Introduction

Introduction

Culture is defined that a way of life of a group of people. They accept their behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols as well as parenting practices without thinking about them and passed it along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.  Parents will influence their children through specific practices which will affect children outcomes. So that, there is overall approach that parents take to guide, control and socialize their children. Besides that, different culture also would bring different outcome of children.

We have chosen Malaysia because Malaysia is a multicultural society, with Malays, Chinese, Indians and other race living side by side. Malaysia is a very unique country in the sense of its culture. People of different culture and backgrounds will bring different types of parenting practices. Although there are different types of parenting practices, the parents just want to raise a calm, happy and thriving family.

Parenting Practices of Indian Culture

INDIAN CULTURES


                                                     

' NAMASTE'

The life of Indians is centered in the family. Extended families often live together, with two or more adult generations, or brothers, sharing a house. Hinduism is the predominant religion ofIndian people and over 80% of Indians identify themselves as Hindu (Office of the Indian Registrar, 2001).

Discipline

One common trait you will find amongst Indians is that children show utmost respect to their elders. Now this is one habit all Indian parents deliberately inculcate in their children, since beginning. It is an unsaid rule in India that a person cannot answer back to elders and more so, when he/she is at fault. It is deemed disrespectful in India to refer to an elder by his / her name. Instead people prefer calling them uncle and aunt, especially if the person is very elderly. It is also customary in India for the youngsters to touch the feet of their elders as a way of greeting as well as on important occasions.

Life

Individuals are also ranked according to their wealth and power. For example, some powerful people, or “big men,” sit confidently on chairs, while “little men” come before them to make requests, either standing or squatting not presuming to sit beside a man of high status as an equal.
                                                                    

                                                                  Marriage
Marriage is deemed essential for virtually everyone in India, marking the great watershed in life for the individual. For most of Hindu northern and central India, marriages are arranged within the caste between unrelated young people who may never have met. Among some south Indians communities, families seek to strengthen existing kin ties through marriages with cousins whenever possible. For every parent, finding the perfect partner for one’s child is a challenging task. People use their existing social networks, and increasingly, matrimonial newspaper advertisements. The advertisements usually announce religion, caste, educational qualifications, physical features, and earning capacity, and may hint at dowry size (even though giving or accepting dowries is actually illegal).

Conservative means holding to traditional attitudes and value, cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion. Conservative term applies in Hinduism where Hindu women of conservative families veil their faces and remain silent in the presence of older male in-laws, both at home and in the community. A young daughter-in-law even veils from her mother-in-law. These practices emphasize respect relationships, limit unapproved encounters, and enhance family lines of authority.
                                                           

                                    

Socialization

Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups, amongst individuals, and in family and kinship groups. Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste-like groups also exist among Muslims, Indian, Christians, and other religious communities. Within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative rankings of each locally represented caste, and behavior is constantly shaped by this knowledge. 

Socialization of children in Indian families in the traditional setting tended to focus on sociocultural continuity rather than change. However, this emphasis on continuity is gradually giving way to respect for initiative, which was not a feature of traditional upbringing. The present study is attempting to draw attention to transitional aspects of child rearing, which is showing signs of significant changes in parent-child interactions. There is two point of view one can consider as basis of socialization, traditional and modern.

Modern Indian

                            

Traditional Indian

According to traditional view of socialization in Indian context, a good child, in traditional context may be described as humble, intelligent, although not necessarily brilliant, kind to small babies and animals, religious, in sense of going to temple once a day, noninterfering, and well-behaved in not being mischievous and avoiding quarrels with other children. He should,  above all, be obedient and respectful to elders.

The whole family is involved in rearing of children. Socialization of children is not the exclusive responsibility of their parents in the Indian home. Where the grandparents are alive, the parents occupy a secondary role in disciplining and bringing up the children. The grandmother or aunt often becomes an important influence in the lives of young people.In the Indian household, lines of hierarchy and authority are clearly drawn, and ideals of conduct help maintain family harmony. All family members are socialized to accept the authority of those above them in the hierarchy. The eldest male acts as family head, and his wife supervises her daughters-in-law, among whom the youngest has the least authority. Reciprocally, those in authority accept responsibility for meeting the needs of other family members.

Academic

Many Indians are part of the Malaysian working class also exists a large group of educated upper middle class professionals. Indians are well represented in Malaysian medical and legal fraternities. Indians also form a large portion of English language teachers in Malaysia. Law and medicine have traditionally been the preferred career choices in Indian families although more young Indian Malaysians are now venturing into other fields such as engineering, finance and entrepreneurship. Ananda Krishnan and Tony Fernandes are examples of notable Malaysian tycoons of Indian heritage. Some being sent to Tamil primary schools and use Tamil as the medium of instruction while Malay and English are being taught in Kebangsaan school, Indian childrens are succeeding well in studies.

REFERENCE

 Indian Society and Ways of living, 

http://asiasociety.org/indian-society-and-ways-living?page=0,0 (accessed December 8, 2015)

Lifestyle, http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-traditions/lifestyle.html (accessed December 8, 2015)

2015.M.Gail Hickey   

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/48512201_Asian_Indian_Family_Socialization_Patterns_and_Implications_for_American_Schooling

Kurian,G,Ghosh,R:Changing Authority Within the Context of Socialization in Indian Families,Vol.53,No.1

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41886219?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

   

Parenting Practices of Malay Culture

MALAY CULTURES

 Discipline

In terms of discipline and its use, a great deal of stress is places on the Malay concept of parental love.




A child who loves his parents, the mother in particular, is one who is obedient and cooperative, conforming the wishes of the parents. Mothers frequently correct undesirable behaviour by threatening to withdraw their love. When asked what they consider to be their favourite method at correcting undesirable behaviour, parents chose giving advice as the method they most prefer. Malay parents may be regarded as emphasizing love-oriented techniques of discipline. Children are advised and directed by the use of value-statements which give prominence to maintain harmony or relationship between children and their significant others. In contrast, value statements stressing future economic deprivations consequent on failure to meet standards are relatively fewer. (Kuo, Wong 1979)

Educational

Children are more often admonished for not trying than for failure to attain success. But there are however observable changes among some Malay parents in regard to the method being used to correct misbehaviour and to instil a sense of achievement in children. Withdrawal of privileges and criticms are more and more utilized though parents as a matter of choice would not like to use such methods. The last is an extension of the traditional attitude against the use of invidious comparisons among children in the same family in matters pertaining to their performance of various task including school examinations. But Malay parents are increasingly conscious of the fact that passing examinations alone is not enough. Children they say ought to do well in examinations. Giving encouragement to their children so as to induce them to attain success remains the most preferable method. (Kuo, Wong 1979)

Life/Goals

Malay as a cultural identity is often associated with Muslim holding custom-adat and occupying Malay areas. However, such definition merely produces reductive definition on what is Malay since not every single Malay person is Muslim occupying Malay areas and holding Malay custom-adat.

From this point we may say that Malay is not solely a single and homogeneous cultural entity, but, indeed, it is a very heterogeneous one. Malay is like a house occupied by people with different points of view as the consequence of different religious and believes. At the end, the differences on religious and belief systems like above, later on create cultural diversities on custom-adat, conceptual cosmology,time and bread and butter system.

MelayuOnline.com attempts to explain and elaborate Malay philosophy of life based on that cultural diversity which comes out of the multifarious philosophy of life of the Malay people. Therefore, MelayuOnline.com would like to categorise Malay philosophy of life into seven subjects consisting of Malay philosophy about God, cosmology,time, work and destiny, humanity, ghost and ancestor. (Kuo, Wong 1979)

Socialization

Members of same generation normally treat each other as social equals whether they are relatives on the father’s or mother’s side. Status differentiation is essentially a function of generational differences. The Malay concept of respect should be seen in this context.

Malay affection for children has been noted in several studies. Social, religious and economic values are associated with having children. The early years of socialization are thus a period during which nurture and succour afforded the child is marked. Crying children are immediately attended to. In the past it used to be believed that too much of crying caused fits or convulsions.

Within the family, the Malay child grows up emotionally secure but also independent. The impulse of the child is directed towards socially approved forms of behaviour. Thus socialization is perceived as the process of gradual habituation to behavioural forms which are socially approved and religiously idealized. This means in essence that the child is awakened first of all to the existence of certain social requirements in the family. The child learns these through precept and imitation. Harsh words are seldom used and are considered improper and unnecessary. The child therefore gradually internalized the various states of mind evoked by such words as segan; malu; takut; hormat; kurang ajar; taat; hutang budi; budi bahasa; tolak ansur;sesuai menyesuai; sopan santun and tata tertib. Socialization in thus quietist-directive, being emphatic of certain desirable social and religious modalities of behavious considered to be proper, correct and which conform to adult expectations. (Kuo, Wong 1979)

Reference
Kuo. C. Y, K. Wong. 1979. The Contemporary Family in Singapore: Structure and Change. Singapore University Press. Singapore. (accessed date 4 December 2015)

Parenting Practices of Chinese Culture

Parenting Practices of Chinese Culture 

The Chinese culture is known for its ethic of hard work, discipline and excellence, as well as its emphasis on family and ancestral traditions. Given that this ethnicity represents nearly one-sixth of the world's population, the parenting philosophies used within the Chinese family and culture greatly affect not just Chinese society but the larger society as well. (Jenkins 2015)

Discpline

Many Chinese parents are beginning to recognize that parental responsiveness and positive reinforcement are critical components in raising an emotionally healthy and well-balanced child. This is causing a shift in the parenting paradigm from an "authoritarian" to an "authoritative" technique, which incorporates support and compassion along with discipline, says ChineseParenting.com. An article in "The Wall Street Journal" on Aug. 16, 2010, noted that while "nurturing a child’s confidence and independence is not a traditional cornerstone of Chinese child rearing," the concepts of independence and allowing room for failure and improvement are growing in popularity among Chinese parents and caregivers.

One governing principle in Chinese ethics is "mutual dependence," which means that the entire family's image is affected by the choices of a single member of the family. Because the family name and reputation play such a heavy role in Chinese society, additional pressure and expectations weigh heavily on children. A child who excels in academics, arts and sports and eventually attains a notable job with high earnings improves the image of the family. But to achieve those, it's believed that the child must undergo a tedious and strict process of pressure and discipline by parents, teachers and coaches. (Jenkins 2015)

Academic

Li Rui of ChildResearch.net explains that a Chinese parent greatly values his solitary child because of the "major investment" and "national resource" the child represents. Consequently, significant amounts of money and high expectations are focused upon the child in hopes that the child will excel in academics and other areas. (Jenkins 2015)

Life/ Goals

"Due to the inherent makeup of Chinese family culture," says ChineseParenting.com, "it is rare to find parents who are supportive but do not have a resonable amount of influence on their child’s development." A study in the November 2005 "International Journal of Behavioral Development" by Yiyuan Xu, Jo Ann M. Farver, Zengxui Zhang, Qiang Zeng, Lidong Yu and Beiying Cai showed a strong connection between mothers' adherence to traditional Chinese values and their parenting. Women who were more true to their traditional Chinese values were apt to be more "authoritarian" to their children. In this form of parenting, children are given demands and instructions from their parents and are never permitted to question their parents. (Jenkins 2015)

Socialization

A Shame-Socialized Culture 

Generally speaking, Chinese parents use psychological control as a child-rearing tactic, often in instances of teaching or discipline. Many Chinese parents use shame as a model for instilling principles of right and wrong in their children. In comparison to American and Western styles of parenting, in which praise and positive reinforcement are emphasized to protect and promote self-esteem, Chinese parents tend to focus on the negative behavior and decisions of the child. Chinese parents may scold or even physically punish the child for the bad behavior. (Jenkins 2015)

Reference

Jenkins. A. 2015. Chinese Culture & Parenting. http://www.livestrong.com/article/239128-chinese-culture-parenting/ (accessed 5 December 2015)

Parenting practice of Sabah and Sarawak

Parenting practice of Sabah and Sarawak

Discipline

In Sabah and Sarawak, the natives have their own distinct traditions and cultures which equally places the utmost importance of paying respect to the elders, parents, siblings, relatives, friends and visitors both domestic and from abroad as well as in other culture. (Hajji Zainol Abideen,2009). In those days, a family will follow decisions which made by fathers when involving and interacting with children. Fathers will set rules for their children such as how to behave when greet people but these rules had change.  Nowadays, a mother will do everything including decision that involving and interacting with children. Father will follow mother’s instruction but in Sabah and Sarawak, father and mother have equal responsibility of childcare.( Wider,2014) . Now all the culture also follows these rules. Discipline will change to become stricter than before. Mother will make sure children must reach home before 10pm. In addition, mother will cane their children if their children been naughty. But for Sabah and Sarawak, parents will be not as strict as parents in urban country because the lifestyles they live are different.( Krishnan,2012)

Education

Children in Sabah and Sarawak are often separated from their parents from as young as seven to attend school in a nearby village. By the time they are 13, they would be living miles away in town for their secondary education. Some parents of aboriginal people in Sabah and Sarawak will send their children to school to give their teacher to educate them because they do not know how to write or read and they do not want their children to follow their steps due to today’s world.( Griffin,2002). In addition, other than holidays, they may never return to live with their parents in the village again. This was posed a serious challenge for children to leave the house at the early age. They will live in a boarding school and only went home once a year. This can make them to cope and they were also fortunate social problems.  Some children do not want to go to school because of the distance of school and their home and they do not want to interact with other children. (Hong, 2013)

Goals

Every parent wants to see their children success especially in their studies so that they will have a better life in future. The major goals were to examine gender of parent and gender of child differences in involvement in childcare activities. Normally parents will set goals for their children such as study hard, stay healthy and so on. ( The State of the World’s Children,2011)

Socialization

Usually parents of a young man arrange a marriage with the parents of a young woman. For a Muslim in Malay culture, the spouse must also be Muslim; thus, individuals, especially men, often convert to Islam in order to marry a Muslim. Interethnic group marriages are not uncommon. There is considerable minor variation in marriage ceremonies from group to group and within ethnic groups. ( Maxwell,1998)

References

Griffin, (2002) Education in Indigenous, Nomadic and Travelling Communities https://books.google.com.my/books?id=4gK2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT107&dq=education+to+aboriginal+people+in+sabah&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=education%20to%20aboriginal%20people%20in%20sabah&f=false

Haji  Zainol Abideen( 2009) Spare the rod and spoil the child? Malaysian Parental Disciplining Dilemma http://mahaguru58.blogspot.my/2015/02/spare-rod-and-spoil-child-malaysian.html

 

Krishnan( 2012) Child Rights Coalition Malaysia

 http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/Report_on_Childrens_Rights_.pdf

Hong( 2013) Leaving home, age seven

http://www.businesscircle.com.my/leaving-home-age-seven

The State of the World’s Children (2011) Early Years

http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/children_earlyyears.html

Wider ( 2014) Seminar Kebangsaan Integriti Keluarga

http://www.ums.edu.my/fpp/images/download/proseding_skik2014/Walton_Wider.pdf

Parenting Practices of Orang Asli culture

Parenting Practices of Orang Asli culture

"Orang Asli" means "original people" or "first people. They live on the Peninsular of Malaysia. Most of them still live in the rain forest or jungle, hunt with blowpipes for birds and little monkeys. Some live along or near the coast. Only a few of them also live in urban areas and are engaged in both waged and salaries jobs. They have their own language and culture, and perceives itself and different from the others. (Ben van Wijnen, 2015)

Orang Asli which transliterates as 'original peoples' or first peoples. 

Socialization

Most of the Orang Asli married when still young age. A men who is aged 18 years old is the most appropriate age for getting married. When women were aged 16 years and shall be not more than age men. Marriage is done by parent prospective bride. There are also among the Orang Asli who were engaged at an early age. Normally, men and women have relationships such as brother or cousin or second cousin has the same ethnic groups. It is not an offense if the prospective groom to marry a woman from another tribe. The wife must enter the husband’s ethnic groups. (Joraiha Zakaria, Loh Hoay Ping, 2009)

Orang Asli wedding ceremony

Traditional dances of Orang Asli are strongly rooted in their spiritual beliefs. Dances are commonly used by witch-doctors as rituals to communicate with the spirit world. Orang Asli parents teach their children traditional dances such as Genggulang of the Mahmeri tribe, Berjerom of the Jah-Hut tribe and Sewang of the Semai and Temiar tribes. (Official Website of Tourism Malaysia, 2015)

Sewang dance of the Semai and Temiar Tribes.

Discipline

According to an Orang Asli teacher, Jenita Engi said that Orang Asli children are difficult to teach and discipline. Besides that, Batin Ek Cantan said that the punishment and disciplinary methods meted out on the children were unfair and not understood by the Orang Asli children. Since most of their parents are illiterate, they sent their children to the school and hoped the teacher will take their job seriously and discipline their children. (Center for Orang Asli Concerns, 2015) Discipline is seen as another problem as Orang Asli children are used to the freedoms of the forest. The children are not physically disciplined by their parents and tend to reach badly when smacked by teachers. The children may stop going to school (Spice Martin, 2008) For example, there are cases that deaths of five Orang Asli children in Gua Musang, Kelantan. The children ran away from their schools because of fearing disciplinary action (Lim Huey Teng, 2015).

Educational

There are many Orang Asli children don’t have the opportunity to go to school as there are none nearby and making many of them are illiterate. (Lim Huey Teng, 2015). Although there are much effort has been made to enable Orang Asli to acquire education at all levels, the task of providing a formal education for Orang Asli has faced difficulty as Orang Asli community have a low level of awareness of the importance of formal education. Thus, their parents do not give priority to the education of their children. (Arumugam A/L Raman, Allison Lee Gin Wah, Amareson A/L Manusamy, 2009). The children who come from interior villages which have no schools, which had forced their parents to send them to the nearest residential schools despite their young age. (The Malaysian Insider, 2015). Due to their culture that stresses the importance of learning, the Orang Asli people are represented in the educational professions, with many of them being teachers, scholars and doctors.

Life

Children are taught to use blowpipe to hunt small animals such as monkey and squirrels. Their villages hut are simple which is with palm-thatched shelters. A hut lives one for each family group or with several family groups are usually staying together. (Han Travel Sdn Bhd, 2012)

The blowpipe that used by Orang Asli to hunt animals.

Orang Asli’s proud of their culture, customs and beliefs that the community does not have to worry about matters of economy. This is because children were bought up to sustain their life without being dependent on money. Their customs teach children to respect the balance in nature where they want development in their villages but if it separates us from their history and culture, they do not want to become like city folk. (John Ahni Schertow, 2007)

The boys leave home at the age of 7 and live in a surau which is a prayer house & community centre to learn religious and cultural teachings and they only return home during long school holiday (Asian Inspiration, 2015) 

Goals

Orang Asli did not expect much on their children. Some of the children does not achieve better academic as the Orang Asli children did not get much help from parents in their studies at home. This is because almost all the parents are ignorant and illiterate. They are unable to teach, coach, and guide their children even in the basic skills of reading and writing. Besides that, Orang Asli parents are always away from house as they hunt and gather food from the jungle to feed the family. Thus, children’s academic is not given priority. In fact, parents do not show concern or take interest on children’s studies. For instance, when asked what they hoped their children after schooling, many answered they hoped their children could play football well. (Arumugam A/L Raman, Allison Lee Gin Wah, Amareson A/L Manusamy, 2009)


Reference

Lim Huey Teng. Suhakam: Stop violating Orang Asli right to education. Malaysiakini. Oct15, 2015. https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/315819#ixzz3tdbCtG7e  

The Malaysian Insider. Protect Orang Asli Children. Suhakam tells Putrajaya. Oct15, 2015. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/protect-orang-asli-children-suhakam-tells-putrajaya 

Asian Inspirations. 10 interesting cultural facts about Orang Asli. 2015. https://asianinspirations.com.au/asian-culture/10-interesting-cultural-facts-about-orang-asli/#sthash.1HCGpDGa.dpuf 

John Ahni Schertow. Development, Law and The Traditional Life of the Orang Asli. Nov 12, 2007. https://intercontinentalcry.org/development-law-and-the-traditional-life-of-the-orang-asli/ 

Center for Orang Asli Concerns. Education for the Orang Asli, the community way. Nov 2, 2015. http://www.coac.org.my/main.php?section=news&article_id=211 

Martin Spice. Land and freedom at issue. May 12, 2008. https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=30980 

Han Travel Sdn Bhd. Orang Asli Village. Nov, 2012. http://han-travel.com/places/orang-asli-village.html 

Joraiha Zakaria, Loh Hoay Ping. Wedding ceremony in Malaysia: Orang Asli Wedding. 2009. http://ethnicabudaya.blogspot.my/2010/03/orang-asli-wedding.html (Accessed Dec 7, 2015)

Official Website of Tourism Malaysia. Music and Dance. 2015 http://www.tourism.gov.my/en/us/about-malaysia/culture-n-heritage/music-and-dance  

Ben van Wijnen. The Malaysia Site: Orang Asli. 2015 http://www.malaysiasite.nl/orangeng.htm 

Conclusion

Conclusion

It is cannot denied that Malaysia is a multicultural society. We can see that there are differences parenting practices of different culture such as Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sabah and Sarawak and Aboriginal people.

In malays, they are emphasizing love-oriented techniques when disciplining their children, giving encouragement in their children’s studies and malay child is growing up emotionally secure but also independent. 

For Chinese, the parents bring pressure and expectations high on their children as they focus significant amounts of money upon their children when the children succeed in academics and other areas.

Whereas for Indians, parents are strict with children behavior when communicate with elder and whole family is involved in rearing of children.

For Sabah and Sarawak, the family is patriarchal family where the father made the decision for his family. Although Sabah and Sarawak parents are not as strict as parents in urban country but they will send their children to school at an early age especially for aboriginal people that some of the parents are not able to discipline so they send them to school to give their teacher to educate them.

Orang Asli parents are proud with their beliefs and culture, so that they did not expect much on the children. They teach their children to sustain their life without being dependent on money.

In conclusion, although parents from different culture have different styles to practice their children but they have same motive to see their children success in their future. So, whatever the parents decide for their children will give a great impact on their children’s lives and behavior. No matter what is the our culture, we will love and take care of our children from being hurt.