Taking the sage off the stage: Identifying obstacles to student-centred instruction on the Thai-Myanmar border

After the 1962 coup d' etat, Myanmar's education system plunged into a downward spiral of insolvency and isolation from internationally recognized education standards. In the years that followed, alternative education providers, including ethnic education service providers in Myanmar, and the refugee and migrant education systems in neighbouring Thailand, emerged to provide emergency education. Now Myanmar is in a time of great educational transition and reform, with a new teacher training curriculum and competency framework being developed. Insight into the instructional practices implemented is necessary to ensure effective reform that represents all educational stakeholders. Participants (n = 19) from Myanmar who were studying Education as a major at a Thai university responded to a mixed methods survey which asked them to explain common instructional practices in their high school education. The study identified that the pressure on teachers to adhere to the recall-intensive nature of the national university entrance test and teacher-student authoritative power-distance were the main barriers to practicing student-centered instructional methods. This study recommends a reconciliation of traditional direct instructional methods with an increased focus on interactive whole-class teaching.