Marginalised Students and Teachers' Perception About the Future of Inclusive Education in Thailand: A Case Study of Schools in the Northeastern Economic Corridor Area

Abstract

With the increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, the unfamiliar living and educational environments are barriers and challenges for immigrant children in inclusive schools. This is because schools are not well equipped to respond to the challenges faced by these children and their parents. At the same time, on the students' side, their parents are grappling with unfamiliar educational and social systems, as well as a language barrier. Although inclusion has been defined by the international declaration, The Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education, 1994, to ensure access to quality education for all children, national inclusion policies are still only slowly incorporating children from different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. This study is based on VUCA circumstances and aims to find out what the perceptions of teachers and marginalised students are about the future of inclusive education. A case study was used as an approach to obtaining information in a primary school in a province in the Northeastern region of Thailand with a high density of immigrant workers. Results of the study indicate that changes must be made by policymakers, stakeholders, schools and teachers if classrooms with marginalised students can be truly inclusive.

Citation

Narot, P. (2023), "Marginalised Students and Teachers' Perception About the Future of Inclusive Education in Thailand: A Case Study of Schools in the Northeastern Economic Corridor Area", Narot, P. and Kiettikunwong, N. (Ed.) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Special and Inclusive Education in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous (Vuca) World (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 20), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 75-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-363620230000020005