Indigenous Educational Movements in Thailand

Abstract

This chapter celebrates Indigenous education movements in Thailand. Despite state attempts to homogenize its citizenry historically and today, Indigenous communities in Thailand have always been active in strengthening their family, cultural, and linguistic practices. Through connections to other Indigenous movements regionally and globally, Indigenous educators in Thailand are organizing what we call “moves to resurgence” in communities, in schools, and particularly in the in-between spaces across schools and their local communities. In this chapter, we provide an overview of (1) the history and construction of indigeneity and ethnicity in Asia that complicates a “white-other” binary, (2) the long-term impacts of schooling for Indigenous youth as it relates to the formation of nation-states in Southeast Asia, and (3) how Indigenous communities in Thailand have skillfully navigated across worlds to create coherent identities for themselves. We provide three cases that intentionally build innovative “both-and” constructions of identity and resist binary state narratives that attempt to place Indigeneity in contradiction to statehood. To resist the continued erasure of Indigenous peoples in Asia, we highlight case examples of Indigenous resurgence and celebrate Indigeneity in Thailand.