Building national identity through the secondary school literature component in Malaysia / Raphael Thoo Yi Xian, Foong Soon Seng, Khor Zyeh Lyn and Pong Kok Shiong

This study seeks to analyze the themes prevalent in the Form 1-3 literary texts since the
reintroduction of the literature component into Malaysia’s secondary school curricula in 2000,
up to the most recent Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah (KSSM) which is to be
implemented in 2017. According to the National Education Blueprint (2013-2025), national
identity is one of the six student aspirations. The incorporation of this theme would aid students
to better understand their multiethnic culture and build their national identity (Kaur and
Mahmor, 2014); this paper employed thematic analysis to further investigate the prevalence of
the theme of nationhood in these texts. Findings show that only one text hinted the theme of
nationhood out of 10. Other foreign texts contained a variety of themes other than that of
nationhood. Past studies indicated that the literary texts should have a balance of local and
foreign texts. Local works should be introduced first, especially in the lower secondary level
(Ghazali, Setia, Muthusamy, and Jusoff, 2009; Isa and Mahmud, 2012; Kaur and Mahmor,
2014). However, the current literary texts in the KSSM do not correlate with the aspiration in the
National Education Blueprint.