Teaching democracy while students leave their shoes at the door : attending to mundane practices of power inequality in Thai schools

Thailand experienced a democratic revolution in 1932, and for over 80 years has identified as a constitutional monarchy. Despite being recognised then as relatively progressive within Southeast Asia, over the past decade Thailand’s democracy has been in oscillation, if not regress. Some public support for coups d’état remains, elections have been popularly opposed or stalled, and ‘special mechanisms’ have been normalised into the country’s political culture. At the same time, the notion of individual rights often remains a foreign concept in practice. Such phenomena are in contrast to attempts at integrating democratic and civic education in schools, the purpose of which have been to foster democratic values towards the political development of the nation. Focusing on the mundane occurrences that have been overlooked in previous attempts at educational reform, this chapter seeks to uncover and problematise quotidian schooling practices in Thailand. We contend that ordinary school routines work to reproduce underlying misconceptions about democracy that remain prevalent across Thai society. Practices common across public schools that we critique include: students being the only group required to take off their shoes before entering classrooms, the differences between teachers’ and students’ meals, and the norm of classroom interruptions by school administration. We argue that such subtle practices may influence students’ beliefs, behaviours and learning about democracy in spite of the intentions of the formal curriculum. Educating students about democracy, therefore, requires attention to the hidden curriculum of habits and values embedded within ordinary school practices