Migrant Education & Global Citizenship on the Thai / Myanmar Border

Episode #204 of Silver Lining for Learning will explore global citizenship education (GCE) broadly, and education on the Thai/Myanmar border specifically. Andrew Swindell and Wanida Lertvorapreecha Chong will discuss how migrant and ethnic-minority communities access quality and inclusive education on the Thai/Myanmar border as well as a few specific projects that they have worked on together. During their collaborations, they have examined how global, national, and local citizenship themes are represented in curriculum materials being used in schools with migrant students along the Thai/Myanmar border. In their research, they have found that Thai government school materials are strongly oriented towards national Thai citizenship whereas the internationally produced Open Education Resources (OERs) digital materials are more oriented towards global citizenship. In addition, they have written a digital GCE K-6 curriculum that is currently being used in migrant learning centers (MLCs) along the border. Importantly, during the SLL episode, Wanida and Andrew will talk about the curriculum development process and what GCE looks like in the context of migration. In addition, they will discuss mixed-methods program impact research they collaborated on over the past year on Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) initiatives across northern Thailand. Finally, Wanida wrote her dissertation on multicultural education and GCE focusing on this region, and will speak to the larger education situation there, particularly around migrant and ethnic-minority access to quality and inclusive education.

Andrew Swindell has over 15 years of experience in international development, education, and research, and is passionate about advancing inclusive and quality education for all learners. He holds a PhD in Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA and has worked in both online and in-person settings across the USA, Bangladesh, Liberia, Thailand, and Myanmar, specializing in emergency and forced migration contexts. He has published on topics like AI, digital literacy, education in emergencies, and curriculum studies in both popular and academic outlets, demonstrating an ability to convey rigorous evidence-based findings and complex ideas in varied formats for different audiences. He currently serves as a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) consultant with education NGOs based in Thailand where he investigates multilingual education for migrant and ethnic-minority students. He has also worked as a K-12 teacher and his other research interests include online and digital learning, AI, and global citizenship. His career has been driven by a commitment to making education work better for all people, guided by principles of compassion and human dignity. More on Andrew can be found in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/swindellandrew/ and he can be contacted at: aswindell@ucla.edu.

Wanida Lertvorapreecha Chong is currently a part-time lecturer at Maejo University, in the North of Thailand with seven years of full-time position teaching experience working at the Faculty of Liberal Arts. She is from Thailand and earned her PhD in Multicultural Education from Chiang Mai University. Her work focuses on the study of migrant education and global citizenship education on the border of Thailand and Myanmar. She enjoys collaborating with migrant teachers in designing the Thai curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to the migrant community. She has served as a board member for Child Dream Foundation and been actively coordinating with any projects related to migrant education. Wanida aspires to work as an International Student and Scholar Services Advisor (ISSS) in Florida. You can find out more about Wanida at https://www.linkedin.com/in/wanida-chong-58aa13255/ and she can be contacted at: wanida.lertchong@gmail.com.

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