Civic education and moral education in Malaysia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Malaysia got her independence from Britain in 1957 and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has existed since 1967. The ASEAN Vision 2020 affirmed an outward-looking ASEAN to play an important role in the international community. One of ASEAN’s sections is the ASEAN socio-cultural community. This article compares moral and civic education in Malaysia and several countries in ASEAN. A multiple document analysis approach has been used in this research. Its focus is on how civic and moral education has existed and has transformed due to multiple multicultural and globalisation factors. Three research questions have been explored from the Malaysian and ASEAN perspective: how is civic education taking shape; how is moral education taking shape; and what are the opportunities and challenges of these two subjects? Reports, curriculum documents, experiential learning practice and journal articles in civic education and moral education in Malaysia and ASEAN countries were analysed. The inclusion of service-learning as an experiential pedagogy is suggested for the way forward of these two subjects. The article is original in nature and has much textual-social impact.