of young rural Malaysians alongside evocative intergenerational storytelling that challenges taken-for-granted assumptions in education and development policy.” Arathi Sriprakash, University of Oxford
Introduction: Building the Nation, Building Young People
1. Malaysia as the (Scientific) Developmental State
2. Policy and the Production of Scientifically Educated Subjects
Interlude: Accounting for Development
3. “Rasa” of STEM Education: On Feeling, Capacity and Agency
Interlude: Do You Believe in Ghosts?
4. Outside of the City: Postcolonial Aspirations Through Development
Conclusion: Changing Times, Changing Tracks
Postscript: Still Dreaming in Numbers