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The development of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about new opportunities for improving the learning experience in education. ChatGPT, a large language model trained on a vast corpus of text, has the potential to revolutionize education by enhancing learning through personalized and interactive conversations. This paper explores the benefits of integrating ChatGPT in education in Thailand. The research strategy employed in this study was qualitative, utilizing in-depth interviews with eight key informants who were selected using purposive sampling. The collected data was analyzed using content analysis and the software NVivo. The study's results indicated that ChatGPT can provide personalized learning experiences by adapting to individual student needs and preferences. Its ability to understand natural language and context can also facilitate more meaningful interactions between students and the system. Additionally, ChatGPT can assist with administrative tasks such as grading and feedback, allowing educators to focus on more personalized and meaningful interactions with students. Furthermore, ChatGPT can serve as a valuable tool for remote learning, providing students with the ability to access educational resources and support outside of traditional classroom settings. The paper also discusses potential ethical considerations in utilizing AI in education, such as data privacy and bias. Overall, this paper argues that the integration of ChatGPT in education has the potential to enhance the learning experience for students by providing personalized, interactive, and efficient support.

Various applications of artificial intelligence (AI) are currently being developed to enhance and transform the educational experience. However, things like culture, society, and ethics may have an impact on how artificial intelligence is implemented in classrooms all around the world. This study aims to analyze the existing use of AI in education in two Southeast Asian nations, namely Indonesia and Thailand, and to compare those two environments in terms of their potential. Specifically, the research will focus on Indonesia. We gathered papers, publications, and websites from both countries in order to perform an in-depth analysis as part of a comprehensive literature study that we carried out. The ethical and social repercussions of using AI in education, the best practices and suggestions for using AI in education, the possibilities and problems presented by using AI in education, and the preparedness and obstructions presented by using AI in education. Our study demonstrates that there are parallels and variances between the perceptions and experiences of educators and students from the two nations about the use of AI in educational settings, and it also makes recommendations for future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is increasingly becoming central to debates about how to promote peace in conflict-affected societies. Equitable access to quality learning, promotion of social justice through educational reforms and conflict-sensitive curricular and pedagogical approaches are viewed as peace supporting educational interventions. Drawing upon the existing body of literature in the area of education, conflict and peace in Southern Thailand and reflecting on Nancy Fraser's theory of social justice and applying the 4Rs framework, this paper provides a critical analysis of inequalities, cultural repression and epistemic domination through education. The paper argues that the 4Rs framework usefully exposes underlying structural tensions in education but does little to show avenues for rupturing unequal power relations and hegemonies that reproduce systems of domination and social exclusion at the macro level. The real hope, however, lies in the potential use of the 4Rs as a tool for grassroots political socialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband's minus wife's age) is positive in all countries and ranges from 2.7 in Myanmar to 8.4 in Bangladesh. Age homogamous marriages accounted for 5% of all marriages in Bangladesh to close to half of all marriages in Thailand. The proportion of age hypogamous marriages was uniformly low in all the countries except for Myanmar where it reaches close to 10%. Men's marriage age has a stronger effect in determining the age gap. In general, the age gap for women with lower education was larger than for those with higher education. However, much of this effect was explained by the difference in marriage timing across educational groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about new opportunities for improving the learning experience in education. ChatGPT, a large language model trained on a vast corpus of text, has the potential to revolutionize education by enhancing learning through personalized and interactive conversations. This paper explores the benefits of integrating ChatGPT in education in Thailand. The research strategy employed in this study was qualitative, utilizing in-depth interviews with eight key informants who were selected using purposive sampling. The collected data was analyzed using content analysis and the software NVivo. The study's results indicated that ChatGPT can provide personalized learning experiences by adapting to individual student needs and preferences. Its ability to understand natural language and context can also facilitate more meaningful interactions between students and the system. Additionally, ChatGPT can assist with administrative tasks such as grading and feedback, allowing educators to focus on more personalized and meaningful interactions with students. Furthermore, ChatGPT can serve as a valuable tool for remote learning, providing students with the ability to access educational resources and support outside of traditional classroom settings. The paper also discusses potential ethical considerations in utilizing AI in education, such as data privacy and bias. Overall, this paper argues that the integration of ChatGPT in education has the potential to enhance the learning experience for students by providing personalized, interactive, and efficient support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper is designed to provide primary research which illuminates both the motivations for Cambodian migration as well as the risks entailed in undertaking migration. Design/methodology/approach: This paper gathered its information through a structured interview with 49 respondents aged between 17–29 years of mixed gender. The questionnaire comprised 18 questions in addition to a demographics section. Findings were subsequently analysed in order to extract commonalities amongst the experiences and perceptions of migrants. Findings: The present research study found that the migration of Cambodians to Thailand is largely forced in the sense that there is a lack of economic opportunities within Cambodia. Of the respondents, 88% indicated that their preference would be to remain in Cambodia. What is more, the authors found that the migration is fraught with insecurity and risk, with a range of security issues faced by respondents including not being paid, being abused and being overworked. Research limitations/implications: This response group is not a representative sample of Cambodians who work in Thailand. The study's respondents in Cambodia were at a deportation centre, where migrants caught by Thai authorities worked without documentation, which had a clear impact upon migration experience. Additionally, the study's respondents in Pattaya, Thailand, were accessed via an associate of a colleague, so this too is not a representative sample of Cambodians working in Thailand. Practical implications: This can have practical use for a variety of stakeholders by providing quantitative information as well as analysis into the migration of Cambodians to Thailand. Within the Recommendations section, it is illustrated how a temporary migrant worker programme can be beneficial to the host and receiving countries and individual migrants. Individual migrants can benefit from being employed by legitimate, accountable employers and hence result in higher provision of human rights for this demographic. Social implications: There is a highly entrenched culture of migration within Cambodia's bordering provinces. Through changes to the personal health, well-being and prosperity of migrants in Thailand because of reduced exploitation and increased pay. Host communities in Cambodia are also likely to receive higher levels of remittances, which can stimulate development in Cambodian communities. Originality/value: Deepened understanding of the motivations for migration and highlighted lack of desire amongst Cambodians to migrate continue to demonstrate the persistent need for effective and substantial development policies within Cambodia. The proposal of a temporary migrant worker scheme is in its short-term nature and reflects the necessity of this demographic to migrate irrespective of whether they can receive official working papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thailand 4.0 is an ambitious reform strategy that seeks to offset the impact of the Thai aging population by transitioning the economy towards a knowledge-based society skilled in advanced technology. Education reforms are paramount for Thailand 4.0 to succeed; however, significant challenges exist that draw into question the capabilities and quality of the nation's higher education institutions. The low perceived quality can be attributed to government inefficiencies, pronounced education inequality between rural and urban students, declining K12 students' core curriculum performance, and a growing dependence on international students to support higher education institutions' financial stability. This paper discusses the numerous challenges limiting higher education institutions from achieving an improved perception of academic quality both domestically and abroad. The recommendations proposed highlight the need for additional government oversight and educational funding. National and regional education policies must be promoted in a clear, consistent, and measurable method, emphasizing short, medium, and long-term goals. Improved national examinations and institutional collaboration will further support the necessary step to address festering conditions limiting any meaningful transition towards a knowledge-intensive workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new approach to the measurement of assortative mating and of the change over time in assortative mating. Non-assortative mating is viewed as independence between the characteristics of the husband and those of the wife. In our paper the characteristic we focus on is the educational level of the spouses. In measuring the change in assortative mating we use an algorithm that allows one to make a distinction between changes in the distribution of husbands and wives by educational level and a "pure change in assortative mating" that is the consequence of a change in the degree of independence between the educational levels of husbands and wives. We present an illustration of our approach, based on data for Thailand covering the period 1985–2019. It appears that while over the whole period 1985–2019 the increase in the Theil index of non-random mating was uniquely due to a change in the educational composition of the males and females (essentially of the female population), there are several sub-periods where the "pure change in assortative mating" played an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although critical thinking has been widely accepted as an educational goal for decades, clear evidence for the development of students' critical thinking is sparse. Critical thinking has been conceptualised as skill, knowledge, and disposition respectively in psychology, philosophy and critical theory, but which applies to education is unclear. In this paper, we argue that treating critical thinking as skill is most appropriate in education. However, there are still three competing theories of critical thinking as skill: as a single unitary skill, as a set of disparate sub-skills, and as a composite skill with several sub-skills. We evaluated the validity of these theories through conducting Rasch and correlation analyses on the results of 385 undergraduate students in Thailand on the Multi-Purpose Assessment of Critical Thinking (MPACT) test. The findings suggest that critical thinking is a composite skill with several sub-skills with implications for the teaching and testing of critical thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of political protests on student achievement. The chief conceptual difficulty in identifying the effect of protests on student achievement is their non-random nature. To address this problem, I exploit the political protests in Thailand in 2008 and 2010 as quasi-experiments to measure their effect on the national examination, the O-NET, conditional on school fixed effects. The estimates suggest that the protests had a negative and significant effect on all test scores except for mathematics, perhaps because students were able to study mathematics more easily outside of school. The absolute sizes of the change in test score as a result of the protests range from 0.05 to 0.14 standard deviations, depending on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study examines the developments in educational attainment and education returns of wage earners in Thailand over the period 1994-2002. In so doing, several potential weaknesses of previous studies on the topic -- as well as, more generally, applied econometrics analyses -- are addressed. One contribution of this paper is to gather and re-emphasize the importance of several important estimation issues frequently overlooked by researchers. The results imply that the returns to education in Thailand over the period are substantial, peaking in 2000. Taking into account the possible endogeneity of education using household fixed effects, education returns are substantially dampened, relative to the baseline ordinary least squares estimates. This indicates that previous studies for Thailand and elsewhere -- when not taking endogeneity into account -- may have overestimated the returns to education substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private tutoring in academic subjects, which is provided for a fee and which takes place outside standard school hours, has become a global phenomenon. It is also very visible in Thailand. This paper draws on qualitative method including documentary analyses and semi-structured interviews with Thai policy elites, to understand the Thai state policy on the issue. Using a theory of the state, particularly the concepts of policy text and policy discourse, it analyses the Thai state policy responses to regulate private tutoring. While the state has given much attention to commercial regulations for safety and customers’ protection, little attention has been given to the educational aspects such as curriculum, quality assessment and qualification of the tutors. Analyses of policy texts and interviews with Thai policymakers at the Office of Private Education Commission and the Office of Education Council showed that the Thai state regulation on private tutoring is dominated by the market ideology. The Thai state was unequivocally embracing “public-private partnership”, treating students as consumers and endorsing private tutoring as a contributor to the development of Thailand's human resources. This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on private tutoring in Thailand and offers a theoretical framework to further analyze and understand the state policy on private tutoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper results from a pilot study in a Thai academic context testing two hypotheses. First, blended e-learning required by an institution can motivate learners extrinsically to learn EFL. Second, blended e-learning can enhance learners' positive attitudes toward learning EFL. The hypotheses were constructed based on an implication that Thai students generally needed extrinsic motivation in learning driven by their authoritative teachers and past relevant studies that showed positive results. Although the quantitative outcomes support the hypotheses, they are not generalizable. Additionally, required blended e-learning may not be the best teaching tool for this group of EFL learners, for they tend to identify themselves better with social media, especially Facebook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effectiveness of using reflective journals in a university language program, through written student feedback, in-class discussion, and the author’s observations and experience of their use over a period of three college semesters. Students in the English Languages Studies Program at Mahidol University International College primarily had used journals for recording course content with a view to revision for the final exam, and journal entries were therefore mainly descriptive. The paper assesses the lessons learned from incorporating reflection into the curriculum during this period and the author’s attempts to provide a more effective framework for critical reflection during this time. Factors that may contribute to the quality of student reflection include defining reflection and clarifying its purpose, and providing scaffolding, such as feedback and guidelines on assessment. Teachers need to apply flexible frameworks for reflection depending on the contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to discuss the increasingly unbalanced structure of public communication in Thailand. To this end, an Internet survey and an in-depth interviews will be employed to investigate the unprecedented popularity of the Internet with people who are dissatisfied with the mainstream media (commercial newspapers, radio and television), which do not serve their need to have their voice heard in public. The study argues that due to (1) the media domination of political and business powers, (2) the lack of a public channel of communication and (3) the suppression of opposing viewpoints by the government, people utilise the Internet and the bulletin boards, in particular, as an alternative form of communication to express their concerns and engage in public affairs. The main argument of this paper is to dispel the notion that the Internet is a medium that is exclusively the purview of those who are affluent, who are privileged with resources, income or education. The predominant belief in Thailand today is that the Internet is there to serve the privileged and that this could lead to even more elitist control and censorship. Conversely, this investigation reveals that people as users can in fact make a difference; that is, to a large extent, they are capable of influencing the medium to be more supportive of them and their environment. As the Internet is capable of being a venue of popular usage, this paper argues that it is crucial to support this new medium’s penetration of a wider public. The problem of a digital divide needs to be addressed; large sections of population, especially those who lack either financial resources or technical skills, must be included in this Information and Communication Technologies development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growths are often used to measure the development of a country. Thus, the economic growth is what every economy tries to achieve for good of everyone as a whole. In the other hand education, health and employment are one the most important tool for the economy growth. Thailand as developing countries concern about the economy growth and done an investment in through it. The general objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between education, health, employment and economic growth in Thailand from 1988 to 2017. The econometric method is used to examine the relationship between education, health, employment and economic growth. Unit root test indicate that all of the above variables are I (1). Johensen's test was conducted to see the long run relationship between these variables. Meanwhile the relationship is test by using Ordinary Least Square and the Granger Causality test. The relationship between education with the economic growth are examine by using the literacy rate as education proxy variable. The health variable is examining by using the infant mortality rate, life expectancy and crude death rate with the GDP and the employment are examine by using the total employment rate with the GDP. As conclusion the results shows the positive relationship between the three variables with the economic growth and suggestion to the Thailand economic to do more investments in this variable. The findings of this study can be used to generate concrete policy reform suggestion and also used as guideline or example for other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What have been the forces and constraints structuring the late and slow establishment of women's studies as a field of scholarship in Thailand? This paper seeks to provide a historical and cultural context for understanding the distinctiveness of Thailand in the region of Asia, especially the unique combination of political, social and educational institutions that have militated against the emergence of a culture of critique. In particular, the presence of a system of bilateral and matrilocal kinship in traditional times high work participation rates among women in modern times in a rapidly globalizing economy have been selectively viewed as signs of an absence of a high degree of gender discrimination in Thai society. The paper examines the divide between the household - where women are often pivotal in the sustenance of their families - and a public political culture, where women's internationally renowned 'pleasing personality' is a critical ingredient in a complex structure of subservience. The paper also draws attention to the consequences of the Thai royal ruling class's more or less successful avoidance of colonization and the maintenance of a highly status-conscious if not feudal social order. The main break in an otherwise closely organized bureaucratic monarchical system came in the 1970s, when Thailand was drawn into the turbulent political upheavals in the region, led by left-leaning students. One of the outcomes of these struggles was the emergence of women activists and development workers located mainly in academic and bureaucratic institutions. By 1980 this resulted in the first efforts of Thai scholarship on gender issues by activists and interventions in the field of development by government bureaucracy. The demand to establish women's studies in certain universities followed in the 1990s, with small successes and many setbacks. At the same time, some of the first graduates of women's studies programmes who were already leaders have become significant defenders of women's rights, and more nuanced perspectives on gender are gaining ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of industry in the higher education system is becoming more prevalent, as universities integrate a practical element into their curricula. However, the level of development of cooperative education and work-integrated learning varies from country to country. In Germany, cooperative education and work-integrated learning has a long tradition, due to vocational institutions having strong links with industry. In contrast, the work-integrated study models in Asia, such as in Thailand, offer limited levels of practical experience, as part of the higher education curricula. In addition, Thailand continues to experience a lack of skilled graduates, who are exposed to work-integrated learning during their studies. The study on which this paper is based seeks to benchmark study models in Thailand, against the German Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW) study model, in order to identify development opportunities in the Thai model, focusing on the aim of meeting the needs of industry. The Office of Higher Education Commission in Thailand hopes to address the inherent issues, through implementing the recommendations made in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research attempted to strengthen the evaluation ability of preservice teachers, who were English majors at the Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, through procedural instruction based on integrated inquiry-based learning, the 7E Cycle, and Miller's Model and to investigate their attitudes toward the instruction. The sampling group was eighty-one preservice teachers. The instruments were a course syllabus in accord with integrated instruction, paper-based tests, evaluation criteria, and an attitude survey questionnaire. In the cognition and behavior domains of the model, the selected 7E Cycle was combined with the four stages of the model: Knows, Knows How, Shows How, and Does. In the Knows stage, the range of experience sharing and knowledge-updating activities were organized. In the Knows How stage, a knowledge-reviewing activity was assigned. For experiential learning, simulated practices and authentic performance were determined for the Shows How and Does stages, respectively. The results in Knows, Knows How, Shows How, and Does stages were at the percentage of 81.07, 94.81, 77.90, and 84.73, and these ranged in level from good to very good. In addition, the majority of preservice teachers (seventy-five) were satisfied with the applicable principles, complete knowledge, and experiential practices. Meanwhile, a minority of preservice teachers (eleven) believed that writing a subjective test was difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the long attempt to transform teacher education in Thailand. Although a brief summary of educational systems and models of teacher preparation from 1892 to 1973 has been provided, the prime focus of the paper is on presenting changes in teacher education from 1974 to the present day, against the backdrop of key political and social forces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The agricultural sector has played a significant role in Thailand's national economy and is a major source of income for many Thais. Yet globally, and for much of South East Asia, agriculture is one of the greatest contributors to environmental problems. At the same time there have been many debates about Thailand's unsustainable agricultural system and the role of education in addressing such concerns. To illustrate broader issues and challenges this paper analyses related themes at an institutional level, while examining specific policies and concerns about sustainability among Thailand's nine government-designated National Research Universities (NRUs). This paper reviews courses and programmes in sustainable agriculture (SA) offered by each NRU, research funding and budget allocations intended to contribute to sustainability and environmental awareness. Also, this study employs SWOT analysis to demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of sustainability and education in Thai NRUs. The results of this study suggest that national education plans and policies on SA learning and research to support NRUs seem unclear and there is still a lack of comprehensive SA courses and programmes with solid support from most Thai universities and the government. This paper is a first step to systematically document and explain the state of higher education about and for sustainable agriculture reflected in policies and practices of Thai universities and their implications for national development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past two decades have been a period of active education reform throughout much of the world, and East Asia is no exception. This paper synthesizes findings from a series of empirical studies of educational reform in Thailand where an ambitious educational reform law was adopted in 1999. The purpose is to identify lessons learned about educational leadership and change that may be applicable both in Thailand and other parts of East Asia. The studies reveal successful reorientation of the nation’s educational system around a new vision and education goals. However, the vision of change has been much slower to penetrate the daily practice of Thailand’s 35,000 principals and 400,000 teachers. The paper identifies factors that are impacting successful reform in Thailand and draws implications for leading educational reform and change in the East Asia region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose Developing countries in many parts of the world have experienced a disturbing trend in the differential pace of economic development among urban and rural communities. These inequities have been observed in education systems in Asia, Africa, and Latin America where researchers have documented differences not only in resource allocation but also in the academic performance among students in urban and rural schools. Recently researchers have shifted their focus from examining financial and physical resources to investigating the nature and impact of differences in human resources. The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in school organization processes associated with learning-centered leadership and teacher learning among urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. Teacher trust and teacher agency were proposed as possible mediators of leadership effects on teacher learning.Design/methodology/approach This study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The authors collected survey data from 1,011 teachers and 60 principals in 30 urban and 30 rural primary schools in Thailand. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping were used to analyze the proposed model of leadership and teacher professional learning. More specifically, data analysis was aimed at determining the nature of relationships among the constructs in the conceptual model and whether patterns of leadership and teacher learning differed in urban and rural primary schools.Findings The results affirmed a model whereby school leadership exerted significant indirect effects on teacher learning in both urban and rural primary schools. Data analyses determined that the path of leadership effects moved through trust to agency and then to teacher professional learning. Thus, while the authors found a strong direct effect of leadership on teacher trust, there were only small direct effects of leadership on teacher agency and no meaningful direct effects of leadership on teacher professional learning. Thus, the research affirmed a full mediation model of leadership effects on teacher learning. Finally, the study also affirmed that the measured variables were perceived as significantly stronger in the urban schools than in the rural schools.Social implications The research expands on prior research on the “achievement gap” in Thailand by demonstrating the existence of a similar “human resource gap” when comparing urban and rural school leaders and teachers. This study implies that addressing the gap in student achievement will require action aimed at building the capacity of the principals and teachers who work with the rural pupils.Originality/value These results suggest differences in the quality of human resources between urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. There may be potential benefit to be gained from providing training focused on “learning-centered leadership” for principals and middle level leaders, as well as expanding access to quality professional development opportunities for rural teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce ergonomic risks for their workforce, many industries in Thailand seek assistance from professional ergonomists. However, most academic programs are delivered by instructors with limited human factor and ergonomics (HFE) background, who incorporate either physical or cognitive parts of HFE. To reliably assess and design systems according to HFE principles and standards, programs should be provided by creditable HFE professionals and based on holistic HFE knowledge. The objective of the present study was to initiate a transformation of the professional development in Thailand. The process included a consolidation of the details of HFE education through questionnaires, and identification of requirements from industries through a focus group interview. The results showed a prevalent lack of holistic considerations of HFE knowledge and a primary focus on physical ergonomics. Problems with lack of resources and basic knowledge in design were also reflected by concerns from the industry regarding limited experience, design competency and use of objective methodologies of HFE practitioners. This information was subsequently used to constitute the development of preliminary competencies and a pilot certification system. The proposed competencies and system were then disseminated and additional requirements that need to be incorporated into the professional HFE system were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the world, prostitution creates a societal dilemma; Taiwan and Thailand are especially affected by the prevalence of such sex workers. While much has been written about prostitution, it has seldom been addressed from a national HRD (NHRD) perspective. This paper addresses reasons why prostitution is so prevalent; the extent of prostitution in these two countries; past NHRD efforts in this arena; and recommendations for NHRD policy, practice and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If producing quality research and meeting the attendant demands of thesis and dissertation writing is a difficult process for native speaker students, it is often doubly so for non-native speakers. ESL/EFL students may have the level of language proficiency for admission to their course of study, without yet possessing the necessary textual knowledge, genre knowledge and social knowledge required of them to succeed at this level There is thus growing awareness in academic circles that ESL and EFL graduate students in countries such as Thailand may need assistance and guidance, not only in designing and carrying out their research, but also with the presentation of their research in an acceptable standard of English (Allison et al. 1998). Since the nature of this assistance is often multi-faceted, spanning cognitive, organizational, generic, linguistic and socio-affective aspects, a multi-thrust approach becomes necessary to provide student support. The paper describes one such attempt at meeting the multiple needs of EFL graduate students in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalization Programme was a four-year, 500,000- euro programme devised and implemented by four municipalities in Khon Kaen Province together with the College of Local Administration of Khon Kaen University in Northeast Thailand. The programme pursued five different action lines, with Ban Phai Municipality being responsible for traditionally made "ethnic" uniforms, Chum Phae Municipality for designing and installing multilingual signage, Khon Kaen Municipality for implementing the teaching of the Isan language as a subject in municipal schools, and Mueang Phon Municipality responsible for a multimedia collection of cultural performances. In effect, the programme piloted each of these four action lines in a given municipality and then sought to introduce each into the other three municipalities. The College of Local Administration was responsible for project coordination, research and visibility. The latter mainly took the forms of academic papers, research articles and newspaper columns. The principal results and outcomes of the programme included the first municipal multilingual Thai-Isan-English road signage in Northeast Thailand, the first Thai-lsan-English dictionary using a heritage script, the first Isan subject curriculum, a unique archive of Isan cultural performances, and the production of "ethnic" municipal and school uniforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the challenges faced by the Thai education authorities in their endeavor to promote equality in education by developing access to technology. As the One Tablet per Child Initiative, which was implemented between 2012 and 2015, failed to provide an adequate solution in terms of equal quality of education and effective use of resources, possible alternatives need to be explored. This paper provides an overview of the Thai government's ambitions and suggests possible targets and materials which would effectively impact Thai education and society as a whole. The authors believe that the key to success for Thai national education policies and programs aiming at developing equality is to improve access to resources and technology in impoverished areas and promote decentralized models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the ways in which the availability of family planning program outlets influences the likelihood of contraceptive use in rural Thailand. It focuses on a village-level measure of actual availability of sources rather than respondent perceptions of availability. Individual-level and village-level data collected as part of the second Thailand Contraceptive Prevalence Survey are used to test three hypotheses about the effects of actual availability: that (a) availability of family planning outlets increases the likelihood of contraceptive use; (b) it enhances the effect of a desire for no more children on the likelihood of use; and (c) it weakens the positive relationship between education and the likelihood of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 women living with breast cancer and invited them to take part in a drawing method. In this paper, we discuss the lived experiences and meaning-making of breast cancer among women in southern Thailand. Our data revealed that the diagnosis of breast cancer generated numerous emotional responses. However, after the initial shock, most women started to accept their reality. The acceptance of their breast cancer played an essential role in the meaning-making discourse because it assisted the women to be able to sustain the equilibrium of their emotional well-being. Meaning-making and the Buddhist belief about bad karma was a prominent theme. The belief that adversities in life were the result of bad deeds that one had committed to others in the past not only helped the women to accept their fate but also to deal with their life situations better. Our findings suggest that these women act in their own agencies to counteract any negativity they might encounter from their breast cancer trajectory. It provides a theoretical understanding about the ways Thai women deal with their breast cancer which can be adopted as a means to provide culturally sensitive care for women with breast cancer in Thailand and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After fifty years of almost continuous economic growth in Thailand, it is now possible to re-evaluate the developmental process of the education system. Until now, the structural indicators of education development that have been mainly used are the level and pace of the increases in public expenditure on education, the effect of increasing enrolment on social mobility, and the private and public distribution of investment in education. The impact of these factors undeniably offers a better understanding of the quantitative advances in education. However, the dynamics of the education system nowadays encounter structural limits related to both the integration of what is now widespread education within the social structures and Thailand's contribution to globalization. As a result, the contribution of education to the growth regime is increasingly questioned. The aim of this paper is to use a historical approach to explore this evolution. Theoretical and historical perspectives are combined within a quantitative history methodology, drawing on new time-series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Thailand, several barriers exist that prevent people with life-limiting illnesses from accessing good-quality palliative care, namely: lack of palliative care providers; lack of training and education for the palliative care workforce; and issues with availability and distribution of opioids. Without palliative care, people suffer needlessly during the last months of their life. This paper gives an analysis of these issues and provides recommendations for clinical practice, research and health policy that may help to alleviate these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in education systems around the planet to shift to an emergency-response mode. This paper explores educational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the national education systems of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In order to examine the educational responses, this study employed a document analysis technique in building a simple case study for each country. To furnish the document analysis, social media platforms of each country’s ministry or departments of education were searched for items related to COVID-19 education management. To provide a granular understanding of local educational responses, one English-based online newspaper was selected from each country and educational news related to COVID-19 were coded and analysed from the period of global lockdown in March 2020 to July 2020. It was evident that whilst all of these countries pivoted to online learning during the initial stage of the lockdown, all of them pushed to open schools as early as possible as online learning was found to be ineffective and further exacerbated existing inequalities in education. This study established several takeaways, which included that private-public partnerships and community-based initiatives are essential in mitigating the education crisis caused by COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]