An Analysis of Malaysian-Chinese Parents’ Negotiation of Identities as their Children Begin Early Childhood Education and Care in Malaysia and Australia Shi Jing Voon Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) (Honours) Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Early Childhood Education) Department of Educational Studies Macquarie University 2016 iii Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ viii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ......................................................................................... ix Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... x Declaration .................................................................................................................................. xii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 15 Aims ............................................................................................................................................................ 18 Positioning Myself ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Significance ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Thesis Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 2: Literature Review .................................................................................................... 25 The Ethnic Chinese of Malaysia .............................................................................................................. 25 Initial Chinese Settlement in Malaya. .................................................................................................. 25 Today’s Malaysian-Chinese community in Malaysia. ........................................................................ 27 The Malaysian-Chinese in Australia ....................................................................................................... 34 The Early Malaysian-Chinese Immigrants in Australia. ..................................................................... 34 Today’s Malaysian-Chinese Immigrants in Australia. ........................................................................ 35 Identity ....................................................................................................................................................... 39 Cultural and Ethnic Identities. ............................................................................................................. 39 Immigrant Identity. .............................................................................................................................. 42 Parent Identities. .................................................................................................................................. 44 Parenting .................................................................................................................................................... 51 Baumrind’s Parenting Typology. ........................................................................................................ 51 iv Confucianism. ..................................................................................................................................... 55 A Broad Sociocultural Perspective .......................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework .......................................................................................... 65 Theoretical Conceptualisation of Identity Negotiation ......................................................................... 65 The Integrative Communicative Theory of Cross-Cultural Adaptation. ............................................. 66 The Identity Negotiation Theory. ........................................................................................................ 68 Combined Adapted Theoretical Frame. .............................................................................................. 72 Theoretical Conceptualisation of Parenting ........................................................................................... 75 Typology of Parent-Child Relational Orientations. ............................................................................ 76 Chapter 4: Methodology ............................................................................................................ 81 The Research Approach – Ethnographic Exemplifying Case Study ................................................... 81 Participants and Recruitment .................................................................................................................. 83 Participants. ......................................................................................................................................... 83 Recruitment. ........................................................................................................................................ 86 Data Collection and Analysis ................................................................................................................... 89 Observations. ....................................................................................................................................... 90 Semi-structured Interviews. ................................................................................................................ 91 Trustworthiness ................................................................................................................................... 93 Analysis and Coding. .......................................................................................................................... 94 Positioning Myself .............................................................................................................................. 95 Ethical Considerations .............................................................................................................................. 98 Chapter 5: Results ...................................................................................................................... 99 Acceptors ................................................................................................................................................. 105 It’s About Being Someone’s Child: Case Study of Acceptor Family in Kuala Lumpur. ................. 107 It’s Not About Where, Which Country, It’s About You: Case Study of Acceptor Family in Sydney. ................................................................................................................................. 119 Negotiators ............................................................................................................................................... 131 v They Do Their Job, We Have Our Responsibility: Case Study of Negotiator Family in Kuala Lumpur. ................................................................................................................................ 134 We Are Working Together Like, Maybe In Synergy: Case Study of Negotiator Family in Sydney.155 Challengers .............................................................................................................................................. 186 It Felt Good That I have Pulled Him Out Of This Dangerous Place: Case Study of Challenger Family in Kuala Lumpur. ..................................................................................................... 188 All They Do Here Is Play: Case Study of Challenger Family in Sydney. ......................................... 204 Chapter 6: Discussion ............................................................................................................... 222 Characteristics of Malaysian-Chinese parents’ identities ................................................................... 222 Perception of self. .............................................................................................................................. 223 Education. .......................................................................................................................................... 225 Perceived power structures. ............................................................................................................... 228 How Malaysian-Chinese parents meet, negotiate and overcome challenges to their beliefs, goals and understandings during a likely state of disjuncture ................................................................. 231 Historical considerations. .................................................................................................................. 231