MALAYSIAN CHINESE STUDENTS UNDER THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY : THEIR DILEMMAS AND COPING STRATEGIES

Abstract

This is a study on how students responded to a situation where their opportunities for tertiary education is curtailed. The aim of this paper is to present the coping strategies adopted by the students and to account for the variations found among the coping strategies. The theoretical approaches used in this study are Symbolic Interactionism, Rational Choice Approach and Methodological Structuralism. Symbolic Interactionism is the main approach used in this study complemented by the other two. An integration of the three approaches is attempted in order to provide systematic theoretical framework. This study does not stop at the level of understanding and explaining the coping strategies. It is also the intention of this study to provide theoretical contribution by examining the completeness of Symbolic Interactionism and how it can be supplemented. As a starting point, a critique is carried out on Herbert Blumer. This attempt should not be seen as taking Blumer’s Symbolic Interactionism as representative, but merely as a starting point for this endeavour. With all these intentions in mind, it is the hope of the writer that this study can make some contribution to Sociology for sociological understanding of human behaviour.