Conscientising the Singaporean Malay-Muslim Youth

This monograph documents the writer’s investigation of the effectiveness of community learning programmes in building up the critical thinking capacities of Malay-Muslim (MM) youths in Singapore. The premise is that a lack of critical thinking competencies among members of the MM community has contributed to the many social problems that they are currently facing. This research points to such issues as resulting from the prevalence of negative mental models within the Malay worldview. Underpinned by an eclectic research framework, the study begins by seeking MM youths’ perceptions of issues facing their community. However, what is more crucial is that it asks these youths to relate their personal experiences of participating in these activities with how they subsequently were, or were not, ‘conscientised’. The research sees these as precursors to capacity building for critical thinking. Based on the responses, this study identifies five experiential categories which, when encountered by the youths, contributed towards conscientising and subsequently building their capacities for thinking critically of themselves and their community. Several recommendations are then formulated.