Embracing Diversity through the Implementation of Multicultural Education in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore: A Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52562/jdle.2026.1905Keywords:
diversity, literature review, multicultural education, Southeast AsiaAbstract
Multicultural education is recognized as a key response to cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity, yet empirical research from Southeast Asia remains limited in international literature. This scoping review examines the extent and nature of empirical studies on multicultural education conducted in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Searches in ERIC, Scopus, and Google Scholar yielded 20 peer-reviewed empirical articles published up to 2023. Descriptive and inductive content analyses were applied to map research characteristics, educational levels, methodologies, and dominant perspectives. The findings indicate that research is largely qualitative, concentrated at the secondary education level, and predominantly focused on teachers’ perspectives, followed by students’ and principals’ views. Across contexts, recurring challenges include limited curricular integration, insufficient teacher preparation, and tensions between multicultural ideals and political or market-driven educational agendas. This review highlights the need for more theoretically grounded and methodologically diverse research to strengthen multicultural education policy and practice in Southeast Asia.
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