Educating for citizenship in a fragile democracy: interrogating civic agenda in Thai higher education

ABSTRACT

In light of socio-political dynamics at play in contemporary Thailand, higher education (HE) is becoming an important site for citizenship learning. This article interrogates priorities and practices of civic/citizenship education in Thai universities. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with leadership in five public universities across Thailand. Findings suggest that civic/citizenship education serves various goals. Despite the call for HE to respond to societal crisis, the discursive practices of formal civic/citizenship education in Thai universities function not only to maintain the state ideology by producing responsible citizens but also serve to supply adaptable and voluntary-minded employees for the market. Thai universities also appropriates civic/citizenship learning for their own institutional branding. In the context where democracy is undermined, civic/citizenship education is depoliticised.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic/citizenship education
• universities
• general education
• democracy
• service learning
• Thailand

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This refers to the three southernmost provinces in Thailand with Muslim majority. The area has experienced prolonged conflicts and violence.