Faculty & Centre

Tourism promotional videos are known to play an important role in shaping destination image which motivates people to travel to the destination. Since destination images create expectations, marketing videos should ideally promote realistic scenarios which the tourist would experience at the destination. Failure to match the communicated destination image with reality, would only lead to tourist disappointment. Applying content analysis, we analyse the Brunei Tourism Promotional Video produced by Brunei Tourism in 2012, looking into possible areas where viewers are presented with unrealistic scenarios on Brunei’s rainforests and people. We also look into the Biocultural content of the video, to understand how the biological and cultural diversities of the country has been portrayed. The video is then compared objectively with other prominent videos from the region to generate a comparative understanding. The results show that tourism promotion videos published from Brunei and Indonesia have a significant percentage of unrealistic content.

The survey assessed the learning styles and study strategies used by 135 randomly selected Brunei secondary school students and compared them by educational level, math ability, and gender. Junior students (Forms 1-3) rely heavily on the use of the written-expressive learning style than their senior counterparts (Forms 4-5). In addition, the more able math students dominantly use the auditory-language learning style than their less able peers. Furthermore, high math achievers were better and more efficient users of the text book reading, note-taking, and memory study strategies than low achievers. Moreover, female students were more effective and superior users of the visual-language and auditory-visual-kinesthetic learning styles including the text book reading, note-taking, memory, test preparation, and concentration study strategies. These are perhaps some of the reasons why females perform better at math than males. Overall, the findings seem to have wide-ranging implications for teaching students with high support needs in mathematics.

Wars, armed combat, and military occupations are as old as humanity with conflict arising over mates, food and subsequently territory and material resources and ultimately power, control, and domination. The weapons of conflict have also evolved in sophistication, efficacy, and destructiveness with little sign of abatement. There are presently scores of conflict hotspots (of varying degree) across the globe with others simmering under the surface. This paper details examples drawn from Southeast Asia as an exploratory study to develop a compendium and potential typology set of wars and armed conflicts across the region over time. The aim is to discern patterns of occurrence, and more importantly, primary driving forces and/or ‘push’ factors that precipitated conflict in the first place. Scrutiny and analysis of discernible patterns might reveal certain conditions and situational commonalities that alert us to the need of making concerted efforts to avoid similar occurrences in the future.

Since time immemorial, Southeast Asia has been exposed to external influence, which has sometimes appeared as shocks with negative effects. In post-independent Southeast Asia, the destiny of regional states and regional stability are inexorably intertwined. Thus, it is imperative that the region develop the capacity to effectively cope with external shocks stemming from different sources. This paper aims at identifying this capacity by looking at three contemporary cases of external impact: (1) the South China Sea dispute; (2) the Western pressure on Southeast Asia for the domestic conduct of the Myanmar government; and (3) the impact of the newly established international norm of the responsibility to protect (R2P) on Southeast Asia. The concept of mediation regime is adopted as an analytical tool for the case studies. Among the major findings of the paper are: (1) that Southeast Asia has developed the capacity to absorb external shocks in several ways unique to itself; and (2) that the region also acquired other capabilities to cope with the shocks, such as preventing external shocks, ensuring the co-existence of incompatible positions of the parties and deflecting external shocks.

This paper examines woman (gender), Muslim (Orient) and elderly (age) from a postcolonial perspective. It highlights the relevance of spirituality to ageing, which is currently under-studied in sociology. Ten Brunei Malay Muslim women aged 60 - 76 were interviewed, with the aid of photo-elicitation method, about their experience of ageing. All interviewees perceive ageing as a gift from God and should be embraced wholeheartedly but this is not necessarily translated into practice. Nonetheless, spirituality remains prominent and heightened as one grows older. This study also demonstrated how these women’s ageing experience is mediated by structural influences. They include ongoing Islamisation discourse, strong Malay cultural and Islamic values, interdependence of family structure (social expectation of filial piety) and social rapport and network. Their experiences reveal a nuance understanding and diverse narratives of ageing. These findings open up new possibilities of understanding ageing in non-Western contexts.

On the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, scholars have documented a precarious land tenure, livelihood and security situation for many smallholders. Agrarian political economy studies provide insightful analysis of the underlying causes of much poverty and violence on the island. Less attention has been given to cases of smallholder success. This article proposes that conditions for smallholder farming, even among ethnic minority groups, are more varied across the island than the literature suggests. In upland villages of north-central Mindanao, there are signs of dynamic smallholder economies. The main case study is from a thriving mixed swidden and fixed field Maranao-Muslim farming village. Almost all the households in the village had successfully claimed land as their own and diversified and improved their livelihoods in recent times. To explain this positive outcome of agrarian transition, the article builds on a relational approach developed to assess the bargaining power of smallholders in land deals. To elaborate on the kinds of relationships smallholders use to access land and improve livelihoods, the article draws on anthropological literature on kinship, land tenure and place. A stronger cross fertilization of key insights in agrarian political economy and anthropological literature on kinship helps develop the debate on agrarian transition in the southern Philippines.

Education is important for every Muslim society as the Prophet made it incumbent on all Muslims. However, the issue of what category of knowledge is permitted for Muslims, the method for imparting this knowledge, and what to impart (content) are arguably the main challenges in Islamic education. Many Muslim scholars have looked at the concept of knowledge from various perspectives. In his monumental work, Ta‘līm Al-Muta‘allim, the classical Muslim scholar, Al-Zarnūjī, expounds the basic principles of education in Islam, which, indeed, have been used as the teaching methodology by many scholars throughout the Muslim world. Using content analysis, this article evaluates the concept of knowledge and its imperatives in Islam from the perspective of Al-Zarnūjī. It was found that Al-Zarnūjī classified knowledge into two main categories. One is perceived as the core of society’s survival and is thus seen as binding on the entire society. This is known as fard.u kifāyah. The other is individually required and is called fard.u ‘ayn. He argues that both should be guided by the Islamic religious values. Therefore, Al-Zarnūjī considers knowledge as a means for advancement and the perfection of the individual and the society both in this world and the hereafter. This makes his concept of knowledge inseparable from the Islamic ethical values. Al Zarnuji’s contribution to knowledge lies in the packaging and dissemination of the Islamic academic heritage, particularly, the methodology for teaching and learning which is relevant to all the levels of the education ladder.

There is lack of student engagement noticeably among secondary schools. Willms, Friesen, & Milton (2009), studied that disengagement typically becomes a concern in middle school and high school. The study involved student engagement in the classroom, with three specific interests firstly, to look at the perception of teachers on student engagement, where teachers conceptualized student engagement as only behavioral dimension and both agreed that cultural context is a factor in student learning. Secondly, to look at the degree students exhibiting engaging behaviors and thirdly, to explore the factors that affect student engagement. From the analysis, students did exhibit engagement as they were engaged to do the activity (behavioral engagement) and excited to do a group work (affective engagement). Positive body language, consistence focus, verbal participation, student confidence, fun and excitement play deterministic roles in conceptualizing students’ level of engagement. Hopefully, the study will generate outcome that are beneficial to teachers to be aware on the importance of engaging students in learning especially in Social Studies.

Educational attainment plays an important role in determining an individual’s future social and economic well-being. By pursuing higher education, students are able to pursue occupational opportunities that result in outcomes such as higher income, high-status job prospects and better life-style. Educational aspiration has been linked to occupational aspiration and is considered a valuable predictor of academic attainment and the first step in the process of career choice. Students’ educational and occupational aspirations are influenced and shaped by personal, family and community factors such as family involvement, gender, socio-economic status, parental level of education, school environment and peers. The varieties of influences on educational and occupational aspirations are acknowledged in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Hence, this systems theory was used as the theoretical framework for the study because it contributes to the understanding of the sociocultural environment that affects the development of an individual and highlights the importance of interaction between an individual and the environment progressively over time. Most research to date on students’ aspirations is derived from the Western context. Little is known about Bruneian students’ educational and occupational aspirations. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the educational and occupational aspirations of the Year 11 (those re-sitting their Brunei-Cambridge GCE O-Level) and Lower Six (those who passed their Brunei Cambridge GCE O-Level) students in Brunei Darussalam. To achieve the research aim, a mixed methods research design involving three studies was employed. In Study One, 10 school counsellors were involved in designing the Educational and Occupational Aspirations Survey Questionnaire (EOASQ). Study Two was a quantitative study where the EOASQ was administered to 815 students to examine their perceptions of influences on their educational and occupational aspirations. Study Three, a qualitative study, investigated the influences on students’ educational and occupational aspirations through focus-group interviews with 10 groups of students, and individual interviews with 10 school counsellors and nine parents. This study revealed that students had high educational and occupational aspirations. Most students wished to achieve Bachelor degrees, Higher National Diplomas and National Diplomas. The students aspired more to the occupational categories of ‘Professional’ and ‘Technical and i associate professional’. An interesting finding of this research was that male and female students aspire to similar occupations. Some female students were likely to venture into occupations traditionally held by males (e.g., Science and engineering’ professionals), while some male students aspired to the ‘College, university and higher education/religious teaching’ and ‘Legal, social and cultural’ professionals. This study also found little difference between the students’ occupational aspiration and occupational expectation. Parental total monthly income was not an important predictor of students’ educational and occupational aspirations. Academic involvement and support from parents, as well as support and encouragement from teachers, school counsellors, and friends influenced students’ aspirations. Though students viewed school counsellors as helpful and accessible, many still lack of information regarding educational and occupational options and consequently have limited understanding and awareness about the subjects and courses relevant to their occupational aspirations. The findings of this study provide new information for stakeholders such as policy makers, parents, teachers, school counsellors and the community about assisting students to shape their educational and occupational plans to achieve their aspirations. Effective programmes and initiatives need to be in place that includes collaboration between teachers and school counsellors, school and parents, school and the community, as well as the school and the government agencies and private sectors in an effort to raise awareness, shape and enhance students’ educational and occupational aspirations. Consequently, these efforts could help to enhance the country’s economy and competitiveness, and meet the aspiration of the Brunei Vision 2035 that Brunei Darussalam will be known for its well-educated and highly skilled people, its quality of life, and sustainable and dynamic economy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reflection on students’ performance and assessment in civil engineering. In this study, the students in the final semester of a civil engineering programme were divided into two groups: the first group was tasked with writing a reflective paper, and the second group, a control group, was not required to write a reflective paper. Both groups were then assessed through a test based on the content of a lecture. The data were analysed in two parts. The first part comprised examination of the content of the reflective paper and its impact on students’ performance. In the second part, the performance of both groups of students was compared. A research hypothesis was specified and tested. The hypothesis was tested through two independent samples t-test to determine whether there was a significant difference in the mean result between these two groups of students. The study revealed that the use of reflection in civil engineering education potentially could improve students’ performance.

This experimental case-study examined the performance of convenient sampling of fourty-five Year 9 students in solving word problems involving percentage from two classes in one government secondary school in Brunei Darussalam, using Bar Model as a solving strategy. Data was gathered quantitatively through written tests in the form of six word problem items as pre-test and post-test. The mean score of the pre-test was 0.93 indicating that the performance of the participating Year 9 students in solving word problems involving percentage was low prior to intervention. Intervention lessons produced a gain in the post-test mean to 2.87. Although the mean of post-test marks is still lower than the passing mark of the test, paired-sample t-test provided evidence of significance, thus proving that Bar Model Method had positive effect to the performance of word problem involving percentage. Evidence also indicated an increase in the students’ overall marks from pre-test to post-test, with almost all except two students failed the pre-test to twenty-six students achieving marks above passing mark of 3 in post-test. Item-by-item analysis showed increase in correct responses in every item in post-test, even those with no attempts in pre-test. These provided further evidence that there is overall improvement in students’ performance in word problems related to percentage after the use of Bar Model as intervention.

The cross-sectional field survey examined the roles of mathematics anxiety, self-esteem, proactive coping, and test stress in mathematics achievement among 204 (151 females) randomly selected Year 8-10 Brunei secondary school students. The negative dimensions of mathematics anxiety, self-esteem, and proactive coping correlated negatively with mathematics achievement and were both poor predictors of and barriers to mathematics achievement. Both test stress components (intrusive and avoidance) also related negatively with mathematics grades and were poor predictors of mathematics achievement. In addition, females scored significantly higher on negative self-esteem and intrusive stress variables than males. Furthermore, mathematically less able students scored significantly higher on the negative mathematics anxiety and negative self-esteem domains than more able peers. Moreover, positive proactive coping was a good predictor of mathematics achievement. Overall, the findings have practical significance indicating psychological areas where attention, counselling efforts and educational interventions need to be directed to help the at-risk and vulnerable students.

The rise of Korean pop culture signifies an active audience framework because, as this study finds, Indonesian Muslim youth are more active in their consumption of television dramas through laptops than through television. Globalisation has supported the instant availability of Korean television dramas on the internet, and these can be downloaded and shared as pirated DVDs and free files. Furthermore, Muslim youths who watch Korean television dramas actively imagine the modernity reflected in them, and seek to selectively experience the modern elements that are represented. This imagination is interwoven with their Islamic belief structure and thus allows them to be both modern and Muslim.

Hybridity is the antithesis to identity. It is a transgressive concept that blurs and traverses the boundaries by which identities are bounded. Between the poles of identity and hybridity lies the multiple positions that depends on how agency and power are exercised. This paper discusses the multidirectionality of the hybridizing process of the Chinese Indonesians, from assimilation during the Suharto’s New Order (1966-1998) to “resinicization” following the democratization process after fall of Suharto. It examines the cultural politics of the Chinese Indonesians in negotiating between hybridity and identity, as well as the underlying power dynamics in such negotiations. For many hybridized Chinese Indonesians who are unable to access the cultural resources in Chinese, learning Mandarin and performing Chineseness appeals more to economic rather than cultural logic. In light of the rise of China, this paper attempts to unpack the deeper embedded cultural and economic meaning to the return to primordial Chineseness among the Chinese in post-Suharto Indonesia.

The following paper specifically addresses the challenge that the international norm of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) posed to the old ‘ASEAN Way’ of non-interference in the sovereign affairs of its members. It examines the extent to which the ‘ASEAN Way’ adapted in the face of the Cyclone Nargis R2P crisis. The paper argues that Myanmar’s R2P crisis was a wakeup call for ASEAN. It not only challenged ASEAN’s old ways of dealing with crisis but provided a potential precedent for dealing more effectively with regional problems through mediation, action and hybridity. This in turn allowed for pragmatic adaptation without a wholesale abandonment of the Association’s founding principles and values.

Canada’s skilled worker program is designed to attract those educated and experienced individuals from around the world who are eligible to integrate into Canada’s labour market upon arrival. However, many skilled and other non-business-class immigrants do not find suitable jobs upon arrival in Canada. Some of them choose to open their own businesses and eventually become entrepreneurs. Drawing on the experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants, this paper examines how immigrants reposition themselves from the rank of non-business-class immigrants to that of entrepreneurs in the settlement process. The paper reports that migrant entrepreneurship is embedded within the dynamics of immigration trajectory and the broader context of the receiving society. Even though they are driven towards the lower end of the economy, innovations have expanded the breadth and depth of their businesses and made their businesses different and rewarding.

In many respects, this paper is a starting point in the consideration of research on Borneo as a field of studies which has both relied upon and contributed to the more general field of anthropology and the wider social sciences. I believe that this represents the first attempt to take stock of and to reflect on what has been achieved in scholarship on Borneo in the post war period and it has also considered the post-war colonial legacy and what has been achieved in research during the period of independence in Malaysian and Indonesian Borneo and Brunei Darussalam and in the era of nation-building and development. In presenting an overview of the field I have reflected on the literature and attempted to arrange and evaluate it in a more consistent and ordered fashion. I have used an overlapping set of organisational principles based on chronology, themes, individual legacies and contributions, and debates and controversies. There is much more I could have referred to and discussed in this introductory overview but the intention has been to stimulate reflection and debate on the development of our understanding about the societies and cultures of Borneo since the 1940s.

We report on the findings from three social psychology survey instruments administered to78 randomly selected Brunei student teachers of both genders. Males scored significantly higher than females on the masculinity-femininity dimension of the personal attributes inventory. In addition, mean scores for males were also significantly higher than those of their female counterparts on the equal distribution of labor and equal social roles domains of the attitudes towards women scale. However, there were no significant differences among the participants by teacher training programs and race or ethnicity. These results suggest that men have no prejudices over women. The participants might be able to live and work together peacefully. This is important for promoting social harmony and stability in the Brunei teaching profession where more females than males are increasingly assuming positions of higher responsibility previously held by males. Further mixed-methods research was recommended to gain additional insights.

A teachers’ practice cannot be characterised by a single lesson, hence comparison is best made with lesson sequences that better sample the diversity of a teacher’s practice. In this study, we video recorded lesson sequences in four Year 8 mathematics classrooms, as well as interviewed each of the four teachers in Brunei Darussalam. Because of our methodology and based on the findings from the richness in the data that was collected, there were some features in the video and interview data that emerged. One of the features is the significant short utterances made by the students as well as their respective teachers, and the extent of the teachers’ own and their students’ questioning behaviours in the lessons as perceived by the teachers themselves during the video-stimulated recall interviews. In the four Brunei classrooms that we studied, most of the lessons were so rushed, the teachers did most of the talking and when teachers and students do interact, it almost always involved faster-paced exchanges between them. Thus, restricting students to single words (“yes” or “no”) or short choral responses. Overall, the findings appear to indicate that short utterances implied that there were less (or even no) opportunities for fuller student participation in classroom discussions.