The Malaysian Journal of Social Administration

Career Decision-making Process of Secondary School Students in Maldives: Recommendations for Integrating Career Education into Secondary Schools Curriculum

Fathimath Shougee — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

While the career choice process has been extensively studied, research on the career decision-making process has yet to be done in the context of the Maldives. This qualitative study addresses this gap in understanding the career decision-making process of adolescents in Maldives. The paper focuses on first-generation students' reflections on encounters with occupational information and experiences that raised their self-awareness during their adolescent/secondary school years and their challenges and unmet decision-making needs with the aim of identifying revenues for incorporating career education into the secondary school curriculum. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to explore the experiences of college/university students studying in career-relevant undergraduate degree programmes. Findings highlighted the need for a broad generalist secondary school curriculum, increased young people's occupational knowledge, and kept interests alive through extracurricular activities. Policy implications include addressing equity issues between schools and incorporating occupational information into teacher training programmes for secondary school subject teachers

Does Transformational Leadership Affects NPOs Performance?

Hasnatulsyakhira Abdullah Hadi, Saunah Zainon — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

This paper intends to focus on the importance of transformational leadership and whether it affects NPO performance. Nowadays, the role of NPOs has become more critical since the occurrence of several unfortunate events, such as the outbreak of the pandemic and the natural disasters that frequently happened. NPOs act as a helping hand for the government to handle public affairs, have made them accountable to the public at large, and need to be managed by good leaders. In addition, for organisations to achieve transparency, individual managers must agree to conduct their jobs in an atmosphere of trust and high ethical standards. The implementation of transformational leadership can resolve the mentioned issue. This study exposes the importance of transformational leadership and its effects on NPO performance. Previous studies have found that transformation has positive impacts on organisational performance. Hence, this research focuses on Malaysia and the third sector. NPOs are obligated to excel in their field as they carry the same responsibility as the government in improving society's quality of life. At the end of the research, the results determine whether transformational leadership influences the performance of NPOs. This research applies qualitative research design and uses content analysis for the methodology. This study employs a search strategy using online databases, including Scopus and ISI Web of Science (WoS), for studies published from 2017-2021. Therefore, this research is expected to improve the transformational leadership practice in Malaysia. Thus, NPOs can improve their future performance in serving their beneficiaries.

Revisit Participatory Culture: Analyse the Effect of Online Fitness Education on Communication

Yihan Qi , Haiyi Tong — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, health problems have become prominent. Under the impact of community lockdowns caused by the coronavirus, online fitness has become more popular for three main reasons. First, online fitness synthesises sports and internet technology and provides a platform for exercise. Second, with the development of 5G technology, online fitness can exercise at any place and time of fragmentation. Third, compared with the traditional model, online fitness has both type and price advantages. However, due to the weak sense of participation in online fitness, users will inevitably feel lonely. Nevertheless, by sending bullet screens, users have created a new participatory culture. This research selected over 100,000 bullet screens from Bilibili, a comprehensive video community with a high concentration of young generations in China. The authors also use Python to analyse these bullet screens for content and emotion analysis from the time and content dimensions. The results show that compared with the traditional model, the fitness video can bring more sense of participation and presence, and the impact on users' enthusiasm is positive, which will further prove that participatory culture plays an indispensable role in the effect of community health. In addition, this study also finds that over time, user engagement in bullet screens with the same video decreases.

Correctional Institution (Prison) and the Control of Recidivism among Ex-Convicts in Southwest Nigeria

Ilori Oladapo Mayowa — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Recidivism has emerged as one of the foremost social challenges of the 21^st century. It remains a considerable social threat facing every society and government today. For that reason, it has garnered considerable attention from scholars interested in developing and testing theories of crime and social change, understanding the process and experience of re-entry, and identifying and evaluating ways to improve successful inmate transitions back into society. Recidivism level has continued to increase despite various intervention strategies. It is on this note that this study is designed to determine the level of recidivism among inmates, assess the functions of correctional institutions, level of job opportunities, and family/social acceptance among ex-convicts in Southwest Nigeria. It is also to establish the relationship that exists between correctional institution, family/social acceptance, and job opportunities in the control of recidivism among ex-convicts in Southwest Nigeria. The study is quantitative, therefore questionnaires were used as study instrument at the Medium Correctional Centre in Ado Ekiti, Southwest Nigeria, where data were collected randomly using 5-scale Likert structured questionnaires among 200 recidivists and semi-structured questionnaires among 200 correctional officials. The reliability and validity test results for both recidivist's and correctional officials' instruments ranged from 0.706 to 0.860. The results show 75% of the respondents get re-arrested, re-tried, and re-convicted for another crime after being released from the previous jail period between 2-3 years. The study also reveals a high level of social and family stigmatisation of ex-convicts, coupled with a high level of unemployment among them. Therefore, the study recommends that government, correctional institutions, and other policy-decision makers enact and enforce policies through awareness campaigns and sensitisation programmes that will help reduce and discourage the inmates from relapsing into crime in future.

Family Interaction Patterns Among Adult Children and Divorced Parents According to Bowen’s Family System Theory: A Case Study of Chinese Family in China

Dai Aihui — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Recent years have seen a global trend that more and more adults experience the divorce of their parents. However, the impact of parental divorce on adult children is overlooked due to the independence and maturity of adult children. Existing studies also tend to focus on young children in divorced families as there is substantial evidence on the consequences of parental divorce that impact underage children's physical and mental development. Parents' divorce can remarkably affect adult children's cognition of family relationships. As some literature has noticed, adult children's relational uncertainty and complication in post-parental divorce demonstrate the importance of research in this domain. However, little focus is on how this change in cognition of family relationships can impact family interaction. Therefore, a preliminary study was conducted to investigate the impact of parental divorce on adult children of divorce (ACOD) in China. The study adopted a narrative inquiry method to explore the family interaction patterns conversationally. The preliminary report shows that there are three patterns for ACOD, namely, support divorce type, avoidance type, and inability to intervene type, and those who grow up in high-conflict families can grapple with family uncertainty after their parental divorce. The intervention emphasises post-divorce parenting programmes and parental conflict resolution initiatives, which play a prominent protective role in the children's long-term healthy development.

The Well-being of the Left-behind Children in Rural Sichuan, China: A Preliminary Study Report

Long Ling — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Chinese scholars have studied the status of left-behind children's subjective and general well-being. However, one significant gap is the need to measure comprehensive well-being in China's backward economic rural areas. This study measures the well-being of left-behind children in rural Sichuan, China. Adopting the Social-Ecological Theory as its framework, this paper focused on the well-being of the left-behind children in the micro-system. The preliminary study found that left-behind children reported a very high level of individual well-being, scored lower in most of the listed essential items, and had poor scores in child protection service, stress and problem management, and community participation. In conclusion, the results from this study provide inputs to a new direction for social policies and services for left-behind children in rural areas in China

The Implementation of Solid Waste Management Policies in Southeast Asia: The Present Situations and Future Recommendations

Mohd Fazli Abdul Aziz , Raja Noriza Raja Ariffin — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Solid waste management (SWM) is a challenge for urban cities in most of the globe, including Southeast Asia. The weak implementation of effective policies, mainly due to increasing solid waste (SW) generation, changing lifestyles, increasing demand for products and services, rapid urbanisation, and multiplication of various waste compositions, have affected the capacity of the authorities to secure financial budget, adequate human resources, and development of infrastructures in managing SW. The ineffective SWM causes severe health hazards and environmental degradation. Most Southeast Asian cities lack efficient SWM programmes. In aiming to provide a SW dataset for the Southeast Asian region, each country’s waste generation and composition are profiled. Southeast Asia generated about 137.4 million tonnes of SW in 2016. Organic waste is the highest fraction of total SW generated, which accounted for 52 percent. The country’s income level influences the waste composition of each country. Landfilling and open dumpsites are the standard methods of waste disposal in the region, accounting for 55 percent of the region’s SW disposal method. Further, to support the policy implementation, this paper analysed gaps and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and provided recommendations to incorporate into the action plans for effective SWM policy implementation in Southeast Asia.

Education Gap during Emergency Remote Learning amongst Primary School Students in Selangor Low-Cost Flats

Chan Yen Ping — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

This study examined the root causes of the education gap for primary school students living in Selangor low-cost flats throughout emergency remote learning during the Movement Control Order in Malaysia (2020-21). It assessed the availability of resources and preparedness for teaching and learning during emergency remote learning and analysed the effect of emergency remote learning on teachers, parents, and students. The study was conducted in three low-cost flats in Selangor, Malaysia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted amongst 12 parents (3 focus group interviews) and three school leaders of these students, with complementary interviews from three selected Malaysian Ministry of Education officers (state and federal level). Thematic analysis was conducted on the interview responses using the CIPP (Context, Input, Process, Product) model framework embedded within the principal-agent theory. This study identifies positive input and processes throughout emergency remote learning, namely in content resources, flexible Ministry of Education guidelines, and proactive school leadership. It also evaluates the weaknesses in the education process, specifically in reporting communications and participation in online lessons. This study concludes with a two-pronged policy recommendation for short-term recovery and prevention and the long-term establishment of a robust online learning system.

Re-employment Pathways and Pension Inequality for Retired Women in China

Yangkan Yang — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Previous literature concentrates on China's pension systems and reforms from a macro-level and financial perspective. The gendered pension inequality regarding retirement and re-employment of older women has been ignored to date, and this study set out to address this lacuna. The quantitative research method was adopted in this study. Four hundred women respondents, aged between 55 to 65, who reached the compulsory retirement age were involved and selected in four cities in Fujian Province. A multinomial logistic model was introduced to analyse data, such as re-employment methods, pension incomes and actual retirement age, to explore links between pension schemes and re-employment modes. A significant pension inequality in pension income among retired women in urban China is reported, mainly between enterprise workers/ freelancers and public-sector employees. The study found that respondents' actual retirement age is often older than the compulsory retirement age. This discrepancy may be attributed to the heavy family-care duties that women often bear, which can lead to increased employment after retirement. Gender norms play a significant role in this, as women are more likely to face trade-offs between work/retirement and family care needs throughout their lives. The lack of improvement in gendered re-employment pathways for women reflects the broader patterns of inequality within the current pension scheme in China, highlighting the challenges that women face due to societal expectations.