I. Caring for and Educating Y Caring for and Educating Young Thai Childr oung Thai Children Today
Thai Families as Caregivers: Coping with Change
Childcare in Thailand today – whether in the bustling urban centres, the southern coastal regions
or upland rural communities of the north and northeast – reflects the country’s heterogeneous
history, containing an interesting blend of deeply-rooted, indigenous child-rearing practices and
influences from other cultures. The Thai family is clearly still the primary caregiver during the early
childhood years and many adhere to age-old traditions and local child-rearing practices. Thus,
indigenous Thai culture is firmly embedded within the socialization processes of young children and
as a nation they have been able to retain their cultural identity.
So even if the elite and their children have been freely exposed to, even immersed in, foreign
cultures, either western or within the region through travel or in the pursuit of higher education
abroad, they have retained their sense of nationhood and have always learned and valued their own
language. Today, almost every Thai, whether rich or poor, young or old, is exposed to much that is
foreign, largely because in the last two decades Thailand has become one of the region’s most
popular tourist destinations. At the same time, the growing economy and favourable investment
opportunities have also attracted many foreign multinationals, which continue to add to the already
fairly large expatriate community. However, despite the intensity of their exposure to “foreign”
influences, particularly western (i.e. North American and European) cultures and lifestyles, Thai
culture remains a solid influence within family life and early childhood.
This can, in part, be explained by the fact that Thailand is the only South-East Asian nation to have
avoided colonization, and has retained its independence since the first free Thai city was founded in
1238, which led to the early Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai. Thus, the people of Thailand have been
able to develop and preserve their own social, political and economic systems that have deep and
rich cultural and historical roots.
In terms of ethnicity and religion, Thailand is relatively homogeneous: 80 per cent of the population
are ethnic Thai and 95 per cent are Theravada Buddhist. Ten per cent of Thais are of Chinese
descent, including some of the hill tribe groups. There are 10 major hill tribes living in the
northeastern provinces, most of whom are Thais of Lao origin. There are then Malay and Muslim
communities who live mainly in the southernmost states, and thus there remain a number of minority
cultural influences within Thailand.
From birth, Thai children are still much more deeply immersed in Thai culture than they are exposed
to foreign influences, despite the fast-paced changes that have been affecting the daily lives of every
Thai family. It is true that a young Thai child in Bangkok has access to the same fixtures and props
5
Chapter1. Early Childho Childho Childho od Care
and Education
in Thailand in Thailand in Thailand
Working for Access, Quality and Inclusion
6
of contemporary childhood that his or her peers in many other highly-developed urban centres can
also take for granted. However, his or her immediate and sustained immersion in Thai culture – the
language, daily personal routines (from mealtimes to clothing to hygiene), relaxation, play, use of
media, prayer rituals, family dynamics and social activities, as well as experiences in childcare
centres, nurseries or kindergartens – ensures that these early childhood years serve as truly fertile
ground for nurturing a very strong sense of cultural and national identity as a Thai.
Nonetheless, despite the deep and stable cultural and religious influences in their lives, there are
significant changes in the lifestyles of Thai families that make a young Thai’s childhood today very
different from that of their parents. First, the Thai family is now much smaller compared even to the
1960s, when there was an average of six children to each family. Today, in a typical rural family,
there are two children, while in Bangkok one child per household is the norm. In close to four
decades, population growth rates have decreased from 3.2 per cent to 1.1 per cent.
As is often the case, there are both pros and cons to this decrease in child numbers per household
when assessing the implications for early childhood development. One obvious disadvantage is that
today’s “only child” will not experience the same benefits as her parents, who were able to learn
from the lessons and challenges that only multiple-sibling interaction and relationships can provide.
Many others growing up with either one brother or sister will benefit to a degree, but they will still
only experience some of those aspects of life with siblings that contribute to an individual’s learning
and development, and influence a child’s personality and interests. The only child will surely engage
in some forms of peer interaction, for example with cousins, neighbours, family friends or other
children in childcare centres. However, this cannot match the depth and intensity of the lifelong
bond between siblings that can begin to take root during the years of early childhood.
A possible advantage, meanwhile, is that a child with no siblings is likely to enjoy more of everything
– more parental attention, more food, more clothes, more toys, a greater likelihood of quality health
care, better schooling, as well as extra perks like family holidays and more recreational
opportunities. This is often expected to result in a marked qualitative difference, an improvement in
their lives that gives them a decided advantage as far as achieving healthy growth and optimum
development is concerned. And this sufficiency – possibly even abundance – is indeed a stabilizing
factor and can even act as a protective cushion, especially in times of crisis like the economic
downturn in 1997, which dealt a particularly devastating blow to Thailand’s booming economy.
However, this is not the case for the children of about 1.5 million families in the slums of Bangkok
and other urban centres, or children of hill tribes who live in the northern and north-eastern
mountains. This supposed economic advantage cannot be seen to extend to the children of refugees
or those who belong to the so-called “border population”, or to children whose lives have been
affected by HIV/AIDS, either as orphans or who are themselves afflicted. These are the young
children of marginalized groups, for whom there was no safety net when Thailand’s economic boom
and rapid urban development collapsed after 1997. Contrary to widely-held assumptions, the fruits of
the perceived progress in every sphere of Thai society somehow did not trickle down to them.
In addition to fewer children per family, there has also been another, equally influential development
in the makeup of the Thai household, especially among rural communities: the emergence of the
nuclear family. While the self-contained family unit has for some time been the model for most
households in urban centres, families in rural areas have long been considered a paragon of the
traditional Thai family, in which large numbers of relatives, across various generations, shared the
same house or lived in close proximity to one another. This was, in part, because an agricultural
lifestyle required tightly interwoven kinship patterns based on strong economic and social ties.
However, just as paddy fields, which for generations were cultivated for rice, have been filled in and
turned into roads or industrial zones, so too the rural family has been uprooted and reoriented by the
demands of an industrial society.
Early Childhood Care and Education in Thailand
7
There are various reasons for this upheaval, foremost among which is the dramatic increase in rural
to urban migration as former farming families have gone in search of employment opportunities.
Almost half of all migrants flock to Bangkok. Significantly, a large number of these migrants are
women, who are in great demand either as factory workers or from the tourism industry. As a
result, so many young children have been separated from their mothers and left behind in the care
of grandparents or other relatives. At the same time, there has also been an increase in households
headed by women, in cases where husbands and older male children have gone in search of work.
There is one more critical factor in the break-up of the traditional Thai family unit, in addition to the
rural-to-urban dispersal for economic reasons. The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS has also left huge
numbers of orphaned children, for whom until recently there might at least have been the safety net
of grandparents or other relatives to look after them. However, as we have seen, nuclear families
are now becoming the norm and the unforeseen tragedy is that for an increasing number of children
such a safety net no longer exists.
There are also entire families who, having migrated to urban centres, settled in slum communities,
some of whom are forced to live on the streets. In such situations, two-parent families have had to
devise their own ways of coping to provide adequate childcare. For example, fathers may assume
major childcare responsibilities as women often have greater employment opportunities.
Alternatively, parents may work out a system whereby they rotate work schedules to ensure one or
other is always free to look after the children. Another pattern is for children to be sent back to the
family’s rural village to be cared for by grandparents.
Some children, meanwhile, grow up without any sense of home at all. These are the children of
itinerant families, who move from place to place in search of whatever jobs their limited skills may
qualify them for. Such children are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and illness, as well as
exposure
I. ดูแล และให้ Y ดูแลและให้หนุ่มไทย Childr oung ไทยเด็กวันนี้ครอบครัวไทยเป็นเรื้อรัง: การเผชิญกับการเปลี่ยนแปลงChildcare ในปัจจุบันในศูนย์เมืองคึกคัก พื้นที่ชายฝั่งภาคใต้หรือค่อยชุมชนชนบทของทางเหนือและตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ – สะท้อนถึงประเทศของแตกต่างกันประวัติศาสตร์ ประกอบด้วยความน่าสนใจผสมผสาน รากลึก ชนแม่ลูกปฏิบัติ และอิทธิพลจากวัฒนธรรมอื่น ๆ ครอบครัวไทยชัดเจนยังคงเป็นภูมิปัญญาหลักระหว่างช่วงปีวัยเด็กและหลายคนยึดติดประเพณีโปรดลองอีกและปฏิบัติแม่เด็กท้องถิ่น ดังนั้นวัฒนธรรมพื้นเมืองที่ถูกฝังแน่นหนาภายในกระบวนการขัดเกลาทางสังคมของเด็ก และเป็นประเทศ ที่มีสามารถรักษาเอกลักษณ์ทางวัฒนธรรมของพวกเขาดังนั้น แม้ว่าชนชั้นสูงและลูกได้อย่างอิสระสัมผัส ได้สัมผัส ต่างประเทศวัฒนธรรม ตะวันตก หรือ ในภูมิภาค ผ่านการเดินทาง หรือ ในการแสวงหาของอุดมศึกษาต่างประเทศ พวกเขาได้สะสมความ nationhood ได้เสมอเรียนรู้ และมูลค่าของตนเองภาษา วันนี้ เกือบทุกไทย ไม่ว่ารวย หรือยากจน หนุ่มสาว หรือ เก่า จะถูกเปิดเผยให้มากที่ต่างประเทศ ส่วนใหญ่เนื่องจากในช่วง สองทศวรรษที่ประเทศไทยได้กลายเป็นหนึ่งในพื้นที่ของสถานที่ท่องเที่ยวยอดนิยม ในเวลาเดียวกัน การเติบโตของเศรษฐกิจ และการลงทุนดีโอกาสยังมีดึงดูดในต่างประเทศบริษัท ซึ่งเพิ่มให้ต่อไปนี้แล้วfairly large expatriate community. However, despite the intensity of their exposure to “foreign”influences, particularly western (i.e. North American and European) cultures and lifestyles, Thaiculture remains a solid influence within family life and early childhood.This can, in part, be explained by the fact that Thailand is the only South-East Asian nation to haveavoided colonization, and has retained its independence since the first free Thai city was founded in1238, which led to the early Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai. Thus, the people of Thailand have beenable to develop and preserve their own social, political and economic systems that have deep andrich cultural and historical roots.In terms of ethnicity and religion, Thailand is relatively homogeneous: 80 per cent of the populationare ethnic Thai and 95 per cent are Theravada Buddhist. Ten per cent of Thais are of Chinesedescent, including some of the hill tribe groups. There are 10 major hill tribes living in thenortheastern provinces, most of whom are Thais of Lao origin. There are then Malay and Muslimcommunities who live mainly in the southernmost states, and thus there remain a number of minoritycultural influences within Thailand.From birth, Thai children are still much more deeply immersed in Thai culture than they are exposedto foreign influences, despite the fast-paced changes that have been affecting the daily lives of everyครอบครัวไทย มันเป็นความจริงที่ไทยเด็กในกรุงเทพมหานครได้เข้าถึงการแข่งขันเดียวกันและอุปกรณ์5Chapter1 ต้น Childho Childho Childho od ดูแลและการศึกษาในประเทศไทยไทยในไทยงานเข้า คุณภาพ และรวม6ของวัยเด็กสมัยที่เพื่อนของเขา หรือเธอในหลายอื่น ๆ พัฒนาสูงเมืองศูนย์สามารถนอกจากนี้ยัง จะได้รับ อย่างไรก็ตาม เขา หรือเธอทันที และ sustained แช่ในวัฒนธรรมไทย – การภาษา กิจวัตรประจำวันส่วนตัว (จาก mealtimes กับเสื้อผ้าที่อนามัย), พักผ่อน เล่น ใช้สื่อ พิธีกรรมสวดมนต์ dynamics ครอบครัว และสังคม รวมทั้งประสบการณ์ในการดูแลเด็กศูนย์ ลอรี่ หรือ kindergartens – เพื่อให้แน่ใจว่า ปีนี้ปฐมวัยทำหน้าที่เป็นที่อุดมสมบูรณ์อย่างแท้จริงดินสำหรับ nurturing ความเอกลักษณ์วัฒนธรรม และประเทศเป็นภาษาไทยที่แข็งแกร่งมากกระนั้น แม้ลึก และมีความมั่นคงทางวัฒนธรรม และทางศาสนาอิทธิพลในชีวิต มีเปลี่ยนแปลงที่สำคัญในวิถีชีวิตของครอบครัวไทยที่ทำให้เด็กหนุ่มไทยวันนี้มากแตกต่างจากของพ่อ ครั้งแรก ครอบครัวไทยเป็นมากขนาดเล็กเทียบได้ถึง1960s เมื่อมีโดยเฉลี่ยครอบครัวละ 6 ลูก ในครอบครัวชนบททั่วไป วันนี้มีเด็ก 2 คน ในขณะที่ในกรุงเทพ เด็กต่อครัวเรือนเป็นปกติ ในปิดสี่ทศวรรษที่ผ่านมา อัตราการขยายตัวของประชากรได้ลดลงจากร้อยละ 3.2 การร้อยละ 1.1เป็นบ่อยคือ มีทั้ง pros และ cons การลดลงของจำนวนเด็กต่อครัวเรือนwhen assessing the implications for early childhood development. One obvious disadvantage is thattoday’s “only child” will not experience the same benefits as her parents, who were able to learnfrom the lessons and challenges that only multiple-sibling interaction and relationships can provide.Many others growing up with either one brother or sister will benefit to a degree, but they will stillonly experience some of those aspects of life with siblings that contribute to an individual’s learningand development, and influence a child’s personality and interests. The only child will surely engagein some forms of peer interaction, for example with cousins, neighbours, family friends or otherchildren in childcare centres. However, this cannot match the depth and intensity of the lifelongbond between siblings that can begin to take root during the years of early childhood.A possible advantage, meanwhile, is that a child with no siblings is likely to enjoy more of everything– more parental attention, more food, more clothes, more toys, a greater likelihood of quality healthcare, better schooling, as well as extra perks like family holidays and more recreationalopportunities. This is often expected to result in a marked qualitative difference, an improvement intheir lives that gives them a decided advantage as far as achieving healthy growth and optimumdevelopment is concerned. And this sufficiency – possibly even abundance – is indeed a stabilizingfactor and can even act as a protective cushion, especially in times of crisis like the economicdownturn in 1997, which dealt a particularly devastating blow to Thailand’s booming economy.However, this is not the case for the children of about 1.5 million families in the slums of Bangkokand other urban centres, or children of hill tribes who live in the northern and north-easternmountains. This supposed economic advantage cannot be seen to extend to the children of refugeesor those who belong to the so-called “border population”, or to children whose lives have beenaffected by HIV/AIDS, either as orphans or who are themselves afflicted. These are the youngchildren of marginalized groups, for whom there was no safety net when Thailand’s economic boomand rapid urban development collapsed after 1997. Contrary to widely-held assumptions, the fruits ofthe perceived progress in every sphere of Thai society somehow did not trickle down to them.In addition to fewer children per family, there has also been another, equally influential developmentin the makeup of the Thai household, especially among rural communities: the emergence of thenuclear family. While the self-contained family unit has for some time been the model for mosthouseholds in urban centres, families in rural areas have long been considered a paragon of thetraditional Thai family, in which large numbers of relatives, across various generations, shared thesame house or lived in close proximity to one another. This was, in part, because an agricultural
lifestyle required tightly interwoven kinship patterns based on strong economic and social ties.
However, just as paddy fields, which for generations were cultivated for rice, have been filled in and
turned into roads or industrial zones, so too the rural family has been uprooted and reoriented by the
demands of an industrial society.
Early Childhood Care and Education in Thailand
7
There are various reasons for this upheaval, foremost among which is the dramatic increase in rural
to urban migration as former farming families have gone in search of employment opportunities.
Almost half of all migrants flock to Bangkok. Significantly, a large number of these migrants are
women, who are in great demand either as factory workers or from the tourism industry. As a
result, so many young children have been separated from their mothers and left behind in the care
of grandparents or other relatives. At the same time, there has also been an increase in households
headed by women, in cases where husbands and older male children have gone in search of work.
There is one more critical factor in the break-up of the traditional Thai family unit, in addition to the
rural-to-urban dispersal for economic reasons. The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS has also left huge
numbers of orphaned children, for whom until recently there might at least have been the safety net
of grandparents or other relatives to look after them. However, as we have seen, nuclear families
are now becoming the norm and the unforeseen tragedy is that for an increasing number of children
such a safety net no longer exists.
There are also entire families who, having migrated to urban centres, settled in slum communities,
some of whom are forced to live on the streets. In such situations, two-parent families have had to
devise their own ways of coping to provide adequate childcare. For example, fathers may assume
major childcare responsibilities as women often have greater employment opportunities.
Alternatively, parents may work out a system whereby they rotate work schedules to ensure one or
other is always free to look after the children. Another pattern is for children to be sent back to the
family’s rural village to be cared for by grandparents.
Some children, meanwhile, grow up without any sense of home at all. These are the children of
itinerant families, who move from place to place in search of whatever jobs their limited skills may
qualify them for. Such children are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and illness, as well as
exposure
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