Research

Expanding Access examines 225 migrant households across three districts in Tak Province and reveals the major barriers preventing many migrant children from enrolling in school. Despite strong parental preference for Thai public schools, challenges such as limited school capacity, financial constraints, lack of documentation, and distance to schools keep many children out of formal education. The study identifies five high-need communities that require urgent support to expand educational access.

Conducted by The Inclusive Education Foundation and Help without Frontiers Thailand Foundation for the British Council, this scoping study explored the educational realities of migrant youth along the Thai-Myanmar border to inform the potential rollout of the English and Digital for Girls’ Education (EDGE) programme. Drawing on insights from 161 participants, the study examined how gender roles, learning environments, and digital access shape girls’ educational experiences. The findings point to opportunities for enhancing English and digital skills development while addressing barriers that affect girls’ participation and future opportunities.

This qualitative, participatory study explored the complex experiences and perceptions of safety among twenty displaced migrant youth from Myanmar/Burma participating in a six-month fellowship in Mae Sot, Thailand. Guided by decolonial research theory and student-centered teaching, the research centered youth voices to challenge dominant narratives and generate new knowledge on safety, while also fostering personal and skill development.

This study reports a randomized controlled trial of a trauma-informed, edutainment-based group intervention for migrant and displaced caregivers on the Thailand–Myanmar border. The trial examines three main outcomes: positive parenting behavior, child exposure to physical and psychological violence, and caregiver psychological distress. A mixed-methods process evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis are embedded to assess delivery, acceptability, mechanisms of change, and economic viability. Findings aim to inform the sustained implementation and scale-up of prevention strategies that promote positive parenting and support caregiver mental health in high-adversity settings.

This research explores Co-designed Massive Open Online Collaborations (CoMOOCs) as a vital approach to teacher professional development for refugee and migrant educators. It highlights how local solutions and South-South collaborations, facilitated by global online learning, can foster meaningful learning in conflict and crisis settings.

Parenting interventions have been shown to reduce violence against children and promote positive parenting, but evidence on interventions to achieve population-level reach and impact is limited in low-resource settings. We assessed the impact of a universal film intervention for migrant and displaced caregivers from Myanmar living in Thailand.

This report demonstrates the significant impact of bilingual classroom assistants on multilingual education for migrant students in Thai Public Schools, with key findings showing up to 47% improvement in scores and increased classroom engagement. The study also explores the challenges and opportunities within the Thai Public School system for non-Thai children, focusing on accessibility, quality, and inclusion.

Driven largely by conflict, displacement, and economic pull factors over the past three decades, a homegrown system of mother tongue-based education for migrant children from Myanmar has been developed in Tak Province, Thailand. This paper documents learning from the creation of the ‘teacher leader’ role aimed at building school-level capacity to sustain TPD by giving new responsibilities to 31 teachers as peer coaches during the pandemic.

Being Family is a film-based intervention co-created with migrant and 

communities from Myanmar using evidence-based parenting skills from 

WHO-UNICEF Parenting for Lifelong Health programs. This brief reports 

results from a cluster randomised trial of Being Family with 2,249 caregivers living on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

The aspirations and perspectives of grade 12 migrant high school students in Tak Province, Thailand, are explored through a short survey conducted at a local career fair. Their career interests, educational priorities, and digital literacy levels are disaggregated by gender and visualized with graphs.

Within the seven refugee camps administered by the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) on the Thai–Myanmar border, teaching is viewed as an act of service. For decades, refugee educators have lacked access to professional pathways that lead to national inclusion. Providing refugee teachers with accredited opportunities and a living wage stands to benefit teacher recruitment, retention, and the quality of education in refugee camps.

The COVID-19 pandemic and political turmoil in Myanmar severely impacted the education of Myanmar migrant children in Thailand. A 2021 research project, "Stepping Stones," delves into these twin crises, highlighting the resilience of educational pathways and the potential for recovery.

This report examines school registration options for MLCs in Thailand and the importance of providing education tailored to all children's needs. Arguing that MLCs complement the 2005 Cabinet Resolution on education for those without legal status or Thai citizenship, it calls on policymakers to enhance legal registration and recognition channels for teachers and students.

Teacher education in Myanmar and its borderlands, affected by prolonged conflict and disruptions, operates within both state and nonstate systems. While the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted Myanmar's central government's teacher education, parallel systems adeptly adapted with decentralized, flexible strategies, potentially offering insights for teacher education in other crisis contexts.

This book examines the interplay between teacher education and comparative and international education (CIE), focusing on how they can mutually benefit in light of global socio-cultural and politico-economic changes. With contributions from global experts, it discusses topics like equity, social justice, and sustainable development goals, featuring case-studies from countries including Myanmar, South Korea, and the USA.

Myanmar has 117 living languages, with over 23 million people fluent in one of the major indigenous languages. Despite this linguistic diversity, the national language dominated school instruction until 2021, often unfamiliar to ethnolinguistic minorities. A study involving multiple organizations assessed multilingual education competencies, finding 94% of ethnic and refugee teachers met the requirements to bridge students from their mother tongue to a second language.