Education for the Production and Reproduction of Docile Bodies: The Problems of Civic Education in Thailand

Abstract

over a decade, Thai traditional elites and old-style bureaucrats have stated that
the problem of Thai political development derives from a lack of ‘citizenship’
characteristics in Thai people. In their view, the best solution has been to educate
the masses and to cultivate civic education by teaching both it and Thai ‘core
values’ as a subject to students. As a result, the students have become patriotic
“saviours”. They are expected to be strong citizens who can solve the political
development problem under the ‘Democratic Regime of the Government with
the King as Head of State’. This article seeks to understand the result of a
curriculum including the two subjects of civic education and history which have
been taught in Thai schools for 12 years, covering both primary and secondary
schools. What type of Thai citizen does this curriculum desire to produce and
re-produce? The author rigorously analyzed a corpus of civic education and
history textbooks and argues that the contents of these subjects are designed to
transform students into ‘docile’ bodies. They have become “objects” which are
ordered and imposed on by the state ideology, which produces and re-produces
them to be ultra-royalists and ultra-nationalists.