The Cambridge Open-Review Educational Research e-Journal (CORERJ)

Some Intercultural Implications of ASEAN and Thai Educational Policies for Thai Higher Education

corerj

March 15, 2015

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Sutraphorn Tantiniranat

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 The Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Email: s.tantiniranat@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Abstract

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 In this paper, I present my thematic analysis of selected policy documents produced by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) or by Thailand, a member state within ASEAN and my home educational context. In particular, I focus on the Thailand Commission on Higher Education policies in which the possible impact of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on the Thai higher education are considered. I will first outline the background to my study, and then, present my analysis of the documents selected. Informed by this analysis, I draw some conclusions regarding how the chosen policy documents comment on the complexities of this globalised and interconnected era and the skills these policies seem to focus on with regard to Thai graduates functioning well in this era. I conclude with a discussion of some possible implications for the role of Thai higher education institutions and teachers like me.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0  Keywords: Thailand, higher education, policy documents analysis, ASEAN Economic Community, Intercultural age

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 Introduction

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 In this paper I present an analysis of a selection of policy documents within the context of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Thailand higher education. The aims of the analysis were twofold. Firstly, it aimed to investigate how the selected policy documents comment on the ‘intercultural age’. For the purposes of this paper, the notion of ‘intercultural age’ refers to the period in which the world is becoming more and more interconnected as a consequence of globalisation. Most of us are now living in a complex and interwoven world community, and no society can hope to remain a cultural island. Secondly, this policy analysis sought to explore which qualities are seen to be desirable for university graduates in this intercultural age as explicitly stated and implied in the policies.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 I have divided the paper into four sections. The first section deals with the background to this policy analysis. The second section outlines the methodology which includes the selection of the policy documents and the data analysis method. The key findings of the analysis follow in the third section of this paper. Finally, I will conclude by discussing some possible implications for Thai higher education institutions as well as for teachers in the tertiary level.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 1. Background

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 Thailand is a member state of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The other nine member states of the ASEAN are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and the Philippines. Together, these ten countries are now preparing to establish the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a collaboration which will remove economic borders between the member states in 2015. The whole region will become ‘the single ASEAN’ market in which workforce, goods, services, investment and capital will flow freely (ASEAN, 2008a). In consequence, intercultural interactions between people from the same region but from differing linguistic and cultural backgrounds will increase like never before.

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 Thailand as a country has been preparing itself for the launch of the AEC in many aspects. As a Thai national and an English language teacher at a Thai public university, I am interested to learn how the Thai higher education sector has decided to deal with the phenomenon. One source for insights in this regard is the Office of Higher Education Commission of Thailand (OHEC) which has produced a number of strategic documents in which the possible impacts of the establishment of the AEC and the momentum of globalisation on the Thai higher education sector are considered. These documents provide guidance for Thai higher education institutions on how to prepare for the launch of the AEC as well as both explicitly stating and implying the desirable qualities of Thai graduates in this era. It is against this contextual background that this analysis should be read.

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 2. Methodology

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 In this section, I will present the methodology of this analysis, which includes the selection of the policy documents and the method of data analysis.

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 2.1 The Selected Policy Documents

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 All selected documents were written between 2008 to 2010 either in Thai or English or both. In each, the documents address the issue of the integration of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, so I consider these policies to be current. Table 1 provides an overview of the selected policy documents.

¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 Table 1

¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 An Overview of the Selected Policy Documents

¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 With regard to the establishment of the AEC, I purposefully selected the central strategic document of the ASEAN, namely Charter of the South East ASEAN Nations (ASEAN, 2008b; also known as The ASEAN Charter ). It was adopted in 2007 by the leaders of the ASEAN countries at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore and came into effect in December 2008. It functions as the ‘constitution’ for the ASEAN Community and aims at providing a framework and establishing policy to help develop the building of the ASEAN Community. I then searched for related educational policies in the ASEAN regional level which make reference to The ASEAN Charter and are available in both English and Thai languages. In this regard, I selected a document called Cha-Am Hua Hin Declaration on Strengthening Cooperation on Education to achieve an ASEAN Caring and Sharing Community (2009). This declaration on regional education cooperation was adopted in October 2009 by the leaders of the ten ASEAN member states. The purpose of the document was to reaffirm Article 1, Paragraph 10 of The ASEAN Charter (2008): to develop human resources through closer cooperation in education and life-long learning, and in science and technology, for the empowerment of the peoples of ASEAN and for the strengthening of the ASEAN Community.

¶ 20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 As for the Thai policies, I chose strategic documents or plans within the context of Thai higher education. In particular, I focus on the strategic documents in which the possible impacts of the AEC integration on Thai higher education are taken into account. The first document is The Strategies of Thai Higher Education for the Preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015 (Office of Higher Education Commission, 2010a), which resulted from a research study by the OHEC. Opinions from stakeholders were gathered in order to set up strategies for the Thai higher education sector to prepare for the establishment of the AEC in 2015, and in response to the Framework of the Second 15-Year Long Range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand (Office of Higher Education Commission, 2010b). The document was published in the Thai language; there is no English version of the strategies. However, the OHEC has published a summary of the plan in English, which can be found from its website.  I have included the summary as a part of this policy analysis as it provides an additional view of the strategies through the use of English language. The final policy document selected for this study is The Executive Report, Framework of the Second 15-Year Long Range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand (Commission on Higher Education, 2008). It covers the period of 2008 to 2022 and serves as the roadmap for Thai higher education institutions. It was planned between February and September 2008 and was published in October 2008 in Thai and English. The plan focuses on increasing quality of Thai higher education which leads to the quality of the graduates.

¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 2.2 Method of Data Analysis

¶ 22 Leave a comment on paragraph 22 0 The approach to data analysis adopted in this study is thematic analysis as framed by the following research questions: (1) how do the selected policy documents comment on the notion of the intercultural age?, and (2) which skills do these policy documents focus on regarding Thai graduates functioning well in this intercultural age? I coded the selected policy documents inductively rather than with reference to existing theories or models concerning the intercultural age and graduate attributes for it. I did so because I wanted to explore the ASEAN and Thai discourses of interculturality rather than view them through conceptual lenses developed elsewhere. Most available theories and models of Intercultural Communication and Intercultural (Communicative) Competence originate in the West and are formulated in English. In contrasts, these documents articulate – in Thai and English as the ASEAN lingua franca – locally-framed understandings of these intercultural issues (although they too, as part of our increasingly interconnected world, will most likely have been shaped in part by external discourses of interculturality). After coding, I organized related codes into different categories and looked for emerging themes relevant to my research questions. In the final stage, I made sense of the themes on the basis of my professional background as a Thai-national university lecturer and my understanding of the ASEAN and Thai higher education context.

¶ 23 Leave a comment on paragraph 23 0 3. Key Findings

¶ 24 Leave a comment on paragraph 24 0 3.1 How the Selected Policy Documents Comment on the Intercultural Age

¶ 25 Leave a comment on paragraph 25 0 From the analysis, I have learned that all the selected policy texts contain comments in relation to the sense of interconnectedness of this world to a great extent. Throughout the texts, there are statements related to the globalised world and impact of the globalisation including what should be done by the ASEAN countries and Thai higher education sectors. I coded these statements into the following codes: people-to-people interaction, unity, language and cultural globalisation, globalisation, identity, unity in diversity, connectivity, impacts of the AEC on Thai higher education, and multiculturalism.

¶ 26 Leave a comment on paragraph 26 0 Some examples of these statements are: ‘Future employment will be determined by four important factors, namely, the changing economic structure of Thailand, globalization, technological development and information-driven world’ (code: globalisation; The Executive Report, Framework of the Second 15-Year Long Range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand, Commission on Higher Education, 2008, p. 3), and ‘PLEDGE our resolve and commitment to strengthen education to realize an ASEAN Community of Actions, a Community of Connectivity and a Community of and for the Peoples of ASEAN’ (code: connectivity; Cha-Am Hua Hin Declaration on Strengthening Cooperation on Education to achieve an ASEAN Caring and Sharing Community, Paragraph 32, 2009).

¶ 27 Leave a comment on paragraph 27 0 After coding, I put related codes under categories, and the two most prevalent categories in terms of the coverage and the importance of the message from my point of view seem to be the connectivity and diversity. The former consists of codes which are globalisation, unity, people-to-people interaction and beyond ASEAN, while the latter contains the codes multiculturalism, peoples, individual (own) identity and multiple identities. Interestingly, I have observed the relationship between the two categories and have found that they co-occurred in most of the documents. Hence, I created the theme ‘unity in diversity’ to reflect the relationship between the two. The theme is evident in these two extracts from The ASEAN Charter (2008): ‘To promote an ASEAN identity through the fostering of greater awareness of the diverse culture and heritage of the region’ (Article 1, Paragraph 14); and ‘Respect for the different cultures, languages and religions of the peoples of ASEAN, while emphasizing their common values in the spirit of unity in diversity’ (Article 2, Paragraph (l); my own italics).

¶ 28 Leave a comment on paragraph 28 0 The term ‘peoples’ perhaps indicates the cultural (and linguistic) diversity of the different groups of people within the ASEAN community. The theme of ‘unity in diversity’, as well as the use of the term ‘peoples’, is paralleled in the other policy document within the ASEAN level, the Cha-Am Hua Hin Declaration on Strengthening Cooperation on Education to achieve an ASEAN Caring and Sharing Community (2009), as can be seen from the following paragraph:

¶ 29 Leave a comment on paragraph 29 0 RECOGNIZING the importance of education sector in contributing to the establishment of an ASEAN Community that is people-centred and socially responsible with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity among the nations and peoples of ASEAN by forging a common identity and building a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and where the well-being, livelihood, and welfare of the peoples are enhanced; (ibid., Paragraph 4, 2009; my own emphasis)

¶ 30 Leave a comment on paragraph 30 0 This theme is also supported by this statement: ‘PLEDGE our resolve and commitment to strengthen education to realize an ASEAN Community of Actions, a Community of Connectivity and a Community of and for the Peoples of ASEAN.’ (ibid., Paragraph 32, 2009)

¶ 31 Leave a comment on paragraph 31 0 The Thai higher education policies also reflect the theme ‘unity in diversity’ when they discuss ways to promote multiculturalism in universities and students. The documents urge that ‘[u]niversities should reflect multifaceted and multicultural nature of a society.’ (The Executive Report, Framework of the Second 15-year Long Range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand, Commission on Higher Education, 2008, p. 6) In addition, Thai higher education institutions should ‘promote awareness of the Thai national identity and the identities of the ASEAN countries and promoting activities strengthens the bond among people, higher education communities, and the youth of ASEAN’ (The Strategies of Thai Higher Education for the Preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015, Office of Higher Education Commission, 2010a, p. v; my own translation).

¶ 32 Leave a comment on paragraph 32 0 3.2 Graduate Skills in the Intercultural Age

¶ 33 Leave a comment on paragraph 33 0 The second research question of this policy analysis is: which skills do these policy documents focus on regarding Thai graduates functioning well in this intercultural age? To answer the research question, I examined the parts of the two Thai higher education policies in which they explicitly state or imply the qualities, attributes or skills required by Thai graduates with reference to this globalised or interconnected age.

¶ 34 Leave a comment on paragraph 34 0 I assigned such qualities/attributes/skills under codes which are: English abilities, ASEAN languages, ASEAN arts and culture studies, having wide worldview, recognising own culture, realising/valuing multiple identities and multiculturalism, recognising ASEAN citizenship, being prepared for changes, able to work in overseas organization or abroad and intercultural (communicative) skill. I put all these codes under the theme ‘graduate skills in the intercultural age’. The following extract demonstrates a statement which I assigned it under the codes of having wide worldview and realising/valuing multiple identities and multiculturalism: ‘prepare [the graduates] to expand their worldview in this age of language and cultural globalization and to recognise and value multiple identities and multiculturalism’. (The Executive Report, Framework of the Second 15-year Long Range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand, Commission on Higher Education, 2008, p.7; my own translation)

¶ 35 Leave a comment on paragraph 35 0 Among the mentioned attributes/ skills above, the ones which seems to be the main focus of Thai higher education policies is English abilities. For example, The Strategies of Thai Higher Education for the Preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015 proposes ‘the promotion of bilingual curricula (e.g. Thai and English) in higher education institutions’ (Office of Higher Education Commission, 2010a, p. vi; my own translation). The following excerpt also exemplifies the importance of having English skills in this era:

¶ 36 Leave a comment on paragraph 36 0 The fact that English has been designated by the ASEAN as its working language suggests that learning foreign languages is essential for today and the future, especially [the learning of] English, the language which regarded as the international language for communication. (ibid., p. 21; my own translation)

¶ 37 Leave a comment on paragraph 37 0 The other skill which is necessary for today’s Thai graduates as addressed by the Thai policies seems to be what I coded as intercultural (communicative) skill. Below is the quote which demonstrates the skill:

¶ 38 Leave a comment on paragraph 38 0 The future employment in ASEAN will require the graduates to have additional skills apart from their professional skill such as English and other languages used in ASEAN and inter-cultural skill. Hence, the strategy strongly encourages higher education institutions to produce the graduates of international quality who equipped with professional skills, language skill and inter-cultural skill. (ibid., p. 2; my own emphasis)

¶ 39 Leave a comment on paragraph 39 0 Another statement which shows the significant of this intercultural (communicative) skill is: ‘experience obtained studying in an international environment and cross-cultural communication skills are the desirable graduate attributes in national and international labour markets’ (ibid., p. 17; my own translation and italic).

¶ 40 Leave a comment on paragraph 40 0 It is worthwhile to note that when making reference to the intercultural (communicative) skill, the policy neither defines nor describes what the terms above might mean. I assume from the context that it might refer to the ability to communicate and work with people from other cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Also, surprisingly, I found an inconsistency of the use of two related terms, ‘inter-cultural skills’ and ‘cross-cultural communication skills’. The Thai version of this document uses the term ‘การติดต่อสื่อสารข้ามวัฒนธรรม.’ The word ‘ข้าม’ (my own emphasis) literally means ‘to cross’ or ‘to go across’, hence, I translated the phrase into ‘cross-cultural communication’. However, in the English summary of the same document, the term ‘inter-cultural skill’ was used instead. It might be interesting to further study the discrepancy of the use of such terms within the Thai context but it is beyond the scope of this study.

¶ 41 Leave a comment on paragraph 41 0 To sum up, I have so far presented the key findings of this thematic analysis with reference to how the idea of intercultural age might be conceptualised by the selected strategic documents of ASEAN and Thai higher education. I have learned that the policies contain statements related to the notion of intercultural age in various topics, but the most important theme emerged from my analysis is ‘unity in diversity’. I also presented the qualities/attributes/skills which seem to be indispensable for Thai graduates in this intercultural era. The most prevalent attributes/ skills seem to refer to English abilities and intercultural (communicative) skills.

¶ 42 Leave a comment on paragraph 42 0 4. Implications for Thai Higher Education and Teachers

¶ 43 Leave a comment on paragraph 43 0 This policy analysis adds to an understanding of how a selection of strategic documents has viewed the intercultural age and skills essential for university graduates in this era. In this section, I am going to discuss what the key findings might possibly mean for Thai higher education institutions and for teachers at the tertiary level like me.

¶ 44 Leave a comment on paragraph 44 0 Firstly, the policies have suggested that university graduates these days need to have various skills in order to be successful in this increasingly interconnected world. Apart from language skills, especially those of the English language, there are other skills which will help to prepare graduates to engage with this era such as the recognition of their own culture and the respect of other cultures different from their own and the sense of citizenship in the wider community beyond that of their own nations (i.e. ASEAN and global citizenship). Higher education institutions in Thailand and elsewhere, including the teachers in those institutions, need to (re)consider their goals regarding the desired qualities for their graduates and whether they have sufficiently cultivated those qualities in their students and graduates.

¶ 45 Leave a comment on paragraph 45 0 Secondly, the policies do not seem to have reached the ‘end-users’ of the policies. From my experience as an English teacher at a Thai public university, I found that these information do not seem to reach to the teachers who are the ‘end-users’ of the policies. To my knowledge, there is no tangible measure which will practically turn these policies into practice. Further research should be done to investigate whether teachers in Thai higher education institutions are aware of these existing policies and their perspectives regarding this intercultural age and graduate’s qualities in this intercultural era.

¶ 46 Leave a comment on paragraph 46 0 Thirdly, the recommended measures by the policies will not possibly benefit the majority of Thai students in higher education institutions. The Strategies of Thai Higher Education for the Preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015 (Office of Higher Education Commission, 2010a, p.2) calls for ‘a reform of languages education, an additional student mobility programme, which emphasises on the credit transfer, and a cultural exchange programme’. Similarly, the other higher education policy also urges that Thai higher education institutions ‘increase the mobility of students and the diversity of students’ (and teachers)’ age groups, social and cultural backgrounds through the important mechanisms of exchange programmes and bilingual curricula’ (The Executive Report, Framework of the Second 15-year Long Range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand, Commission on Higher Education, 2008, p.7; my own translation). These suggested methods raise the question of how many Thai students (and teachers) will have the opportunity to participate in and benefit from such privileged academic and cultural exchange programmes.

¶ 47 Leave a comment on paragraph 47 0 Finally, from my professional point of view, I would like to suggest the integration of teaching these ‘intercultural skills’ through English language teaching. This is because English has gained a status as ‘the’ tool for international/intercultural communication within and beyond the ASEAN region. English has been the only official ‘working language of the ASEAN’ since 2008 (The ASEAN Charter: Article 34, 2008) and this role of English as the prominent lingua franca within the region is set to become even more marked after the establishment of the AEC (Kirkpatrick, 2010, 2011; Wilang & Teo, 2012). English is also a compulsory foreign language in every Thai university. Adding the intercultural aspect to English language teaching and learning at university level will possibly present an attractive option to prepare young Thais for this intercultural world.

¶ 48 Leave a comment on paragraph 48 0 References

¶ 49 Leave a comment on paragraph 49 0 ASEAN. (2008a). ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from http://www.asean.org/archive/5187-10.pdf

¶ 50 Leave a comment on paragraph 50 0 ASEAN. (2008b). Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from http://www.asean.org/asean/asean-charter/asean-charter

¶ 51 Leave a comment on paragraph 51 0 Cha-Am Hua Hin Declaration on Strengthening Cooperation on Education to achieve an ASEAN Caring and Sharing Community. (2009).  Retrieved from www.bic.moe.go.th/…/ASEAN/declaration/Chaam-HuaHinEducation.pdf.

¶ 52 Leave a comment on paragraph 52 0 Commission on Higher Education. (2008). Executive report framework of the second 15-year long range plan on higher education of Thailand.  Bangkok, Thailand: Chulalongkorn University Press. Retrieved from http://www.mua.go.th/~bpp/developplan/download/long_range_plan/executive_longplan_th-en.pdf.

¶ 53 Leave a comment on paragraph 53 0 Kirkpatrick, A. (2010). English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

¶ 54 Leave a comment on paragraph 54 0 Kirkpatrick, A. (2011). English as an Asian lingua franca and the multilingual model of ELT. Language Teaching, 44(2), 212-224. doi: doi:10.1017/S0261444810000145

¶ 55 Leave a comment on paragraph 55 0 Office of Higher Education Commission. (2010a). The Strategies of Thai Higher Education for the Preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015, from http://www.inter.mua.go.th/main2/files/file/ASEAN/ASEAN.pdf

¶ 56 Leave a comment on paragraph 56 0 Office of Higher Education Commission. (2010b, 2008). Preparation for the ASEAN Community 2015.  Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.inter.mua.go.th/main2/article.php?id=132.

¶ 57 Leave a comment on paragraph 57 0 Wilang, J. D., & Teo, A. (2012). Comprehensibility of Englishes within ASEAN: A Synopsis of Results. Paper presented at the Mae Fah Luang University International Conference, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand.

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