Media Technology, Adult Education, and National Development: The Malaysian Experience

This article explores the use of media technology in Malaysia's adult education programmes within an overall national development context. A qualitative methodology incorporating non-participant observation, reportorial interviews, and archival collection of news articles, speeches, and other printed materials was used to investigate three areas of research questions: I) defining basic and functional literacy in Malaysia, 2) the role of media technology in adult education, and 3) the social impact mediated and media-enhanced educational formats on personal, social, cultural, and political development. The theoretical framework for the study includes national development models, adult literacy in developing countries, and distance education as an educational delivery system, with the analysis of the results within a neo-Modernization model of national development. Although no evidence of systematic adult basic education in Malaysia was found, there are diverse nonformal functional literacy activities for adults, many ofwhich are mediated or media-enhanced. The study questions the appropriateness of distance education techniques for teaching Malaysian adults who are no longer in the formal school system. The implications of the findings for Malaysian educators, administrators, and policymakers, and the impact of these results on national development theory are discussed

Educational development between faculty and administration

This essay employs Identity Theory to explore the professional identities of educational developers, arguing that it is important to pay attention to the different saliences, or weights, that developers attach to the faculty and administrative sides of their identities

The Politics of Dissertation Advising: How Early Career Women Faculty Negotiate Access and Participation

Dissertation committees are complex social arenas that underscore expertise, image, and peer relationships—all of which affect professional identity and advancement. This study presents a sampling of how early career women faculty members learn about and negotiate their participation on dissertation committees. Research questions focused on participants’ concerns about the social and political aspects of participation viz à viz peer relationships and faculty rewards. We analyzed interview data using both holistic and constant comparative methods, resulting in a working model of active participation across three domains: knowledge, access, and membership. We also identified developmental trends of dissertation committee engagement across the early career