Abstract:
This research, ‘Future-Oriented Educational Policies and Strategies for Thai Youths’, is supported by ‘The 90 Anniversary of Chulalongkorn University Fund’ (Ratchadphiseksomphot Endowment Fund). The research is aimed at: 1) studying the social and economic trends affecting youths worldwide and in Thai Society; 2) studying future-oriented educational policies and strategies worldwide and in Thailand; 3) proposing future-oriented educational policies and strategic recommendations for Thai Youths. Methods of study are composed of 1) documentary review and expert interview; 2) foresight workshops and scenario planning; 3) expert in-depth interview and brainstorming seminar for policies and strategic recommendations. The results of this research can be summarized as follows. Thai society within the next 10 years will confront significant trends and uncertainties that directly affect Thai children. Among major trends are the technological advancements that revolutionize schooling into borderless learning, free trade and economic policy trends along with accelerated rate of knowledge advancements resulting in higher competition among various production sectors, including the education sector, which need to catch up with and to gain access to state-of-the-art knowledge. The increasing multi-cultural society and political trends will lead to more social conflicts and public outcry for equal rights among ethnic groups. The moral crisis and the weakening of Thai families will affect youth life styles resulting in increasing social problems such as sex, violence, teen pregnancy, and other risk behaviors. The results of foresight workshops and scenario planning provide both positive and negative future scenarios. As a result, the most probable scenario is drawn as a basis for identifying significant implications for future education policies and strategies. The backcasting process provides another important step in this research in identifying alternatives for educational policies and strategies based on expert brainstorming activities. The results embrace a diverse set of strategic alternatives including both common and specific strategies. Experts’ ranking of strategies is also employed and used for arriving at a set of recommended strategies in terms of global dynamism. A group of selected experts is then invited to participate in a brainstorming session to critically review the proposed educational policies and strategies, and identify appropriate measures to mobilize those strategies in education policy development. Along with three major educational policies, namely – “City of Learning”, “Education for Life Skill” and “Education for Sufficient Life”, four general strategies have been proposed as a final synthesis. The four general strategies are “Learning City, Skilful Living, Sufficient Lifestyles, Future-Oriented Management”. In order to move towards the suggested policies successfully, mobilizing strategies such as educational investment, knowledge management, area-based development and other social strategies have also been proposed.