An exploratory case study on rural Cambodian border youth: social and educational barriers with implications for development

• In Event: Crossing borders: educational journeys, barriers, and intercultural experiences of rural and urban youth

Proposal

Rural Cambodian youth are considered particularly disadvantaged despite the rapid expansion of Cambodia’s economy and education is widely accepted as a key development intervention to address social and economic issues. Despite the expansion of educational provision in rural Cambodia, rural youth continue to face a variety of barriers to education that have powerful implications for sustainable development in the educational sector. Development efforts may be further diminished in border regions where push-pull factors draw youth toward informal migration for work. This current case study examines these barriers using a questionnaire assessing the youth’s attitudes toward education (n = 50). Results indicated that poverty and the pressure to migrate for work remain significant barriers to educational attainment, despite the perceived benefits of education by youth and encouragement by families. Results revealed that inter-educational issues occur despite unclear prevalence, including negative pressures, physical and verbal abuse of students by teachers, teachers charging students fees, and government schools being comparatively less safe and encouraging than home and a local NGO school. Development aid in the educational sector must account for these additional pressures beyond economic factors within current on-the-ground educational realities in order to move toward sustainable impact. Discourse on education as humanitarian aid often frames challenges in terms of convincing rural Cambodians (and other developing world groups) to value education. Rather, this study problematizes this discourse and argues for a nuanced perspective that targets the barriers in place related to access to already-in-place educational services. The study was organized around two research questions: What barriers do rural Cambodian youth face to accessing education?and How do attitudes of rural Cambodian youth toward government school differ from attitudes toward NGO programs? The presentation of this study will include an overview of the theoretical framework employed to structure the study and analyze data. Data presented will include descriptive statistics of findings and response frequencies for barriers encountered. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the barriers to education, the study sought to illuminate the differences in attitudes toward both government-provided public education and an NGO-provided education program. Through the differences in attitudes, the researchers sought to gain insight into the benefits and drawbacks of both approaches to education provision. While attempting to provide a voice to the Cambodian youth of the region regarding the barriers that they face, this research also informs the body of literature on education in developing contexts. An article using this case study data has also been submitted to an academic journal for publication.

Authors

• bob w spires, university of richmond

• Jeremy Tost, Colorado Mesa University