By design or by accident: the legacy of Thailand’s 1999 education reform and the cultural consequences of internationalization

Abstract

The National Education Reform Act of 1999 sought to modernise Thai education at all levels. The core reforms included teacher training, to shift to student-centred pedagogy; de-centralisation of school and university administration; and integration of communication technologies. Among subsequent developments was the push for internationalising education. Two decades later, the children of 1999–2000 are graduating from university. The participants in this qualitative study grew up in international programmes, and are also now graduating from university. In this study, the findings suggest that Thai education is still defined by structural tradition. However, our participants express strongly held values about freedom of expression and individuality, which they associate with their internationalised experience. The results suggest a tension between cultural identity and the beliefs that our participants assimilated in international programmes. The results also provide reflections about the achievements of the 1999 Act, even if they were not directly achieved by the policy instruments it articulated.