ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an overview of neoliberalism itself as it plays out globally in education and then introduces and develops the theory of 'ethnicized neoliberalism' before applying the concept to postcolonial Malaysia. It argues that the Malaysian government pursues an 'ethnicized neoliberalism' in its attempts to achieve high-income national status while the government and ethnic collectives continue to strategically use these economic development models for the social and political positioning of these ethnic groups in contemporary Malaysia. The chapter considers how ethnicized neoliberal education in postcolonial Malaysia results in discriminatory educational policies and practices, which have major implications for issues of equity and opportunity for different groups. The major systemic problems within the Malaysian education system, Malaysia has made impressive quantitative educational gains since independence. The chapter examines how the politics of ethnicized neoliberalism play out within different educational spaces, showing how policies and representations affect the opportunities of different groups, some of them new groups, in Malaysia.
