In this, the third of our three episodes on education and ethnocultural diversity in Thailand, we talk to Chawin Pongpajon of Chulalongkorn University, who is also a PhD candidate at the UCL Institute of Education. Chawin’s doctoral project is entitled Education for assimilation or social transformation? Investigating school education for peace and social justice in the conflict-affected southern Thailand.
Gairan and Ed begin by asking Chawin to explain how he came to study this topic, and to explain some of the challenges related to peace and social justice in southern Thailand. He responds by offering a brief overview of the history of this region, whose people are predominantly Islamic and Malay-speaking. He explains how these southern provinces became incorporated into the kingdom of Thailand, and how, during the 20th century, the rise of Thai nationalism and processes of modern state formation created strains in relations between local communities and the country’s Buddhist, Thai-speaking majority.
After a period of relative quiescence during the late 20th century, Chawin tells us how conflict flared up again in the early 2000s. This has been attributed in part to the influence of Islamist educational activities in the region, which revived or expanded following changes to local security arrangements under the first administration of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Chawin’s doctoral research examines the role that education has played in official attempts to counter the insurgency and address local discontent. He has also visited schools in southern Thailand - both state-run, public schools and informal, Islamic schools - to understand the role that different types of schools play in shaping identities and influencing inter-communal relations.
We ask Chawin to comment on how the role of education in providing ‘skills’ or ‘qualifications’ is promoting greater integration (or assimilation) of the Malay-speaking Muslim population of southern Thailand, or whether it is exacerbating or fuelling alienation. We further discuss whether ‘multicultural education’ means the same thing when we are talking about the educational challenges of conflict-affected Muslim Malay regions of southern Thailand, and refugee or tribal communities in the country’s north and west. In one recent conference paper, Chawin has referred to ‘education for peace and multiculturalism’ in basic education in southern Thailand as an ‘illusion’. Here he explains what he means by describing multicultural education as ‘illusory’ in this context.
Related readings:
- Tejendra Pherali (2023) Social justice, education and peacebuilding: conflict transformation in Southern Thailand, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 53:4, 710-727, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2021.1951666
