Seeking Education for All: (Non)Citizenship, Education, and Equity for the Marginalized in Myanmar and Thailand

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Global and Local Dialectics: Reimagining Learning and Learners in Transnational Contexts

Abstract

According to The World Declaration on Education for All, education is a human right. Yet nearly 30 years after the Declaration’s adoption, educational access and attainment remain elusive for marginalized and disadvantaged populations around the world. Taking into account this reality, this scholarly paper explores how citizenship, or the lack thereof impacts the education of non-citizens, namely refugees and the stateless in two countries that have significant refugee and stateless populationsMyanmar and Thailand. Guided by moral universalism as its theoretical framework, this paper presents a critical examination of literature on schooling, citizenship, statelessness and refugeehood. At its core, this paper asserts that education ought to be granted as a human right rather than a privilege of citizenship.

Author

• Trang A Phan, University of Houston