Prof. Dr. Mahani Razali

Making it big in the academic industry is often a long shot, because it takes unwavering dedication to breakthrough to the top. Years of hard work saw Prof Dr. Mahani making her mark in the early childhood education.

Her journey started in 1999 when as a teacher, and then ventured into academic and administrative field to explore more career opportunities. Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Indris (UPSI) was the perfect place for her to learn more about early childhood education. She serves in UPSI for about 20 years.

Prof Mahani pursued her doctorate in University of Glasgow, UK in the year 2007. “It wasn’t that easy journey for me to get seat in one of the University in UK. I have fulfilled certain criteria in order to go there like build a strong research profile”. She said when asking about her learning experience in the field.

Enriched Knowledge Sharing

Field of early childhood demands self-discipline, creativity, patience and passion. Surviving more than 20 years in academic field, Prof Mahani believes learning things through experiences not by theoretically.

She said one of her greatest achievements was completing her doctorate in Scotland after went through many challenges, which led to a deeper passion for community that eventually landed her at the childhood education sector. She shares his knowledge by reaching the community through seminars and workshops.

“As a first step my plan in here is Geomatika we are introducing far distance learning diploma studies in childhood education in January. We also plan to open many short courses. These courses are affordable and we encourage all kind of individuals to enroll”, she said.

Growth and Opportunities

She improvises herself by attending many trainings and courses for self-growth. She spent load of time for research, psychology and child pedagogical method of study, publications and writing.

‘Be optimist. Be fearless. Don’t limit yourself and don’t give up in your dreams in achieving your ambitions’ she said that inspiringly.

She publishes academic research papers and also about 10 books during these years of travelling in academic field. Her books are mostly focused on parents and teachers on early childhood teaching methods.

Contribution to the society

Prof Mahani is an independent family woman. She also loves to involve in community and voluntary activities. Her love for helping those in need force to join with voluntary services and provide needs for that ‘Orang Asli’ community. She also involves in outdoor activity, as such in climbing. She also runs her own workshop and training courses gives talk to society. She has handled more than 50 workshops nationwide.

She worked really hard and had put in a lot of effort and it was really rewarding as she had this sense of satisfaction of giving something back to the community and she did encourage young generation to think about contributing back to the society. “The good that you do returns back twice to you”, she whispered energetically at this age.