Grandparents as Educators: A Study of Socio-cultural and Religion Perspectives

Abstract The modern complex activities make a livelihood becomes a competition between endless wants and limited means. These situations force many biological parents to often exchange their parenting role for economic gains and since the grandparents often old and stay at home to take care of their grandchildren, it is very important to look into their contribution towards grandchildren's totality development. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the contribution of grandparents toward grandchildren's developments in a broad manner, which constitutes the concept of education. The study also examines the contribution of grandparents in grandchildren education in Malaysia across ethnics, sex, state and religion. This study was therefore guided by the following research question: Does grandparents’ contribution to grandchildren's education in Malaysia differ significantly across gender, ethnicity, religion, and state. A total number of 201 grandparents were selected from three cities in Malaysia. The cities are Ipoh, Tanjung Malim, and Wilayah Persekutuan. The respondents were randomly selected and participated voluntarily in answering MYOLA parent-grandparent as educator questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. The results of this study show that the grandparents in Malaysia are actively involved in educating and nurturing their grandchildren irrespective of gender, ethnic, religion, and state.