Education as resistance : post-coup university students' educational choices in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar

Title: Education as resistance : post-coup university students' educational choices in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar

Author: Phyu Hnin Thawda

Year: 2025

Keywords: epistemic resistance, capability deprivation, Myanmar higher education, educational credentialism, post-coup student agency

Themes: Education, Migration

Advisor(s): Carl Nigel Middleton

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: The 1st February 2021 military coup in Myanmar precipitated one of the most severe higher education crises in contemporary Southeast Asia. This thesis examines how post-coup university students in Yangon and Mandalay construct educational choices as an act of resistance, and how they sustain those choices amid tension between academic success and the precarity of professional development. Framed through three interlocking theoretical lenses in epistemic resistance and decoloniality, the capability deprivation approach, and the concept of revolutionary everyday life and contentious politics. The study compares the experiences of social science and medical science students, whose disciplinary contexts differently constrain the feasibility of alternative, non-state education. Employing a qualitative, phenomenological research design supplemented by comparative case analysis, the study draws on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with participants purposively across four groups, defined by discipline (medical/social science) and educational pathway (alternative provider/return to public university), alongside documentary analysis of policy and institutional sources. Findings in the thesis showed that how post-coup university students expressed “education as resistance” through participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement, made educational choices that shaped by four different interacting factors evaluating educational legitimacy and sustain their resistance to knowledge system under the military regime. The thesis contributes an empirically grounded account of student political agency under authoritarian rupture and offers policy recommendations to support alternative educational pathways and strengthen credential-recognition advocacy for Myanmar's displaced student population.

Chinese students’ mothers in Thailand: transnational education and migration

Title: Chinese students’ mothers in Thailand: transnational education and migration

Author: Shan Li

Year: 2025

Keywords: Transnational education, migration, Chinese mother, Thailand

Themes: Migration, Education, Social Welfare

Advisor(s): Premjai Vungsriphisal

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This research focuses on Chinese mothers accompanying their children to study in Thailand, exploring their life experiences, identity transformation, and social adaptation within this transnational educational migration phenomenon. A mixed research method (questionnaire survey and interviews) was employed, systematically analyzing data from 151 questionnaires and 13 interviewed mothers. Results show that these accompanying mothers generally possess high levels of education and economic capability, with most abandoning their original professions for their children's education, forming a transnational family structure of husband remaining in China, wife accompanying her child in Thailand. While this model reinforces traditional gender roles, it also encourages women to demonstrate a certain degree of autonomy and re-creation in a cross-cultural environment. The study found that they face challenges such as language barriers, identity disparity, and psychological stress during the migration process, but they also achieve self-development and social integration through learning Thai, participating in the community, and engaging in side jobs. The findings not only enrich the theoretical discussion on transnational educational migration of East Asian women but also provide empirical references and policy implications for Thai-Chinese educational cooperation and family immigration policies

Navigating precarity : hope, agency and life experiences of female ethnic care leavers in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Title: Navigating precarity : hope, agency and life experiences of female ethnic care leavers in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Author: Su Mei Michelle Png

Year: 2025

Keywords: Institutional care, Non-citizenship, Precarity, Youth agency, Hope

Themes: Migration, social welfare

Advisor(s): Jiraporn Laocharoenwong

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: More than half of privately run alternative care settings are located in northern Thailand. In Chiang Rai, historical migration from Myanmar has contributed to a significant presence of ethnic communities and migrant families who often place their children in institutional care to access education and basic living support. Children typically reside in centres from ages 6 to 18 and may possess Thai citizenship or non-citizen identification. While some stay briefly, the transition out of care upon completing high school is marked by constraints and insecurity related to independence, finances, non-citizenship and adjusting aspirations. Using the lens of precarity, agency and hope, this qualitative study examines the experiences of ten Akha women aged 19-29 who have left care and how they navigated precarity in their lives. Drawing on semi-structured and life history interviews, participant observation, and solicited diaries, this research reveals that precarity is not merely a post-care challenge ; for those with migration backgrounds, it is an ordinary condition experienced from early childhood. Daily independent life is shaped by complex factors, including unsafe work conditions, existential disconnectedness from social relationships, non-citizenship barriers and fragile aspirations. While the nature of precarity differs between Thai citizens and non-citizens, it is consistently framed by systemic structures and the transition out of care. This thesis argues that precarity is normalised in their lives structurally enforced by the conditions of leaving care, migrant descent, limited family support and non-citizenship status. Crucially, while their agency operates as a vital, compelled response to these structural limits, it is their hope that actively motivates them to negotiate for more secure life conditions.

Yunnanese Chinese youth’s aspirations to migrate and migration infrastructure in Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai

Title: Yunnanese Chinese youth’s aspirations to migrate and migration infrastructure in Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai

Author: Chingen Chiou

Year: 2025

Keywords: Yunnanese Chinese, Migration Aspiration, Migration Infrastructure, Doi Mae Salong

Themes: Migration,Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Jiraporn Laocharoenwong

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This thesis examines the migration aspirations of Yunnanese Chinese youth and the migration infrastructure in Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews, it analyzes the social and economic conditions that drive their future mobility and migration routes. In tandem, it explores the migration infrastructure that mediates the realization of their mobility. It argues that institutions originally established as sites of diasporic cultural reproduction have reassembled into migration infrastructures that further shape and direct the younger generation’s mobile futures. This research expands on youth perspectives and their conditions within Thailand’s Yunnanese Chinese community. It contributes to discussions of identity and educational institutions that are less addressed in migration infrastructure literature.