Recognizing the unequal power: Experience of teacher activists on renouncing the use of violence in Thai schools

Abstract

This qualitative research studied experiences of public secondary school teachers in Thailand who resisted the use of violence in classroom management and school. The article explores why these teachers chose to shun violence or advocate for this issue, how they campaigned for change. A critical education framework was used to demonstrate how teaching may be deemed political activism, while the concept of social justice was employed to theorize activist goals. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews. Results were that awareness of the interrelationship between violence, unequal power structure, and unbalanced power relations within the Thai educational system influenced teachers to renounce violence in classroom management. Instead, they emphasized empowerment and reduced hierarchical teaching and classroom management methods. They also formed alliance inside and beyond the school. These findings suggest that implicit activism, including change in learning process, may be theorized as a social justice movement insofar as teaching and classroom management aim to empower students who had been rendered powerless.