Fatin Aliah Phang (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia)
I am a Chinese descendant, born in Sarawak, Borneo Island, and access to education – particularly science education – was considered a privilege when I was growing up.
Due to racial tensions during the 1960s in Malaysia, Malaysian public universities practiced a quota system for enrolling indigenous and non-indigenous students. I worked hard so that I could enroll into the science stream at my school, but my parents could not afford to send me to a private college or university to study science after school. This meant that I could only apply to public universities where the competition to enroll in science programmes is very fierce. In the end, I was enrolled in the physics education programme. I was not disappointed.
I fondly remember my childhood and the time my five siblings and I spent on role play at the shop house we used to live in. I always played the role of a teacher. I loved teaching. I have no idea what I was actually teaching at the age of seven or so, but getting my siblings listening attentively was very satisfying. I always loved watching my own teachers moving around in the class energetically trying to show us various explanations and answers to our questions; I loved watching my teachers demonstrating science experiments and I loved helping my teachers in the class getting my classmates to understand what I had understood. Later, due to my family’s financial limitations, I worked as a tuition teacher for primary school students. I was so happy seeing their faces light up as they understood what was being taught. Hence, going into the physics education programme at UTM was like marrying my love of science and my passion for teaching.
After graduating with a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge, I combined my passion, love and expertise into encouraging more children to enroll in science, especially girls. I have initiated and organized many school programmes aiming to instill interest in science through scientific epistemology, misconceptions, constructivism, metacognition, etc.
As a result of my research and community projects to attract more students to science, I became the first social scientist appointed by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) as a member of the Young Scientists Network (YSN-ASM). I was also recognised as one of the Top Research Scientists Malaysia (TRSM) by the ASM at the age of 38, and became a Professor at the age of 39. Later, I led the School of Education at UTM as the Chair and now I am the Chair of the Malaysian Education Deans Council.
As these honors and positions attest, I am still that little girl who loves teaching and learning science!