(Re)territorializing the Field of Comparative and International Education in Malaysia: Adventures in Cartography through the Fisher, the Weaver, and the Shadow-Puppeteer

We present here our evolving attempt to map the field of CIE in Malaysia by reflecting on our experiences and findings in the ‘CIE in Malaysia’ project. Imbibing the metaphorical and biographical spirit of Silova & Auld (2020), we (re)territorialise the field of CIE in Malaysia through the bricolage of three vernacular figures: the fisher, the weaver and the shadow-puppeteer. We first articulate our intellectual trajectories as fishermen-in-training, attempting to capture elements of CIE that become the impetus for this project. We subsequently detail transnational social connections that enable our performance as weavers of CIE in Malaysia. As shadow-puppeteers, we then address the potency of the project’s dissemination through social media, questions of language and the political dimension of knowledge production in Malaysia. Overall, we offer this chapter as a depiction of our public scholarship project—as a meta-assemblage—that reifies the field of CIE locally.

Note: In 2023, this chapter received the inaugural Best Paper Award from the Post-foundational Approaches Special Interest Group of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)

'CIE in Malaysia' page: https://x.com/CIE_Malaysia