Hamid, Samsuddin bin Abd (2020) Assessing attitude toward interreligious harmony among Muslim students in Malaysian secondary schools. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study explores attitudes toward interreligious harmony among Muslim students in Malaysian secondary schools. The inquiry investigates the relationship between Muslim students’ attitudes toward interreligious harmony and a range of independent factors such as individual differences, identity preferences, frequency of religious practices, and the types of schools study the participants attended. The study also assesses participants’ attitudes towards Islam and examines the relationship between attitudes toward Islam and interreligious harmony.

The research adopts a quantitative research design that includes a large-scale survey completed by a randomly selected group of Muslim students in 55 Malaysian secondary schools, to address the study’s questions. The main data collection instrument is a specially constructed attitude questionnaire called ‘You and Your Attitude toward Interreligious Harmony’. The questionnaire asked participants’ personal backgrounds, identity preferences, frequency of religious practices, attitude towards Islam, intercultural and interreligious engagement and attitude toward interreligious harmony. Responses from 3481 participants, consisting of 1418 males and 2063 females who completed the survey, were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis.

The key findings are presented in three parts as three analysis chapters. The first part of the analysis deals with religiosity by examining participants’ identity preferences, frequency of religious practices and attitude towards Islam. Results indicated that the majority of participants in this study used religion (Islam) to express their identity rather than ethnicity and nationality. In terms of religious practice, the majority of the respondents perform obligatory five daily prayers, read Quran and attend mosque sometimes. ‘The Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam’ was adopted and translated into the Malaysian language to measure participants’ attitude toward Islam. The results indicated that the translated version of the scale was reliable and valid, and relevant to Malaysian Muslim participants. The translated scale possesses a high internal consistency coefficient (α = .897). The results indicated that the majority of participants scored high on the scale. The participants among females, self-reported higher religious observance than males and students who attended faith-based schools tended to score a higher attitude towards Islam than non-faith-based schools’ students.

The second part of the data analysis provided an initial investigation of the reliability and validity of the 18-item Attitude toward Interreligious Harmony Scale. The scale has a high internal consistency coefficient (α = .869). The results support the development of the Attitude toward Interreligious Harmony Scale as a scientific tool for the attitudinal study of interreligious relations and generally appropriate to use when measuring attitude towards interreligious harmony among secondary school Muslim participants within the context of Malaysia.

The results on attitude toward interreligious harmony was demonstrated that respondents’ personal background (sex and age), frequency of attending mosque and attitude towards Islam; attitude towards Islam was a stronger predictor to attitude toward interreligious harmony compared to religious practices and religious identity; and no significant effect of type of school was found on attitude towards interreligious harmony.

The present study has made an original contribution to the emerging empirical body of research in the interdisciplinary field of Islamic Education Studies and the wider education policy discussions in Malaysian context. The limitations and implications of the study, as well as directions for future research, are discussed in the concluding chapter.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BV Practical Theology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	High school students -- Malaysia -- Attitudes, High school students -- Religious life -- Malaysia, Attitude (Psychology) -- Religious aspects, Harmony (Philosophy) -- Religious aspects
Official Date:	August 2020
Dates:	Date Event August 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Education Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Sahin, Abdullah, 1968- ; Francis, Leslie J.
Sponsors:	Malaysia. Ministry of Education ; Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	xii, 249 leaves : colour illustrations
Language:	eng

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