External Contexts

External contexts meanwhile, refer to ‘pressures and expectations generated by

wider local and national policy frameworks such as…league table positions’ (Ball et al., 2012:

36). In this research, it also refers to parents’ ‘support and relationships’ (Braun et al., 2011a: 594) with these schools. As regulated by the Ministry of Education, Education Regulations (Parents Teachers Association) 1998, it is compulsory for every school to have its own Parents Teachers Association (PTA) comprised of teachers in the school, parents of the students in the school and any application from interested Malaysian citizens. The main objectives of PTA are to enable parents and teachers to exchange ideas in improving the quality of students’ education and to assist in raising school funds for the purpose of upgrading school infrastructures and educational matters.

Analysis of school documents; school magazines and school websites; showed that PTA did play an important roles in providing external support to these four schools. Nevertheless, Bakawali school PTA was the most active and had even been chosen to represent Selangor in competing for the National Level Excellent PTA Award. Indeed, due to

parents’ socioeconomic backgrounds, Bakawali school’s PTA could afford to assist in providing more and better quality academic and co-curricular activities and opportunities

for the school communities. For instance, besides sponsoring coaches’ fees, gymnastic and cheerleader teams’ uniforms, Scout’s Bonfire and Prom Night, Bakawali school PTA had also brought a few teachers and the PTA committee members to visit a school in Indonesia and Thailand. Indeed, with the Ministry of Education’s new decision to discontinue the implementation of The Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI); Bakawali school’s PTA was working to gain its members’ support in ensuring the continuity of this policy particularly in its own school.

Similar to Ball et al. (2012), the pressure to produce excellent academic results was evident throughout the fieldwork. Schools’ academic excellence was viewed not only through the number of students who scored A in the external National Examinations, but also through the school key indicator allocated in the new National Key Indicator Result Area (NKRA) policy. This is achieved by accumulating school’s national examination results and school’s self-rating scores that would determine the school’s indicator ranged from

Band One to Band Seven (the best to lowest performances). Despite the objective of this key performance indicator being to assist Ministry of Education in determining the schools that need support in improving school performances, this action particularly to Cempaka school’s teachers which during the visit was categorised as one of the low band schools, led to the state and district level authorities to view this school as a ‘failing school’ (Ball et al., 2012: 73). Thus, despite the fact that to some teachers, the education system has moved towards developing a wholesome person through subjects such as Moral Education and Physical Education and through more emphasis being put on co-curricular activities, to a high number of teachers interviewed, the education system still emphasised examination results. The pressure to produce academic excellence from the State Education Department, parents and society had led to the form of teaching and learning that were oriented to passing and scoring examinations. As claimed by many teachers, this had not only caused teachers to ‘rush to finish syllabus’ (Dahlia 12) but also to ‘spoon-fed’ (Bakawali 17) and

‘memorisation to pass examination’ (Bakawali 2) rather than ‘understanding and applying’ (Anggerik 1) knowledge taught. Indeed, ‘these political and emotional responses to external

pressures and changes become part of the way in which’ teachers in this study, ‘read and interpret’ (Ball et al., 2012 : 37) CCE curriculum policy. For example, as indicated by a senior non-CCE teacher in Cempaka school, school’s society performances relied on students’ external National Examinations achievement had led:

‘school to put a small percentage of initiatives in developing the aspect of citizenship….because students’ development in term of citizenship is abstract and less visible’ (Cempaka 13).

In relation to this, rather than emphasising CCE, a subject that is not examined in the external National Examinations, from the interviews generally teachers in the four schools put more emphasis on external National Examination subjects that would bring visible performance indicators.

It was apparent that in this research, CCE ‘has been challenged by the performativity discourse’ (Jeffrey, 2002: 531) that ‘prioritized the pursuit of excellence and accountability by focusing on the satisfaction to be gained from the achievement of goals and improvements in performance’ (Jeffrey, 2002: 532). Despite the purpose of education, as envisaged by the National Education Philosophy which is to develop a wholesome person

in terms of physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual, to a high number of respondents, it is more towards ‘human capital development’ (Cempaka 9). In fact, ‘raising the achievement levels of pupils in national tests to ensure a high position’ (Jeffrey, 2002 : 531) in the state and national educational ranks was still the main focus of most teachers. Teachers in this study generally could be identified as ‘performative’ (Ball, 2003 : 226) as they placed more emphasis on examination subjects. This was influenced by the pressures not only from macro and meso levels but also from parents, whom according to a senior non-CCE Chinese teacher in Bakawali school would prioritise academic achievement in choosing the school for their children. Meanwhile, to a CCE teacher who was also the Afternoon Session Senior Assistant in Anggerik, the school’s main agenda was to achieve excellent academic results, as this was the expectation of external school society. Thus, Ball et al., (2012: 72) emphasised that ‘policies do not get enacted in isolation’, the external pressures of performativity discourse could mediate the way CCE is translated and enacted at the micro level.