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A Case Study of Quality Education in Myanmar:
Education Leaders’ Perspectives
A dissertation submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree
of MSc research Methods with Education in the Faculty of Humanities
2022
Nay Myo Htet
School of Environment, Education and Development
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Table of Contents
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................................ 5
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ........................................................................................................................... 5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................................... 7
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. 8
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 9
1.1 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM ............................................................................................................................ 9
1.2 THE RESEARCHER’S ROLE IN FRAMING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM.......................................................................10
1.3 RESEARCH AIMS AND QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................12
2 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 13
2.1 QUALITY EDUCATION: CONCEPTS AND THEORIES ...........................................................................................14
2.2 QUALITY EDUCATION: LEADERS’ PERSPECTIVES ..............................................................................................16
2.3 MYANMAR BASIC EDUCATION CONTEXT AND ITS QUALITY ..............................................................................19
2.4 REVISITING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................22
3 METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................... 23
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ...................................................................................................................................24
3.1.1 Data Collection: Methods ...............................................................................................................25
3.1.1.1 Semi-Structured Interviews .................................................................................................................. 26
3.1.1.2 The Interview Schedule (See the appendix, the interview schedule) .................................................. 27
3.1.2 Positionality ....................................................................................................................................28
3.1.3 Data Collection: The Process ..........................................................................................................29
3.1.3.1 Participants recruitment....................................................................................................................... 29
3.1.3.2 The Participants .................................................................................................................................... 31
3.1.3.3 The interviews ...................................................................................................................................... 31
3.1.3.4 Websites and Document Analysis ........................................................................................................ 32
3.1.4 Data Analysis: Methods .................................................................................................................32
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3.1.4.1 Critical Realist Thematic Analysis ......................................................................................................... 32
3.1.4.2 Data Analysis: The Process ................................................................................................................... 34
3.2 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION ..........................................................................................................................36
3.2.1 Risks to Personal, Social, and Economic Well-beings .....................................................................36
3.2.2 Privacy, Anonymity and Confidentiality .........................................................................................37
4 FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................................ 38
4.1 WITHIN-CASE ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................................38
4.1.1 Min (the SAC leader) ......................................................................................................................38
4.1.1.1 Rote Learning is not Quality ................................................................................................................. 39
4.1.1.2 Real World Application of Knowledges and Skills ................................................................................ 39
4.1.1.3 Government must support adequate teaching aids and teacher training to achieve quality education
40
4.1.2 Hnin (the MOE-NUG leader) ...........................................................................................................40
4.1.2.1 Students’ Interests ................................................................................................................................ 41
4.1.2.2 Quality education for a Federal Democratic Citizenship ...................................................................... 42
4.1.3 Miranda (the IPS leader) ................................................................................................................43
4.1.3.1 Qualified Teachers to Deliver a Holistic Pedagogy ............................................................................... 43
4.1.3.2 Accredited International Standard Education ...................................................................................... 44
4.1.3.3 Quality Education for Future Leaders................................................................................................... 45
4.1.4 Hongsar (the EEO leader) ...............................................................................................................45
4.1.4.1 Teachers’ salary .................................................................................................................................... 46
4.1.4.2 Literacy and Numeracy skills ................................................................................................................ 47
4.1.4.3 Mother tongued based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) ............................................................... 47
4.1.5 Chan (the NGO leader) ...................................................................................................................48
4.1.5.1 Life Transforming Education ................................................................................................................. 49
4.1.5.1 Enabling environment .......................................................................................................................... 49
4.2 CROSS CASE ANALYSIS ...............................................................................................................................50
4.2.1 A Student-Centred Quality Education ............................................................................................50
4.2.2 Different Skills and Values for Different Students ..........................................................................52
4.2.3 Teacher Quality ..............................................................................................................................55
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4.2.4 Quality Education as Ideals vs Realities .........................................................................................57
5 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................... 58
5.1 A STUDENT-CENTRED QUALITY EDUCATION: HOW PLAUSIBLE IS IT IN MYANMAR? ..............................................58
5.2 DIFFERENT SKILLS AND VALUES FOR DIFFERENT STUDENTS: A MODEL OF SEGREGATION? .....................................61
5.3 TEACHER QUALITY: IS IT ONLY ABOUT RECRUITMENT, TRAINING, AND DEVELOPMENT? ........................................62
5.4 IDEALS VS REALITIES: WHAT’S NEXT FOR MYANMAR EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE QUALITY EDUCATION?...................64
6 CRITIQUE OF THE METHODS ............................................................................................................ 65
6.1 DESIGN ..................................................................................................................................................65
6.2 TRUSTWORTHINESS ..................................................................................................................................66
6.3 CRITICAL REALIST DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS IN INSIDER APPROACH: MANAGING RESEARCHER INFLUENCES ...68
7 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................................... 71
8 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................... 80
8.1 PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET (MYANMAR AND ENGLISH).........................................................................80
8.2 CONSENT FORM (MYANMAR AND ENGLISH) .................................................................................................96
8.3 INTRODUCTORY LETTER (MYANMAR AND ENGLISH) ......................................................................................105
8.4 THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE .......................................................................................................................107
8.4.1 Interview Schedule version 2 ........................................................................................................107
8.4.2 Interview Schedule version 3 ........................................................................................................109
8.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE INTERVIEWS .........................................................................................113
8.6 THE RESEARCHER- RESEARCHED ROLE IN THE INTERVIEWS ..............................................................................117
8.7 THE RESEARCHER’S BIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................117
8.8 NVIVO: INITIAL CODING .........................................................................................................................117
8.8.1 Codes visualisation from individual interviews ............................................................................118
8.9 NVIVO: ORGANISING CODES INTO THEMES .................................................................................................121
8.9.1 Detail Analysis ..............................................................................................................................121
8.9.2 Mapping of Events, Structure, and Mechanisms .........................................................................124
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8.10 RESEARCH JOURNAL ...............................................................................................................................126
Declaration
No portion of the work referred to in the dissertation has been submitted in support
of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or
other institute of learning.
Intellectual Property
The author of this dissertation (including any appendices and/or schedules to this
dissertation) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he
has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including
for administrative purposes.
Copies of this dissertation, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or
electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate,
in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has entered into. This
page must form part of any such copies made.
The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks, and other
intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright
works in the dissertation, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may
be described in this dissertation, may not be owned by the author, and may be owned
by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be
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made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the
relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions.
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Acknowledgements
I am hugely grateful for all the participants who have given their time in participating in
this study. Many thanks to Dr Susie Miles for the supervision of this project.
I would also like to thank my partner for listening and giving me advice on the project.
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Abstract
This case study explores Myanmar education leaders’ perceptions and
experiences of quality education. Five online semi-structured interviews were
conducted with education leaders from a State Administrative Council School, the
Ministry of Education-National Unity Government, an International Private School, an
Ethnic Education Organisation, and a Non-Governmental Organisation. An analysis of
documents and websites was carried out to triangulate the data. Four important
themes of quality education were found across cases: (i) a student-centred quality
education (ii) different skills and values for different students, (iii) teacher quality and
(v) quality education as ideals vs realities. The factors that affect education leaders’
perceptions of quality education were personal experiences, the context of the school,
the politics of schooling and the political structure. The most interesting mechanism
influencing education leaders’ perception of quality education was the recent Myanmar
military coup which inadvertently accelerated a trajectory of quality education that
centres on students’ interests, well-being, and federal democratic citizenship by
forcing education into less formal structures and spaces. Subsequently, Myanmar
formal schooling is put into question as it no longer serves the interests of the people.
This study argued that quality education in Myanmar must be developed from the
bottom up that considers all aspects of the economic, social, cultural, and political
issues if the purpose of education is to achieve social justice, but democracy is a must
have precondition to do this.
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1 Introduction
This first chapter starts by framing the research problem, aims and questions in
relation to my epistemological positions, personal experiences, and previous work. In
the second chapter, I will provide a review of literature, which informed the research
problem. In the third chapter, I will discuss how the study is designed in relation to the
research questions, epistemological positions, theoretical framework, research design
and approach, methods of data collection and analysis, ethical consideration, and my
positionality. In the fourth chapter, findings from the case study will be presented,
followed by a critical discussion of the findings in the fifth chapter. In the sixth chapter,
I will analyse how the use of critical realist approaches to data collection and analysis
in insider research might have affected the trustworthiness of the study. Finally, the
seventh chapter will offer conclusion, implications, and recommendations.
1.1 The Research Problem
The Myanmar National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) (2016-2021) brought
discourses of equitable and inclusive quality education in Myanmar. The policy set
strategies such as (i) improving access of quality education to rural and remote areas,
(ii) strengthening partnerships with different basic education service providers to
ensure boys and girls enrolment in school and, (iii) designing a new basic education
curriculum with quality assurance framework (MOE, 2016). However, in analysing the
NESP policy, I found that the framing of equitable and inclusive basic quality education
in the NESP policy was limited to enrolling more students in schooling to promote their
economic productivity, hence drive Myanmar towards a middle-income country (Myo
Htet, 2021). The wider economic, cultural, and political inequalities that are affecting
the most disadvantaged groups such as concentrated poverty in rural, conflict-affected
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ethnic areas, the use of mother tongue in education, and ethnic minority groups
participation in policy making were not addressed. The lack of participation of ethnic
minorities groups and the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in education
policy making reproduce these inequalities because the economic, cultural, and
political elites exploit education by defining a version of quality education that serves
their interests. Therefore, (i) a definition of quality education that is from the
perspectives of the most disadvantaged groups and (ii) a definition that considers the
wider economic, cultural, political issues are required in Myanmar quality education
context, yet the question of “What is quality education?” is under researched in
Myanmar.
1.2 The Researcher’s Role in Framing the Research Problem
Drawing on my previous work and personal experiences, the research problem is
a continual process of reflection and action, informed by theories and empirical
evidence. Over the course of my education experiences as a member of the Mon
ethnic group in Myanmar and the UK (see appendix The Researcher’s Biography),
learning about a diverse range of theories and philosophies, especially Paulo Freire’s
“Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (Freire, 2007) and bell hook’s “Teaching to Transgress:
Education as the Practice of Freedom” (hooks,1994) , I was shocked by how schooling
can reproduce inequalities and oppress the disadvantaged communities. I felt
complicit in reproducing these inequalities by not being conscious of the choices that
I (and other people) made for my education journey. Following hooks’ quest to
achieving self-actualisation, I found my contributions to addressing these inequalities
would be to take the role of what Michael Apple called a critical analyst (Apple, 2016).
To be a critical analyst is, first and foremost, to know and reveal the culture of
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exploitation and dominance in educational policy and practice for further actions
(Apple, 2016). Thus, I am intrinsically motivated to reveal how education and schooling
in Myanmar reproduces inequalities and know the most disadvantaged groups’
perceptions of quality education and perhaps this will somehow contribute to
something good, both for me and those who suffer inequalities. This has led me to
pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education.
My PhD project intends to examine the Mon ethnic minority students’ perceptions
of quality education and how the discourses of Myanmar quality education is
constraining and/or promoting minority students’ capabilities. Reflecting and learning
more about quality education and research methods over the course of the MSc
Research Methods programme, I have taken a huge interest in critical realism. Critical
realism believed that there is an external reality, independent of humans. Humans
interpret this external reality differently based on the experiences, events, mechanism,
and structure around them (Houston, 2010). Applying critical realism to my previous
work, I found that the framing of quality education in Myanmar is mediated through the
events, structure and mechanisms. For example, in 1962, the Mon education leaders
developed Mon schools as a response to the banning of ethnic languages in schools
and to sustain their languages, cultures, and identities (South & Lall, 2016a). It is the
Myanmar political structure at the time that constrained the Mon ethnic groups of
practising Mon language in formal government education system which resulted in
their actions towards building Mon schools. Subsequently, Mon leaders became
strong advocators of mother tongue-based multi-lingual education. However,
government education leaders might not think the same because the nationalistic
structure of Myanmar government school influenced them to think that being efficient
in Burmese is more important.
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As a critical realist, in my quest to exploring the disadvantaged groups’ perceptions
of quality education, I decided to use critical realist data collection and methods to
reveal the structural inequalities that impeded ethnic students’ capabilities. In defining
who are the most disadvantaged groups, I decided to use the opportunity of this
dissertation to do a pilot study on how education leaders from different education
contexts perceive quality education. There are two reasons for using education
leaders for this study, (i) education leaders have the capacity to cover both teaching
and learning and leadership, and (ii) are practically useful for examining how the covid-
19 pandemic and the subsequent military coup in 2021 hugely impacted basic
education provisions.
1.3 Research Aims and Questions
After identifying the research problem, two types of Maxwell’s research goals were
applied in this study: (i) intellectual, and (ii) practical (2009). Intellectually, this research
aims to explores (i) education leaders’ perceptions and experiences of quality
education in Myanmar. Practically, the research aims to generate results and theories
that are understandable and experientially credible both to the people being studied
and to others. In this case, I intend to disseminate the findings. Findings from this study
will be of relevance to the educators and the wider public about the current context
and the recovery of Myanmar basic education.
To be able to fulfil these research aims, my initial research questions were as
follows:
1. “What are Myanmar education leaders’ perceptions of quality education?”
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2 Literature Review
Maxwell argued that the literature review is often labelled as conceptual framework
which led researchers to focus narrowly on the literature and ignored other conceptual
sources such as personal experiences and unpublished work, which may be
significant in designing a research project (2009). I agreed with Maxwell that this
literature review is only one of the conceptual sources in designing this project. In line
with Maxwell’s qualitative research design, the purpose of the literature review is (i) to
understand the concepts and practices of quality education that are relevant to the
research, and (ii) critique them to inform and support the research (2009).
The literature review is divided into three sections: (i) a synthesis of quality
education concepts and theories, (ii) a review of education leaders’ perspectives and
experiences of quality education, and (iii) the Myanmar basic education context and
its quality. Much has been written on “quality education” since 2013 (32549 items in
Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC), 249 items in British Education Index.
(BEI), and 3750 items in Scopus), and “quality education” and “leader” (1305 items in
ERIC, 4 items in BEI and 132 items in Scopus). However, after applying the inclusion
criteria of this study which were (i) journal articles, (ii) written in the last ten years (since
2013), (iii) about education leaders’ perspectives of quality education, (iv) at basic
education level (primary and secondary), only a total of 44 articles were found (26
articles in ERIC, 4 articles in BEI and 14 articles in Scopus).
I scanned these articles and found that many of them were about leadership and
management studies (e.g., how education leaders perceive their leadership styles
(Alsaleh, 2018) or the effectiveness of leadership (Howard & Dhillon, 2021). These
articles were removed, and the final 10 articles (Ah-Teck & Starr, 2013; Languille,
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2014; Ng, 2015 ; Köseleci, 2015; Laurie, et al., 2016; Morgan, 2017; Bantwini, 2019;
Amagnya, 2020; Fusheini & Salia, 2021; Iromea & Reynolds, 2021) were used. In line
with Maxwell (2009) argument of having a range of conceptual sources, I also included
2 more articles (Barrett, et al., 2006; Tikly & Barrett, 2009) on concepts of quality
education from my collection. These 12 articles were used for the first section of the
literature review, a synthesis of concepts and theories of quality education.
For the second section of the literature review, a review of education leaders’
perceptions of quality education, I have only focused on empirical studies. Ah-Teck
and Starr (2013), Languille (2014), Ng (2015), and Bantwini (2019) explicitly focused
on education leaders’ perceptions and factors affecting the quality of basic education.
In the rest of the papers (Köseleci, 2015; Morgan, 2017; Amagnya, 2020; Fusheini &
Salia, 2021; Iromea & Reynolds, 2021), education leaders were included as
participants among teachers, and students in studies about quality education. For the
third part of the review, the context of Myanmar basic education and its quality, a
literature search was carried out using the search terms “quality education” and
“Myanmar.” 20 articles were found but only 4 articles were relevant. Therefore, I
decided to use my personal collection for this section. Therefore, the literature review
may not be comprehensive.
2.1 Quality Education: Concepts and Theories
In reviewing the literature, three main theories of quality education were found. The
most dominant and criticised theory of quality education is the economic theory. The
economic theory of quality education is concerned with human capital and neoliberal
approaches to education. In the human capital approach, education is to invest in
foundation skills such as literacy, numeracy, and social skills to gain financial returns
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and address social issues such as poverty and development (Barrett, et al., 2006; Ng,
2015; Laurie, et al., 2016). In the neoliberal approach, education is to equip students
with knowledge and skills required for competitions in the global market through
decentralised, privatised, and locally managed business-like institutions (Ah-Teck &
Starr, 2013; Morgan, 2017; Languille, 2014). Barret et al argued that the economic
theory of quality education took forms of “quantitative measurable outputs as a
measure of quality, for example such as enrolment ratios and retention rates, rates of
return on investment in education in terms of earnings and cognitive achievement as
measured in national or international tests” (Barrett, et al., 2006, p. 2).
The next theory of quality education is the humanist/progressive approaches to
quality education. The progressive/humanist tradition emphasises on educational
processes than the predetermined indicators such as focusing on “the individual and
how education impacts the learner (Ng, 2015, p. 308)” and “the observation that
children have an innate interest and ability to learn (Laurie, et al., 2016, p. 228).” Thus,
characteristics of the humanist/progressive theory of quality education includes
learner centred pedagogies, learners’ personal goals, human rights, cultural values,
democratic school governance, and inclusion (Barrett, et al., 2006; Ng, 2015; Laurie,
et al., 2016).
Tikly and Barret (2009) argued that quality education should not simply rely on
Eurocentric notions of human capital and rights approaches that were identified by the
states and/or global institutions. Instead, quality education must emphasise on
addressing social injustices faced by the disadvantage communities. I named this
approach as the social justice theory of quality education. The social justice theory is
a response to the critiques of the economic and humanist theories of quality education.
In the economic theory of quality education, Tikly & Barret argued that the narrow
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focus of ‘quality’ on economic outcomes neglected the wider social inequalities such
as unequal distribution of resources according to gender, rurality, race, class and how
these inequalities interact and intersect with each other (2009). In the humanistic
approach, the human rights constructed through global institutions were not
responsive to the lived realities of learners and educators in their specific socio-cultural
contexts (Tikly & Barrett, 2009). For example, Tikly and Barret argued that the political,
social, and economic forces such as colonial histories, modernization, globalisation,
and neoliberal policies influences were not considered within the humanistic tradition
of quality education (2009).
Building on Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach and Nancy Fraser social justice
framework, Tikly & Barret’s approach to quality education is “the extent to which it
fosters key capabilities that individuals, communities and society in general have
reason to value. (2009, p. iii).” To enable this, firstly, quality education enables
students to sustain their economic capabilities through providing equitable distribution
of educational resources. Secondly, quality education enables students to achieve
self-esteem by transforming a cultural pattern in which diverse needs and identities
are valued. Finally, quality education supports all members of society to participate in
the dialogue of ‘why and what’ capabilities are necessary for quality education and
‘how and who’ should be enacted. The social justice theory of quality education
emphasise the participation of the disadvantaged local communities in decision
making to address educational injustices in low-income, postcolonial contexts.
2.2 Quality education: Leaders’ perspectives
Ng’s study was the most relevant study about education leaders’ perceptions of
quality education as it directly addressed “What is quality education?” and “How can it
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be achieved?” using electronic survey (170 Singaporean middle leaders) and a follow-
up of 8 in-depth interviews (2015). According to these leaders, quality education (i)
focus on holistic development of students, equip students with (ii) the skills and
knowledge for the future, (iii) the right values and (iv) positive learning attitudes. Ng
noted that participants’ understanding of quality education was ideals, soft and noble
(humanistic approach to quality education) rather than driven by performance. Ng
interpreted that the physically safe and high performing system of Singapore education
context did not require a focus on outcomes. Ng’s interpretation of ‘safe’ and ‘higher
performing system’ and ‘not requiring a focus on outcomes’ were expected by the
researcher, yet they were not discussed by the leaders. This is a limitation of the
interview method. The interviewees not speaking about a particular topic did not mean
that that the topic of outcome was not important, because it was expected.
Nevertheless, the study did not engage with the participant’s context to confirm these
interpretations.
On the other hand, studies of education leaders that used case study design reveal
contextual factors that were affecting the quality of education. In conflict affected areas
such as the Arab regions (Morgan, 2017), using document analysis and interviews,
the students, teachers, parents, and principals’ perceptions of quality education
revealed that: (i) the overcrowded classrooms, (ii) heavy workload and low wages of
teachers, (iii) inequalities and lack of resources, and (iv) the politics of educational
reform were affecting the quality of education. Morgan found that the adoption of the
economic theory of quality education to smooth out the problems of quality in the Arab
regions neglected the contextual realities that were affecting the quality of education.
Similar findings were shared by Amagnya (2020) and Bantwini (2019) studies. In
Northern Ghana, using survey, focus groups, interviews, and observations, Amagnya
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found that the goal of ensuring all citizens to be functionally literate and productive (the
economic perspective) was failed by students’ attitudes towards schools, e.g.,
students would go to work than school due to the prevalence of poverty in the region
(2020). In the Eastern Cape province in Africa, Bantwini interviewed 13 circuit
managers from eight districts and thirteen circuits about the quality of education in
their districts and found that (i) low teacher morale, (ii) schools lack of confidence of
the circuits, districts, and provincial level and (iii) the lack of priority on the progress of
primary education were affecting the quality of education (2019). Applying Tikly &
Barret social justice theory of quality education, Bantwini concluded that any measure
towards achieving social justice in education must emphasise on the social and
contextual issues.
Contrastingly, Fusheini & Salia ( 2021) study of quality education found that
adopting the economic perspectives of quality education showed progress in students’
enrolment, and outcomes. Fusheini and Salia did interviews and focus group
discussions with 60 teachers, 36 students and six principals from the South, Central
and Northern Ghana on their perceptions of the corporate social responsibility
programme. The programme supported the infrastructure and resources needed in
the schools to enhance students’ enrolment and outcomes. They found that these
initiatives were beneficial to students’ enrolment and academic performance. The
authors suggested that school managers should be cautious in accepting financial
support from private businesses because “there may be other hidden reasons behind
the corporate support to the beneficiary schools (Fusheini & Salia, 2021, p. 606)”, but
the researchers did not engage with these reasons because of their interpretivist
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positions
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. A study that used critical analysis in examining quality education in
Tanzania, “unveiling mechanisms through which neoliberal education discourse and
practice, shaped in international policy-making spheres, travel across borders
(Languille, 2014, p. 53)”, revealed that the private sector involvement in quality
education that focuses on competition, calculability, profitability will likely not reflect
the quality education that is based on the negotiations of the locals in their historical
and political context (the social justice theory).
2.3 Myanmar Basic Education Context and Its Quality
In 2020, there were 45,600 government schools under the Ministry of Education
with 320,000 teachers, educating 9 million children (Lall, 2020). However, Save the
Children estimated that 7.8 million students are out of school since the closure of
schools in 2020 due to the impact of covid 19 pandemic and the subsequent military
coup (2021). After the military coup, the state administration council (SAC), led by the
military government, reopened the schools around June 2021 (Choo & Aye, 2022).
The previously government schools are now under the SAC, therefore I referred to
these schools as the SAC schools. The SAC claimed that around 5.6 million students
were currently enrolled under the SACSs in 2022 (RFA, 2022), but as far as my
research said, no exact data is available for the number of students returning to SAC
schools.
1
They were only interested in how the participants differently perceive the corporate social
responsibility programme.
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After the military coup, the SAC schools became political grounds because the
teachers, parents and students refused to continue schooling under the military
government (Choo & Aye, 2022; Htut, et al., 2022 ; RFA, 2022). Parents and students
faced dilemmas of whether to continue schooling in government school which are not
safe and do not serve their interests (Saito, 2021; Choo & Aye, 2022). Moreover, there
were many security concerns in SAC schools. Save the children reported that there
were 260 attacks on schools, in which 190 were explosion in and around the school
(2022). Responding to the military coup, alternative continual education provision
programmes were developed by the alternative government to the SAC, the Ministry
of Education, National Unity Government (MOE-NUG). The MOE-NUG home based
learning program uploaded video contents for students at various levels who are not
returning to SAC schools to continue their basic education from home (MOE-NUG,
2022).
Apart from the SAC schools, there are ethnic education providers (estimation of
300,000 students), and monastic education (around 300,000 students) in 2020 (Lall,
2020). After the military coup, the number of students enrolled in ethnic education
systems increased enormously (mostly doubled or triple their numbers) (Lusan &
Fishbein, 2022). Ethnic education providers aspire to mother tongued based multi-
lingual education (MTB-MLE) and provided different forms of basic education from
primary to secondary levels (South & Lall, 2016a). Many scholars argued that the Mon
education system is the model of MTB-MLE program because of (i) the use of multiple
languages such as Mon (the language of instruction), Burmese and English in its
curriculum and (ii) its flexibility to integrate students into the government system (now
SAC) (South & Lall, 2016a; Salem-Gervais & Raynaud, 2020). For example, students
can move into the SACS and sat matriculation examination under the SAC system.
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These complementary education systems often lack safe and secure infrastructure,
have large classroom size, lack adequate number of teachers, and have unsustainable
funding (Lall, 2011; Lall & South, 2014; Lall, 2020). Moreover, most of the
complementary education systems are based in conflict affected, poverty-
concentrated, rural areas, meaning that students faced more inequalities accessing
education in these areas (Myo Htet, 2021; Myo Htet, In Review).
Moreover, empirical research on students centred learning approaches to teaching
and learning in government (now SAC) and monastics schools and teacher training
programmes revealed that the teaching and learning in Myanmar remains teacher
centred and focus mostly on summative assessments (Hardman, et al., 2010; Lall,
2011; Borg, et al., 2018). Despite these schools faced different challenges in
implementing students’ centred learning approaches, most cited practical difficulties
include, (i) finding a balance between a ‘western’ CCA approach and Buddhist
practices in monastic schools (the fear of students lacking respect towards teachers,
parents, and elders as they question more), (ii) the lack of space, time and teaching
aids to do CCA activities
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in large classes, (iii) teachers working long hour shifts, and
(iv) the lack of approval of CCA by the principal or head monk.
Historically, the Myanmar government education system is often identified as
having no quality. Lall’s recent book on Myanmar education reforms claimed that the
quality of education in Myanmar has declined over the decades despite the
government commitments to the Millennial Development Goals and the Education for
All movement (Lall, 2020). The Myanmar Education Strategic Plan (NESP) (2016-
2
One of the examples is not being able to do group work because the furniture cannot be moved.
22
2021) brought discourses of equitable and inclusive quality basic education in
Myanmar. However, my previous work on the analysis of the NESP policy found that
the framing of equitable and inclusive quality education was limited to redistribution of
resources such as enrolling more students from rural and remote areas. I argued that
little attention was given to wider issues of social injustices, e.g., inequality in power,
funding, and quality between schools in poverty-concentrated, rural ethnic areas and
the urban, Burmese schools (Myo Htet, 2021). Despite this, the reform process
accelerated the discourses of inclusion, equity, and equality in practice (e.g., the
inclusion of ethnic languages in government schools). However, after the military coup,
the progress of basic education reform is halted, and many education development
programs were put on hold, leaving an uncertain future of Myanmar goal towards
sustainable life-long quality education (Htut, et al., 2022 ).
2.4 Revisiting the Research Questions
Combining my personal education experiences, previous work, epistemological
positions, and the literature review, I found that the problem of quality education in
Myanmar was hugely influenced by the wider economic, social, cultural, and political
structures. Moreover, I found that exploring education leaders’ perspectives in a case
study design using interviews, observations and documents analysis within critical
realist paradigm might be able to reveal not only their perceptions but also the events,
structures and mechanisms that are influencing their perceptions and affecting the
quality of basic education in Myanmar. At the same time, within the time frame and
resources of the dissertation, I also acknowledged that it was not practical to do
observation of leaders. Therefore, I decided to use interviews, and websites and
23
documents analysis to explore education leaders’ views of quality education and
factors that are affecting the quality of education in Myanmar.
Therefore, my final research questions were developed as follows:
1. What are Myanmar education leaders’ perceptions and experiences of quality
education?
2. What factors are affecting the quality of basic education in Myanmar?
In addition, due to my insider knowledge of the topic, I recognised that there might
be a tendency for me to exert my influence on revealing the events, structure, and
mechanisms. Therefore, the use of critical realist approaches in this study will be
evaluated.
3. To what extent critical realist interviewing and thematic analysis reveal the
events, mechanisms, and structures when the researcher is an insider?
3 Methodology Development
The designing of the methodology was not linear and fixed. The methodology
evolved as I align the epistemological assumptions, the theoretical framework, the
research design, and the methods to achieve valid answers to the research questions.
Crotty argued that researchers’ epistemological assumptions, theoretical
perspectives, methodology and methods must relate to one another to provide valid
answer to the research questions (1998). For example, a constructivist researcher (a
researcher who believes that knowledge is subjective) must use data collection
methods that acquire individual experiences such as interviews, rather than
experiments to achieve subjective knowledge. The researcher must be consistent in
24
their methodology to produce reliable outcomes (Crotty, 1998). In aligning my
methodological choices, I used Maxwell’s interactive approach to designing qualitative
research. According to Maxwell, an interactive approach is an approach in which the
researcher reconsiders or modifies design decisions according to new developments
in some other aspects of the design (Maxwell, 2009). I chose an interactive approach
because I believed that the activities of data collection, developing theories and
research questions simultaneously influence and interact with each other (Maxwell,
2009). Based on the principles of the interactive approach, many design changes were
made from initial planning to the write up stage of the dissertation to align the
methodological approaches to achieve valid answers to the research questions.
Hence, I named the design section as “Methodology Developments” instead of
“Methodology.” In the following sections, I will critically discuss the process of aligning
the methodological approaches and how these decisions were made to answer the
research questions.
3.1 Research Design
I approached the design of my study from the research problem. Not many social
scientists start a research project by identifying their epistemological position or a
design (Crotty, 1998) but by identifying the research problem that need to be
addressed (Crotty, 1998; Maxwell, 2009; Creswell, 2014). The research problem
indicated that the contextual factors such as economic, cultural, social, and political
structures are significantly affecting the quality of basic education in Myanmar.
Therefore, a qualitative, case study is used to acquire in-depth understanding. A case
study is an in-depth exploration of a case from multiple perspectives to generate
understandings and insights of the case (Stake, 1995; Hamilton & Corbett-Whittier,
25
2014; Bloomberg, 2018). There are many varieties of case study, but I chose the
instrumental design. The instrumental case study uses a case or multiple cases to
better understand and illustrate the underlying concerns of a specific issue (Stake,
1995; Hamilton & Corbett-Whittier, 2014; Bloomberg, 2018). In this study, I used
education leaders as cases to understand the events, structure and mechanisms that
influenced their perceptions and experiences of quality education and factors that are
affecting the quality of basic education in Myanmar.
Moreover, I approached this case study from a descriptive approach (Bloomberg,
2018). The descriptive approach is used when the specific of a social phenomenon is
not well conceptualised and the aims is to provide multiple ways of understanding of
the case in rich details through multiple-data collection methods (Bloomberg, 2018).
The descriptive approach was compatible to the nature and the research questions of
this study because the term quality education in Myanmar is not well-conceptualised
and providing rich details of education leaders’ views of quality education directly
answered the research questions. Furthermore, the descriptive case study allows
space to identify the events and structure, mechanisms that mediates leaders’
perspectives, experiences of quality education, and affects the quality of basic
education.
3.1.1 Data Collection: Methods
This case study applied semi-structured interviews and websites and document
analysis as data collection methods. Many scholars stressed that a case study must
have multiple data collection methods to ensure the richness of the study by reporting
from multi-layered perspectives (Stake, 1995; Hamilton & Corbett-Whittier, 2014;
Bloomberg, 2018). Interviews, observations, documents analysis are some of the most
26
common methods used in case study. Semi-structured Interviews were used because
they provide access to rich details about the participants’ view and experiences (Yeo,
et al., 2014), whilst web-based and document analysis provides another source of data
on leaders’ perspectives of quality education. Observation of education leaders in their
school/organisation would have contributed to the reliability of the data but observation
was not possible due to limited access to the participants, time frame and resources.
3.1.1.1 Semi-Structured Interviews
The designing of the semi-structured interviews is informed by Smith and Elger’s
critical realist approaches to interviewing (2012). In critical realist interviews, the
interviewer not only look for the interviewee’s motivations, views, and experiences but
also the context that may give rise to these experiences. To be able to reveal the
context, the critical realist interviewer is aware of the issues and events and act as
experts of their subject area. Similarly, critical realists also believe that the
interviewees are also experts in which they can explain their reasoning, motivations,
and experiences in relation to the context (See the appendix, the researcher-
researched role in the interviews). Moreover, the interview contents are driven by
the interviewer’s theory rather than the actual views and experiences of the
interviewees (Smith & Elger, 2012). This was true in this case study. I designed the
following interview questions based on my theoretical framework of quality education
and the context of basic education in Myanmar. Therefore, the semi-structured
interview was very compatible with critical realist paradigm because the flexibility
allows the interviewer and the interviewees to act as both experts on the subject area
whilst also providing space for the interviewer to ask questions that might reveal how
27
the structure and mechanisms are shaping education leaders’ view of quality
education (Smith & Elger, 2012).
3.1.1.2 The Interview Schedule (See the appendix, the interview schedule)
In line with critical realist paradigm, the interview questions were designed based
on my theoretical framework of quality education and the context of basic education in
Myanmar. For example, the question
“In a quality education classroom, what should students learn? Who should
decide what students learn?” (Table 2, Question 6)
is informed by the lack of students’ participation in Myanmar education policy
making process (Myo Htet, 2021).
Moreover, the interview questions were designed to be open to allow the
interviewee to expand their expertise whilst the semi-structured style enabled me to
control the interviews with probes and follow up questions. The follow-up questions
and the probes were also informed by key findings of quality education from the
policies and the literature and the theoretical framework. For example, the probes such
as ‘equality,’ ‘international standard’ to the question
“What does the term quality education mean to you?”
are informed by the terms used in the Myanmar national education strategic plan
policies (MOE, 2016). (See the appendix, Theoretical Framework for The
Interviews) for a detail version of the interview thinking.
The interview schedule was divided into to three sections. Firstly, some
biographical questions of the leaders were asked to examine their motivations and
experiences of working in their organisations. The interview questions were adapted
28
based on individual contexts. For example, with the participant from MOE-NUG,
questions about a typical day for a secondary student was not asked because they
worked in home-based learning programme. The second section was about education
leaders’ views of quality education and the third was related to the factors affecting the
quality of basic education provision in Myanmar. I developed the interview schedule in
both English and Burmese languages. The interview questions were iterated three
times to best represent the research questions.
3.1.2 Positionality
In the above sections, I have mentioned that my role as a researcher in this study was
to act as a critical analyst to reveal the events, structures and mechanism of quality
education that are constraining minority ethnic students’ capabilities. However, in
doing this research, it was difficult for me to either take outsider or insider approach.
Insider approach is an approach when the researcher is a member of the community
of the research participants and the outsider researcher is a researcher who have not
had experienced the subject topic that they research (Savvides, et al., 2014). From
my personal experiences of schooling and previous work, it was not possible to identify
myself as either insider or outsider. Many researchers also argued that it is too
simplistic to have a dualist position such as insider or outsider in doing qualitative
research (Dwyer & Buckle, 2009; Savvides, et al., 2014), rather to practice reflexivity
(Savvides, et al., 2014). Reflexivity can be defined as, (i) the researcher
acknowledging how they have conducted and been involved in the research and
produced knowledge; and (ii) the researcher being upfront about their own identities,
backgrounds, and epistemological perspectives (Savvides, et al., 2014).
29
However, after reflecting on my epistemological positions, I considered myself as
an insider and an expert in this research. This is because my personal experiences
and previous studies have had huge influences in designing this study. Acknowledging
my role as an insider felt more responsible than claiming my role as an outsider.
However, in line with critical realism, I am open to the unexpected or contradictory
findings that is not shared by my insider perspectives (Smith & Elger, 2012). Therefore,
reflexivity was practised in terms of making transparent of my identities and motives
to the reader.
3.1.3 Data Collection: The Process
3.1.3.1 Participants recruitment
A definition of education leader was developed to recruit participants. My criteria
for selecting the education leaders include (i) someone who professionally work in
leadership roles in ethnic, government and private basic education sectors (primary-
secondary) (ii) government is defined as either State Administrative Council (SAC) or
National Unity Government (NUG). It was particularly important to define leaders as
flexible because it was important to include all representative of education leaders
from ethnic, government and private sectors. For example, education leaders in this
study can be headteachers, head of academic department, online and home-learning
providers, Township/region/state/division education officers, civil society education
leaders, but not limited to these roles. I decided to recruit 10 participants in total for
the risks of dropouts. After receiving ethical approval, I managed to recruit 5
participants in total. It was particularly challenging to recruit education leaders from
SAC schools because I do not have many connections from this sector. See Table 4
for Table of participants.
30
Participants were contacted via emails with participants information sheet attached
except the SAC headteacher whom I contacted through social media platform because
they do not use emails. I explained the study in detail and answer the questions from
Table 4 for Table of participants.
the participants to make sure that they understand the study. Participants were all
made aware that their consent forms, personal and interview data will be stored for
five years after the study for me to use for further research in this area. They were also
made aware that they can drop out of the study anytime without detriment to
Name
Role
Organisation/
school type
Years in
Post
Ethnicity/R
ace
Sex
Min
Headteacher
State
Administration
Council school
2 years
Burmese
Male
Hnin
Cannot be
disclosed
Ministry of
Education, the
National Unity
Government
1 year
Burmese
Female
Miranda
Senior leader
in primary
Education
International
private School
2 years
White
Female
Hongsar
Senior
Manager
Ethnic
Education
Organisation
30 years
Mon
Female
Chan
Lead Trainer
Non-
governmental
organisation
2 years
Mon
Male
31
themselves. All the participants signed consent form prior to the interview and the
interview schedule was provided to them as soon as they agree to participate in the
study. No compensation was paid to the participants.
3.1.3.2 The Participants
The research investigated five education leaders from the following basic
education provisions: an SAC school, the MOE-NUG, an international private school
(IPS), an Ethnic Education organisation (EEO) and a non-governmental organisation
(NGO). These schools and organisations are based on various parts of Myanmar;
therefore, their contexts vary from one another. However, it is not possible to provide
the detail context of these schools and organisations to protect the privacy and
confidentiality of the participants and the organisations. Nevertheless, a broad
overview of the context of basic education provisions was provided in the literature
review to give the reader some understanding of the background of the participants.
In additions, rich data about the participants’ context were provided in the findings and
discussions.
3.1.3.3 The interviews
All the interviews were carried out and recorded via zoom. I used Mon language
with the two Mon participants, Burmese for the two Burmese participants and English
for the white participant. All the interviews lasted approximately an hour. I personally
knew the MOE-NUG, and NGO leaders. The MOE-NUG leader was my lecturer at my
previous university and the NGO leader, and I have previously made correspondence
about Myanmar ethnic education systems over emails. Therefore, both me and them
felt comfortable talking to each other. Example, the MOE-NUG leader was comfortable
talking about their experiences of protesting and difficult situations that they were in
32
after the military coup. For the NGO leader, he came very prepared (he admitted
during the interviews) not to get the answers wrong. For the EEO, IPS and SAC
leaders, I did not feel that they were not comfortable in the interviews because they
did not reject to answer to any question. The one thing that I was hesitant in the
interviews were to challenge and criticised the quality of education in their contexts
because of the difficult conditions in which they work. For example, in the MOE-NUG
case, I felt uncomfortable to ask the quality of the online learning contents because
they were developing these contents under very difficult circumstances such as risks
of persecution. This might have limited the breath of the interviews.
3.1.3.4 Websites and Document Analysis
In line with the design of the case study, websites and documents were used to
have multiple sources of data (Stake, 1995). Three participants (the IPS, MOE-NUG
and NGO) respectively have websites that described the visions, missions, and
statements about the quality of their organisations. These websites were formed as
documents. For the SAC participants, I used the sections under basic education
reform in the Myanmar NESP policy. For the EEO leader, I used their vision and
mission statements from the curriculum framework document that the participant
provided me after the interview.
3.1.4 Data Analysis: Methods
3.1.4.1 Critical Realist Thematic Analysis
I applied a critical realist thematic analysis (TA) to analyse the qualitative semi-
structured interviews, the websites, and the documents. TA is a method for identifying,
analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data. I chose TA because of its
33
flexibility and opportunities to reveal both surface (semantic) and deep (latent)
understandings of small-scale research (Braun & Clarke, 2006). As a critical realist,
TA not only enables me to find what themes of education leaders’ perceptions and
experiences of quality education are evident but also to deeply engage with context
that give rise to these perceptions and experiences. Therefore, my job as a critical
realist is to unpick the interviewees’ perceptions and beliefs about quality education
and interpret what may give rise to these experiences i.e., the social, political, and
cultural contexts.
To examine the factors that may influence education leaders’ perceptions and
factors that are affecting the quality of basic education, I applied Houston (2010)
domains of social life framework to investigate what events, structures and
mechanisms are influencing education leaders’ views of quality education. According
to Houston, the social world is constructed in five domains. However, due to the limited
range of this study, I have only focused on three domains: domain of the person,
domain of culture, and domain of the polity/economy. The domain of the person is
concerned with the biological, genetic, psycho- logical, linguistic, cognitive, existential,
and other forces or law like mechanisms along with human agency. The domain of
culture refers to the belief systems, norms, rituals, social practices, customs, and
tastes that generate meaning and social cohesion but also serve to divide and
oppress. The domain of polity/economy is associated with the critique of capitalism
with a focus on key mechanisms such as drive for profit through consumption, income
production, the stress on individualisation and rationalisation, and privatisation. The
participants’ perceptions of quality education will be mapped with these three domains
whilst considering their agencies.
34
3.1.4.2 Data Analysis: The Process
I followed Braun & Clarke’s six stages of thematic analysis. In the familiarisation
stage, I listened to all the recording many times to be familiar with the data. Whilst
listening to the data, I took notes of surprises, patterns, and meanings to form initial
ideas about answering the research questions. As the study were carried out in three
languages, I did not plan to transcribe and translate all the recordings. To contribute
the linguistic diversities into the data, I was planning to listen and make notes directly
from the recording. I was being cautious that transcribing and translating the interviews
into English might lose the rich data. However, to enable a systematic analysis, I
decided to transcribe the relevant sections of the recordings to English (from question
number three of the first section of the interview schedule). I transcribed the Mon and
Burmese audios directly into English because I am unable to write Mon and it took
less time. This was the most natural and practical way of transcribing based on my
linguistic ability. This might have affected the authentic representation of the data,
which will be discussed in the critique of the methods. On the other hand, listening to
the recordings made me familiar with the data even before coding in NVivo.
Then, data were imported to NVivo for coding. An inductive approach to coding
was used. Inductive approach is a bottom-up approach where the researcher reads
the data to find interesting topics (Braun & Clarke, 2006). I coded the interview
sentence by sentence looking for the relevant codes (Node in NVivo) that relates to
‘quality education’ defined in my conceptual framework. I recognised that the interview
schedule was theory driven and the same approach should have been used in coding.
No analytical framework was used because I was interested in revealing the
perceptions of quality education from the ground up as per Tikly & Barret notion of
including people at local level in defining quality education. However, I also recognised
35
that it is naive to assume that coding happens in epistemological vacuum, therefore, I
was being aware of the conceptual framework in deciding which data is relevant to
code. For example, this quote “There is this other thing, which is very obvious,
sustainable funding. Sustainable funding is a continued challenge. (Min)” was hugely
relevant to the issue of funding in Myanmar basic education context, as discussed in
the literature review, therefore coded as sustainable funding. (See the appendix
NVivo: Initial coding for the screenshots of the codes in NVivo).
Subsequently, I searched for themes by grouping the codes to make meaning and
connection between the codes. Themes were searched within the cases first, followed
by the themes found across cases. For identifying themes within cases, I used tables
to manually group the codes into relevant themes. (See Appendix, Detail Analysis)
In deciding the themes within cases, I left the codes that did not fit into themes as
‘not identified.’ However, interestingly, some of the nodes that were not identified as
themes in individual cases belong to cross case themes. For example, the ‘not
identified’ codes in Min such as “Competent and qualified teachers”’ and “students’
interests” were the two themes found across cases. The themes across cases were
identified using NVivo. All the individual nodes, e.g., collaboration skills, critical
thinking skills were group into one node as ‘skills’ to identify which codes were mostly
found across the cases. Five significant themes were found across cases according
to mostly coded nodes across cases: (i) quality education enhance students’ interests
(55 references), (ii) different skills and values for different students (52 references),
(iii) students’ centred teaching and learning approaches (47 references), (iv) teacher
quality (28 references), and (v) quality education as ideals vs realities (43 references).
36
These themes were ranked according to the number of references cited, except
the last theme, quality education as ideals vs realities. This theme was prominent
throughout the dataset and represent the overall findings. During the write up process,
I found that the themes ‘quality education enhance students’ interests’ and ‘students’
centred teaching and learning approaches’ were very interrelated and overlapped,
thus formed as one theme, ‘a student-centred quality education.’ Then, these themes
were further analysed using Houston’s framework to reveal the events, structures and
mechanisms that give rise to leaders’ perceptions of quality education (See the
appendix, Detail Analysis). Finally, these themes were reviewed and rename to fit
the narrative of the report.
3.2 Ethical Consideration
3.2.1 Risks to Personal, Social, and Economic Well-
beings
Although the study only required the education leaders to express their perceptions
and experiences of quality education and factors affecting the quality of basic
education on Myanmar, there were potential risks of sensitive issues of the covid 19
pandemic and the military coup coming up in the interviews. Topics related to how
covid 19 and the military coup affected the quality of basic education provision might
affect the participants’ emotional and social well-being if they have been negatively
impacted by these events at the personal level. Moreover, there were potential risks
to the participants economic well-being if they express some views which may not
serve the interests of their employers. To mitigate these risks, the following actions
were taken.
37
I explained the nature of the study thoroughly to the participants that I will only ask
questions related to quality education. The interview questions are designed to be
open to allow the interviewees to talk about the topics that they felt comfortable with.
For example, in the question ‘what significant factors are affecting the quality of
education in your organisation?’ the interviewee can talk about the military coup if they
are comfortable. The interview schedule was also sent to the participants prior to the
interviews to allow them to inform me of questions they do not want to be asked.
Moreover, the participants were informed that they can request to stop the recordings
and withdraw from the study without detriment to themselves. During the interviews,
no participant requested me to avoid any of the research questions. Topics of covid-
19 and the military coup came up in their answers, despite not being asked. However,
they were comfortable talking about these issues, therefore I did not prevent them from
talking about these topics.
3.2.2 Privacy, Anonymity and Confidentiality
A detailed protocol of how the participants personal information and study data will be
stored and protected were developed using UOM data management plan. The ethical
approval application was submitted as low risk after mitigating all the potential risks of
the study. I supplied the participant information sheet, consent form, introductory
letters, and the interview schedule with the application. All the documents were
translated into Burmese and the translation was checked by my friend, a Burmese
speaker. Both English and Burmese versions were submitted. The project received
ethical approval from School of Education, Environment and Development as a low-
risk project in May 2022.
38
During data collection, I followed the protocol throughout the study and no harm
was caused to either the participants or me. During the interview, I made sure that the
interviewees were in their private personal residence to ensure their safety. Interview
data were saved to password protected and encrypted iCloud on my personal
MacBook and uploaded to P drive immediately after the interview. Interview data on
iCloud were deleted after the data was transferred to P drive. The participants personal
data are anonymised as soon as possible. Personal data were marked with an ID
number and the key for linking the ID number to personal data was only accessible to
me. Once all the data were analysed, I destroyed the key, anonymising the data. All
personal and study data are stored on University of Manchester P drive.
During the process of data analysis and write up, there were some issues with
anonymising the data. For example, the organisation the MOE-NUG cannot be
anonymised because there is only one alternative government. Therefore, I made the
decisions not to disclose the role, and location of the participants to further protect
them from the risks of being identified.
4 Findings
4.1 Within-case analysis
4.1.1 Min (the SAC leader)
Min did not choose to be in the education profession, but his parents filled in his
university application to teacher training. He is now a high school head teacher. He
assigns teachers which subjects and classrooms to teach, figures out what kind of
39
furniture the school needs, prepares funding application, and organise daily/weekly
activities for the school. However, he does not enjoy working in leadership role.
‘You’d probably have to do everything whether you like it or not if you are a
headteacher.’
Despite this, Min is very committed to improving the quality of his school. Min has
been applying for more resources and teacher training from the government since he
was promoted in 2020, but he is not hopeful that the government can do anything in
the current situation [the political crisis]. However, Min said that the school has good
matriculation pass rate (70% out of 80 students in 2022) and has good facilities, but
he cannot control the wider issues of (i) students not coming back to the school
because of the political situation and (ii) the dropout problem of the children of
economic migrant parents because they could not catch up with the workload.
4.1.1.1 Rote Learning is not Quality
Min made many references to how he is against rote learning and his idea of quality
education is the one with no rote learning.
“We only teach to finish the curriculum …, it doesn’t get to the students’ brain.
How can I say? It’s like brainwashed. This is for the test, learn this and answer this.”
“This because when they see the text, they just memorise, and regurgitate it on
paper. …, there is no real knowledge that they absorbed.”
“A matriculation student gets 90 in biology but when asked about a basic medical
question, they don’t know anything.”
4.1.1.2 Real World Application of Knowledges and Skills
40
For Min, the teaching and learning process must enable the students to apply the
knowledge and skills from the classroom in the real world to be called quality
education.
“To be called quality education, in teaching and learning, teachers must do
hands-on lessons or experiments. Then, the students must be able to relate these to
the real world.”
“In the current situation, the outcomes are only relying on the marks, students
cannot really use anything that they learnt at school.”
4.1.1.3 Government must support adequate teaching aids and teacher training
to achieve quality education
Min’s perception of quality education requires the government to support adequate
teaching aid and teacher training.
“We are using google and other books to learn about the new curriculum
contents.”
“ The government can only advance the curriculum, the teachers who have to
enact the curriculum in the classroom are still not trained.”
The lack of adequate teaching aids and teacher training are affecting Min’s vision
of quality education in which the students can apply what they have learnt from the
classroom in the real world.
4.1.2 Hnin (the MOE-NUG leader)
Before the military coup, Hnin was a university lecturer. She joined the civil
disobedience movement (CDM) and started protesting the military coup. The
41
increased brutality of the military government stopped Hnin from protesting, but she
now contributes to the revolution by providing continued education services. Hnin now
works at a teacher training university (developing an online learning platform for
educators to enhance their professional development) whilst also working in an unpaid
role at the Ministry of Education of the National Unity Government (MOE-NUG)
(managing a network of CDM teachers in developing, reviewing, and editing the home
learning video contents). Both institutions are developed as a response towards the
disruption of basic education services by the military coup.
MOE-NUG home based learning program is a continual basic education provision
program delivered by the NUG to allow students who are out of school to continue
their education from home. Video lessons were uploaded on Telegram, Viber,
Facebook, WhatsApp and/or YouTube and the students accessed the videos through
their devices. For areas with no internet access, the local/township councils are
responsible for delivering the learning materials to the students. There is no
summative assessment for home-based learning program. Rather, the home-based
learning program focused on students’ competencies. If the teachers and parents felt
that they developed competencies for the next level, they are allowed to progress.
4.1.2.1 Students’ Interests
“If our education can create or change a person, based on their purpose and
skills; to become the best person that they want to be, that is quality education.”
Hnin’s idea of change-oriented quality education emphasises on students’ needs,
interests, and background.
“The students have to do self-study and they lost motivation. Now we started
doing some face-to-face classes.”
42
“Students need to be interested in what they learnt. Not just throwing stuff at
them.”
In less formal spaces like home-based learning, the teaching and learning process
must enhance students’ motivation to learn. Therefore, students’ interests in the
curriculum contents are important for Hnin. Moreover, Hnin said students should be
able to participate in deciding what they should learn and have a diverse range of
opportunities to choose from what they want to study.
4.1.2.2 Quality education for a Federal Democratic Citizenship
Hnin’s version of quality education is a system of education that reflects the
principles of federal democracy. The ideal students in a federal democratic education
system are humane global citizens who (i) values diversity, (ii) are equipped with
knowledges about human rights, and federalism, (ii) and have collaboration skills and
higher order thinking skills.
“Federalism is to accept differences. It’s about coming together. We have to learn
to live with other, who are different to us. To create human who can live together,
with skills about human rights, skills to accept differences, collaboration skills, skills
to be humane, and good morale, who values the truth.”
In the federal system, she continued, the central government will only have a
relevant curriculum framework for the country and the local authorities will develop
localised curriculum. In this decentralised system, students and teachers should also
(i) be active participants in the process of decision making such as participation in
developing curriculum contents, and (ii) follow principles of federal democracy in the
teaching and learning process.
43
“If the teacher said they aspire the federal system, a teacher who doesn’t know
human rights, teachers who bully, it can’t be like that. they need to know that they
are a part of the curriculum.”
4.1.3 Miranda (the IPS leader)
Miranda has worked in many different countries such as China, Korea, and Qatar.
She applied for the job at the international private school because the school
represents her personal ethos (caring, responsible, and quality) and her familiarity with
the British National Curriculum. She is in the post for about two years and leaving soon
because of the Myanmar political situation.
“I don't think I will flourish with machine guns everywhere and roadblocks and
curfew and barbed wire everywhere.”
The coup has had a significant impact in her school. The business owners are
withdrawing their children from the schools because the businesses are drying up and
they decided not to spend money on their children education. The school lost almost
half of the students’ population (700 to 350 students). The school also struggled
recruiting teachers from aboard because teachers are not willing to come to Myanmar
because of the political crisis.
4.1.3.1 Qualified Teachers to Deliver a Holistic Pedagogy
Miranda’s idea quality education is one with qualified teachers, who are competent
to deliver a holistic pedagogy. Due to the military coup, there are difficulties in
recruiting teacher from abroad, but Miranda is adamant that the school must only
recruit qualified teachers to be called quality.
44
“We are still determined to recruit high quality teachers with good references and
good recommendations, that would see them fit nicely into this hard working, well
educated, well referenced group of professionals here.”
For Miranda, the emphasis on qualified teachers is a precondition to delivering
holistic teaching and learning approaches. The standards of qualified teachers for
Miranda were (i) having high expectation of the students, (ii) being active, engaging,
and organised individuals, (iii) having effective communication and feedback skills, (iv)
having capacity to following the success criteria or objectives of the lessons, and (v)
understanding students’ learning needs and interests.
Miranda’s view of holistic pedagogy is a pedagogy that relates to students’ real life
and focuses on both academic, emotional, and social developments of the students.
Although the school teaches the British National Curriculum, the contents are modified
to be relevant to the Burmese students, e.g., teaching Mandarin as modern languages
rather than European languages because the mandarin language is more relevant to
Myanmar economy, given its trade with China. Extracurricular activities such as sports,
music, arts, drama clubs, leadership training (students councils), global citizenship
(celebration of international days) are also important.
4.1.3.2 Accredited International Standard Education
“We are you know aligned aligning ourselves with the international community to
provide a quality education for the children of Myanmar background, to set them up
to you know the long-term aim is that they will all go to an international university.”
As an international school, the occurrence of ‘accredited international standard
education’ theme is not surprising from Miranda. Miranda believes that having an
accredited education status enables students to have better opportunities in terms of
45
university access or career and raised the school’s reputation as “responsible for
delivering quality education.” The IPS school have a very good connection with UK
universities (students can take Cambridge A levels and most students go to UK
universities) and having an accredited international school status would mean better
access to universities and career pathways for the students.
4.1.3.3 Quality Education for Future Leaders
Miranda’s perception of quality education is one that enable students to become future
leaders of their country.
“We quite clearly talk about the role of our students is to be ambassadors for
Myanmar and to go out into the wider world and then acquire skills and then to return
to Myanmar and take up leadership roles within the community I mean we clearly say
that in our mission statement.”
To enable this, Miranda said students required academic (literature, critical
thinking, collaboration), soft (resilience and patience) and industry skills (language
skills such as Mandarin) not only from Myanmar but also internationally recognised
universities.
4.1.4 Hongsar (the EEO leader)
Hongsar has been working in the ethnic education organisation for over 30 years,
from a secretary position and now a director. She managed policies and staffs, and all
the other stuff to keep everything in order. She was a middle school teacher in a
government school before she worked in the organisation. She felt that as a Mon
teacher, she has no authority to promote Mon culture and literature in the school she
worked, in which most of the students were Mon. Many teachers she worked with were
46
also Mon, but Mon was not spoken in the class with the students. She said she needed
to leave, if not then nothing will change. She joined the organisation to advocate for
mother-tongue based multilingual education to the uneducated parents to send their
children to Mon schools.
She does not have a favourite thing in her job. What she has is mostly worries but
she feels encouraged when there is external support to the organisation (community
and monks). She said that the students come from villages and have undesirable
behaviours, so behaviour management is quite a lot of work for her. The parents like
the boarding style schools so they do not have to take care of their children. Many of
the school are primary and lower-level secondary schools, with only three of the school
have upper secondary level. The students did not do bad in this year matriculation
exams. The matriculation pass rate of the three ethnic high schools in 2022 were
respectively 42%, 42.25% and 22%.
4.1.4.1 Teachers’ salary
The most crucial factor affecting the quality of education in Hongsar’s EEO is the
lack of sustainable funding for teachers, which led to the insufficient number of
teachers, inadequate teacher training, poor working conditions (no guaranteed
pensions and low pay) and high rates of teachers leaving the jobs.
“We are depending on donors and communities. Our teacher salary is not as much
as the governments, but if donors immediately cut the budget, we face a big challenge.
…we started doing CCA even before the government school, but we can’t attract the
teachers. We don’t have a contract. We don’t have pensions. If we give pensions, we
only pay a small amount. Because there is no pension, teachers wouldn’t commit to
47
us for long term. Teachers will leave if they have family or personal issues. They can
leave.”
Some income generations activities were carried out to support the teachers’
salary, but Hongsar said it was not sustainable for the long term.
“If the community have a patch of land, then we grow rubber trees and betel nuts.
We can do this in a few villages but if it is not sustainable because those villages are
far from us.”
4.1.4.2 Literacy and Numeracy skills
For Hongsar, the focus of quality education is the literacy and numeracy skills of
students.
“Quality education includes a variety of skills such as speaking, reading, listening,
writing, to be called quality.”
“Another example, from five years old, they learn English in the government school.
When we reach to high school. We have already learnt English for 10 years, but we
can’t speak English.”
In a context where most of the students didn’t finish high school or go to school,
the struggle for Hongsar was to get students to be able to read, write, and speak and
convinced parents and students that ‘education is good’ for them.
4.1.4.3 Mother tongued based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE)
“We started doing framework of quality education. To be quality education, the
students have to learn in their mother tongue, so that they will understand. If they
understand, they will develop confidence.”
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The push towards mother tongue multilingual education is significant for Hongsar
and the EEO. Hongsar said the EEO adopted policies form neighbouring countries
such as India to start using mother tongue as the language of instruction and found
that it was more efficient for students to acquire literacy and numeracy skills if they
understand what is being taught in the classroom. Hongsar said in the future, the
government (not the SAC) will have to acknowledge the MTB-MLE system and offer
support.
4.1.5 Chan (the NGO leader)
After studying abroad for a master’s degree in education, Chan was recruited as a
national consultant to assist in the next phase of the NESP policy, specifically in the
field of mother-tongued based multilingual education in the NGO. Later, he was made
permanent as the lead trainer. As a member of the Mon ethnic community, the NGO
represent his personal values because they focus on providing education for
disadvantaged children. His key role is to work with partnered complementary
education systems across Myanmar (e.g., the ethnic and monastic systems) to
improve the quality of teaching and learning by building teachers’ capacity, mother
tongued based multi-lingual education workshops, and knowledge exchange. He said
his expertise in language education can really help contribute to the ethnic education
systems. Chan personally wanted a more holistic approach to assessment, but the
NGO do not have much control over their partners.
Despite his desire for a more holistic assessment, Chan believes that the NGO
should allow the partners to define their version of quality and the NGO role is to work
together with the partners. However, he is frustrated with the nature of working under
politically sensitive situations.
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“Similar visions of two organisation still can’t work together. They have similar
goals, if they work together, it is more efficient. The current situation [the military
coup and conflicts] also doesn’t help.”
He added, the complementary education systems working together would be more
efficient in a very resource scared context.
4.1.5.1 Life Transforming Education
“Life transforming quality education must be centred on the students’ unique
needs, who they are, where they come from, personality, background, and
characteristics, and promoting what she/he can be, what they want to be, the best
version of themselves, their best potentials.”
Life transforming quality education for Min must be centred on the students’ unique
physical and psychological needs (food, shelter to emotional intelligence), personality,
background, and characteristics to support students in becoming the best person that
they can be. Chan said life transforming education has many levels.
“Let’s say basic literacy skills, it is life transforming to be able to read and write,
numeracy, digital literacy, and emotional intelligence.”
He also emphasised that students’ participation and motivation is key for his idea
of quality education.
“I like this example [him having to be proactive about learning English] because the
decision maker and the initiator of my education is by myself. It was not other people
who made me educated.”
4.1.5.1 Enabling environment
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An enabling environment for Chan ranged from safe and secure infrastructure,
supportive learning community, good relationship with peers, families, teacher, and
school, to providing a diverse range of opportunities for students to reflect, learn and
act towards the life that they want to be.
“We have to give enabling environments and opportunities to think about
themselves.”
“At the same time, if they know about their interests, we have to think about what
opportunities do they have? What needs and gaps are there?”
“You have to have a community. Even if there’s no community, you have to have
someone. Your friends or peers. It is very important to have community.”
4.2 Cross Case analysis
4.2.1 A Student-Centred Quality Education
All participants agreed that quality education must focus on students’ interests,
needs, abilities, prior knowledge whether it is in planning curriculum contents, methods
of teaching and learning, or choosing high school and post-high school vocational and
academic pathways. This idea of students’ interests found in this study is related to
humanist/progressive theory of quality education. However, the definition of students’
interests varies among the participants.
For SAC and EEO participants, their ideas of students’ interest were
implementing basic students’ centred learning approaches (students’ asking questions
or independent reading), but their schools lack adequate resources, sufficient funding,
teachers’ training, and capacity.
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“We can only teach some of these lessons if there are materials for it. Teaching
them theories only doesn’t work for these lessons. So, we skip those things.” (Min, the
SAC leader)
Therefore, their agency in advocating their ideals of quality education based on
students’ interests were limited at personal level. For example, they could only apply
for more funding, there is no certainty that more resources will be allocated.
The IPS case shared the same idea of a student-centred approach to teaching and
learning, but the IPS school structure was very contrasting to SAC and EEO. For
example, the school can afford to buy the teaching resources that is needed.
“We did, you know our own analysis of how well science is being taught in the
primary school. Do we have enough resources? Do we need to buy curriculum that
underpins British curriculum you know things like that.” (Miranda, the IPS leader)
In less formal spaces like Hnin and Chan, their ideas of students’ interests were to
change the basic education system that is solely based on students’ motivations,
interests and well-being and enable their participation in this structural change.
However, in the MOE-NUG home based learning program, there are extreme
difficulties such as (i) limited resources (lack of recording equipment), (ii) the
unpracticality of teaching some subjects online (physical education), (iii) no hands-on
learning for science subjects, (iv) not being able to assess students’ progress and (v)
shortage of teachers (specifically science teachers). In the NGO context, (i) the ever-
changing nature of conflicts, (ii) the lack of resources and funding, (iii) the lack of
control over partners’ education system, (iv) the lack of recognition of complementary
education system by the government and (v) the sensitive reality of complementary
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education system working together presented many challenges in achieving the
transformative change.
“Recognition is also very important for both for teachers and students. There will
be recognised qualification for jobs and further study. If these are not recognised, it
is very difficult for students.” (Chan, the NGO Leader)
It is interesting to note that the SAC, IPS and EEO participants are based in
established institutions with day-to-day contact with students in a physical school,
unlike the MOE-NUG and NGO participants in which basic education provision is less
formal. This is indicating that education leaders’ perceptions of ‘students’ interests’ in
the formal context situates in the humanistic theory of quality education and is limited
to micro (individual teacher understanding the students’ interests) and meso levels
(the school adopting learner centred approaches). However, the leaders in SAC and
EEO contexts faced more limitation at the macro level such as having adequate
resources, teachers’ quality, and funding, compared to the IPS. For the NUG-MOE
and NGO participants, their perspectives of students’ centred quality education were
more idealised, despite its transformative approach.
4.2.2 Different Skills and Values for Different Students
Skills and values were the second most talked about theme across cases (52
references). The most cited skills and values included collaboration skills (EEO, MOE-
NUG and IPS) and developing positive relationships (NGO, MOE-NUG and IPS) but
these were not shared across all cases. Individual participants’ views of the skills and
values were different from each other, but they existed within the economic and
humanist/progressive perspectives of quality education. The skills and values ranged
from literacy and numeracy skills in the EEO and SACS cases, emotional intelligence
53
and relationship building in the NGO case, higher order thinking skills and values of
appreciating diversity in the MOE-NUG case to academic, soft and industry skills in
the IPS case. Participants’ perceptions of these skills and values appeared to be
based on their expectation of the students, their socio-economic and cultural
background, and the context of the school.
In poorly resourced schools like the EEO and SAC schools, students were
portrayed as memorised learners (the SAC participant), and misbehaved learners who
do not like to read, and children of uneducated parents (the EEO participant).
“They got over 400 or 500 marks [out of 600 in matriculation exams], they only know
the text, in practice, they couldn’t even answer a basic question.” (Min, the SAC
leader)
“Our students come from a very rural place, the parents, as I have said before, are
not educated, and the students are uncivilised
If I have to say honestly.” (Hongsar,
the EEO leader)
Therebefore, these perceptions of students and the context of the school
influenced their emphasis on promoting literacy and numeracy skills, which students
can apply in the real world. Chan, whose work is based in conflict affected rural ethnic
areas argued that literacy and numeracy skills can be life transforming in this context.
For him, the skills, and values should closely relate to the unique needs of the
students, their hopes, and inspirations to enhance motivation and engagement whilst
emotional intelligence, resilient and dedication, problem-solving, self-reflection and
relationship building are essential skills for students in conflict-affected areas.
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“Students need skills to think about what they want to be. To reflect on their abilities
and needs to get to where they want to be. At the same time developing problem
solving skills, resilient.” (Chan, the NGO leader)
“There will be challenges in life and how will they manage and deal with this and not
to give up and not to be hopeless.” (Chan, the NGO leader)
On the other hand, in the IPS school, the portrayal of students was very contrasting to
the EEO and SAC schools, such as inquisitive learners, future leaders of Myanmar,
and global citizens. In addition, the socio-economic background of the students tend
to be the children of business owners and managers.
“Our students are just amazing, they’re bright, they’re inquisitive, they’re fun,
they’re friendly, they are loving, they’re warm, they're giving, they’re charitable.”
“Mostly their parents are business owners, they are managers of companies.”
(Miranda, the IPS leader).
In the context of a well-resourced school with students from high socio-economic
backgrounds, the IPS participant expects the students to become future leaders of
Myanmar and should be equipped with academic skills (critical thinking), holistic
development (sports, and arts), soft skills such as (global citizenship) and industry
skills (language skills such as mandarin, the langue of business).
The MOE-NUG participant also have the same emphasis, to equip students with
knowledge and skills the global workforce because students are precious, future
generations of the country. They need to be equipped with higher order thinking skills,
collaboration skills, along with principles of federal democratic citizenship.
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“To create human who can live together, with skills about human rights, skills to
accept differences, collaboration skills, skills to be humane, good morale, who values
the truth.” (Hnin, the MOE-NUG leader)
Despite these different emphases of skills and values among leaders, these skills
and values were based on their expectation of students, the socio-economic and
cultural background of the students, and the context of the school. Moreover, findings
indicated that the students in SAC, EEO, MOE-NUG and NGO contexts faced more
barriers in developing these skills and values.
4.2.3 Teacher Quality
The teacher quality was the next most discussed topics after ‘skills and values.’
Teacher quality discussed is mostly associated with recruitment and training, teachers’
working conditions, and sustainable funding. In the interview with the EEO participant,
the quality of teachers was mostly associated with the sustainable funding to supply
teachers’ salary. Teachers were neither guaranteed sustainable salary nor, pension
which led to the lack of sufficient number of teachers. Then, teachers’ training was the
second most important factor affecting the quality of education in EEO schools. Most
teachers were not trained nor poorly trained.
“What I worry is that we need to control the quality and the numbers of teachers.
If we can control this, if the teachers are not leaving, we can be quality education.”
(Hongsar, the EEO leader)
These issues have been a continual struggle for the EEOs in achieving quality
education. A similar struggle is shared by the SAC school, but with different contextual
factors affecting teachers’ quality. The number of teachers in the SAC were almost
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reduced to half after the military coup, which has led to inefficient classroom
management due to the large class size. In terms of teachers’ training, the teachers
have not had a systematic training for the new curriculum contents, despite they
believe that the new curriculum contents were more relevant to students now than
before the reform.
In the case IPS participant, teacher quality is concerned much more with the
competencies of teachers in the classroom than funding, or teacher training. For
example, the competencies of teachers such as lesson planning using teaching
objectives, teachers’ engagement such as asking question and giving feedback in the
classroom, as discussed above. However, there were some indications to the
structural problems of teacher’ recruitment such as difficulties in recruiting qualified
teachers because of the military coup. For the MOE-NUG participant, teachers need
to adhere to principles of federal democracy, such as accepting differences.
“If the teacher said they aspire the federal system, a teacher who doesn’t know
human rights, teachers who bully, it can’t be like that.” (Hnin, the MOE-NUG leader)
It is worth noting that most of the teachers in NUG-MOE sectors are volunteers
who have previously been teachers or student teachers. Thus, teachers’ quality is hard
to judge in this context.
These findings suggest that the problem of teacher quality among these context
lies beyond teachers’ training and capacity. Structural factors such as sustainable
funding for teachers’ salary, poor working conditions, the difficulties in recruitment, and
insufficient number of staffs are affecting teacher quality. Despite this, the teachers in
the private sector faced less difficulties than the SAC, EEO, MOE-NUG, and NGO
sectors.
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4.2.4 Quality Education as Ideals vs Realities
SAC, MOE-NUG, EEO and NGO education leaders’ perceptions of quality
education are future idealistic visions, informed by their personal experiences within
their contexts whilst the PIS leader has the most realistic perception of quality
education.
For leaders in SAC, MOE-NUG and EEO schools, their perceptions of quality
education were idealistic visions which they were working towards with many extreme
difficulties, raised from structural issues mentioned above.
The following quote form the MOE-NUG leader clearly portrayed this.
“There are Five million students who are not in any kind of education. How can
we promote accessibility, and equity to PDF [People Defence Force], displaced
children, and children in conflict? …They have had troubles. How can we build back
the country, the country with the trauma?” (Hnin, the NUG-MOE leader)
However, this does not mean that the participants were not aware and critical of
the situation in Myanmar and lacking agency in realising their visions. For example,
these leaders showed strong commitment towards achieving their visions of quality
education.
“In the long term, the government need to recognise and support us, not the
military government. Not only they have to recognise us, but they also need to
support us.” (Hongsar, the EEO leader)
“If we have strong collaboration, it is more efficient, effective. This will contribute
to quality. Although we have less resources, if we are efficient, we can do more.”
(Chan, the NGO leader)
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In addition, the discourses of informal schooling were expanding since the military
coup. Many international donors and the wider public have shifted aid towards EEOs
and complementary education systems.
“There is public money, coming through CDM funding.” (Hnin, the MOE-NUG
leader)
“After the coup, education donors, politically, the US, UK, Europe, Australia,
stopped working with the SAC government…. The funding has changed to
community sectors. We are going to expand the areas.” (Chan, the NGO leader)
These findings indicated that the SAC, MOE-NUG, EEO and NGO leaders’ visions
of quality education were future ideals compared to the IPS leader. However, those
leaders with ideals showed strong commitments and agencies. Moreover, there is a
wider acceptance of informal schooling as discourses of quality education within the
national and international after the military coup.
5 Discussion
5.1 A Student-Centred Quality Education: How Plausible is it in
Myanmar?
The concept of a student-centred quality education is associated with the
progressive/humanist theory of quality education, to pay attention to individual
learners’ needs to enhance their innate potentials. This theory was evident in all cases
in the form of student-centred learning approaches. All leaders emphasised that the
teaching and learning process must focus on individual needs. Lall argued that the
discourses of students’ centred approaches or child centred approaches (CCA) are
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framed as ‘progressive’ or ‘quality’ a response towards the dominant teacher centred,
rote learning system in Myanmar (2011). However, as discussed in the literature
review, implementation of CCA has proven difficult in SAC, EEO and monastic
schools. Moreover, the findings clearly suggested that there was a significant gap in
teaching aids and school facilities, funding, teacher training and the number of
teachers between the IPS case and the MOE-NUG, SAC and EEO cases.
Contrasting to the narrow definitions of student interest as student centred learning
approaches, the MOE-NUG and NGO leaders’ ideas of a student-centred quality
education engaged with the social justice theory. They believed that a transformative
approach to quality education that enhances students’ well beings, interests, and
capabilities to become who they have reason to be within the constraints of their
contexts. Students’ well-being was emphasised for a conflict affected context and
students’ interests was for the political context. For example, students must be
interested in schooling in a context where schooling is not mandatory and a political
choice. These leaders valued diverse identities and cultures in the curriculum to accept
and respect each other. They encouraged students to democratically involve in
developing curriculum contents and defining quality education.
These leaders’ views stem from, (i) their personal experiences, (ii) a response
towards the authoritarian education structure in Myanmar, and (iii) the politics of
schooling created by the military coup. Firstly, in the case of personal experiences, the
MOE-NUG leader have worked with university students to co-develop a new learning
system whilst the NGO leader themselves was the driver of their education journey
based on their motivations and interests in a constraining ethnic environment.
Secondly, MOE-NUG and NGO education leaders believed that the top-down nature
of Myanmar education governance have little room for students’ participation and the
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pedagogy lacks diversity of academic and vocational subject choices. Thus, an
education system that values diversity and students’ participation was prioritised.
Thirdly, the impact of the military coup has created the choice of schooling as a political
act and accidentally provided a unique opportunity for developing the alternative
learning system that placed the focus on well beings and students’ interests.
However, it is extremely difficult to imagine the fruition of this system of education
in the current context. In the NGO case, there are some initiatives taken to include
students’ voices, e.g., having conversations with students about quality education in
end of year evaluation. However, it is hard to imagine that students have real
opportunities to initiate action about their interests or have their interests represented
because the NGO has little control over policy and practice of its partners. In the MOE-
NUG case, their priority now is providing access. In addition to this, the current political
context of Myanmar place students as the enemy of the state, and they are forced to
function alternatively to the state. Although this presented a unique opportunity as the
MOE-NUG leader said, to teach and learn outside of the frame, I argued that without
addressing the dilemmas and politics of schooling (whether to not associate schooling
from political activities or having a strong political agenda in schooling), there is no
hope for a system of education that value well-being and students’ interests.
Addressing the politics of schooling in Myanmar is a tremendous task but a dialogue
between the different political actors is a start to reconsider an education system that
reflect students’ aspirations, lives, and needs within the economic, social, cultural, and
political context of Myanmar.
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5.2 Different Skills and Values for Different Students: A Model of
Segregation?
Francis et al used the term, ‘different strokes for different folks’ (2017, p. 423) to
portray contradictions and dilemmas of different schooling choices for different
students, which might lead to further social segregation. In this study, there were five
different forms of basic education provisions, which focuses on different skills and
values to each other. For the IPS school, the rich are educated to sustain their socio-
economic status through global connections and advantages of the capitalist system.
In the SAC and EEO schools, low expectation of students limits the academic and
vocational opportunities for students. In the case of the MOE-NUG, the focus on
federal democratic system directly subject students as threats and has a potential to
accelerate tensions between the SAC and the MOE-NUG system. The study of ethnic
identity and violence by Kipgen (2022 ) showed that the ethno-nationalistic curriculum
have the potential to create more tensions and violence among ethnic groups.
Interestingly, skill and values such as peace, identity, and sustainability were not
discussed by leaders, except the MOE-NUG leader who emphasised on living together
and accepting differences. For the MOE-NUG leader, the focus was strong in winning
the revolution and implement a federal democratic education system in which the local
people will have agency in defining what their valued capabilities are. Similarly, the
EEO leader mentioned that they did want their MTB-MLE programme to be recognised
by the SAC, despite their long-term commitment to getting recognition form the
government. This indicates that Myanmar basic education provisions will remain
segregated within their different emphasis of skills, knowledge, and values. In social
justice theory of quality education, Tikly and Barret argued that quality education
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should involve all members of society to decide what capabilities are valued in a
community in their definition of quality education in a deliberate and democratic way if
education is to address social injustices. However, in a context where democracy is
not upheld, how will the local people get involve in defining what are their valued
capabilities? During the democratic government, the NESP education reform policy
showed a strong focus on strengthening basic education provisions by all different
education provisions working together, despite the voices of ethnic minority
communities, persons with disabilities, teachers’ unions and student councils were
weak in the policy (MOE, 2013). Nevertheless, these discourses of working together
have at least provided space for achieving social justices to minority students, e.g., to
be able to learn ethnic languages, culture and knowledge and be recognised as
respectful members of society. Therefore, I argued that these discussion about
knowledge, skills and values must be negotiated from the bottom up in a democratic
way to address the social injustices.
5.3 Teacher Quality: Is it only about Recruitment, Training, and
Development?
The literature review suggested that teacher quality is compromised by the problem
of low wage, low teacher morale, teacher recruitment, lack of resources and poor
working conditions. Poor working conditions, insufficient number of teachers and low
wages were true in the EEO and NGO cases whilst all participants except the MOE-
NUG leader focused on teacher training and development in talking about teacher
quality. The MOE-NUG was not talking about teacher training because most of the
teachers in the home-based programs were volunteers and there was no formal
recruitment of teachers. Moreover, the teachers under MOE-NUG were also facing
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risks of being persecuted and only operated underground. Furthermore, teachers in
SAC schools were being questioned by the public about the moral and ethical
questions of teacher quality due to the sensitive nature of schooling in the current
political context. For example, in the SAC leader case, the students were not coming
back to the school because they do not believe in the teachers who worked under SAC
whilst the NUG-MOE strived for teachers who follow federal democratic principles.
These findings indicates that teacher quality in Myanmar current education context
goes beyond teachers’ recruitment, training, and development.
As argued by many scholars, this is also the case in the global discourses of
teacher quality (Tikly & Barrett, 2009; Morgan, 2017; Bantwini, 2019). This was also
the case in the Myanmar NESP policy. The policy stated
“Assigning high priority to development of strategies for the retention of quality
teachers through better mechanisms for teacher recruitment, deployment, career
pathways, and promotion.” (MOE, 2015)
In the social justice theory of quality education, Tikly & Barret and Morgan
emphasised on the inclusion of teachers in debates about the quality education. This
is hugely relevant to the context of Myanmar, but as the NGO leader said,
“The politicians, and those who do not really associate with education will always
find their ways in policy making” (Chan, the NGO leader)
Thus, care should be taken in considering who should be involved at what levels of
policy making. For the problem of low morale, Bantwini suggested that the working
patterns, conditions, and wages must be revisited, and teachers must have the support
of head teachers, and education leaders at all levels (2019). These are also relevant
suggestions to Myanmar context. In addition to these suggestions, I argued that
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defining teacher quality must also consider the ethical and political aspects of what it
means to be a teacher. “Is it just to teach?” or “Is it to be ethical?” or “Is it to be politically
neutral?”
5.4 Ideals vs Realities: What’s next for Myanmar Equitable and
Inclusive Quality Education?
Many scholars have debated ‘how and who should decide what is quality education
for whose benefits?’ because education policy making is often a top-down process
that benefits the elites (Apple, 2001). Tikly and Barret ’s framework of quality education
emphasises the importance of participation in local decision making to address
injustices to disadvantage communities in their local contexts (2009). However, it is
also naive to assume that the national and the local have full agency in addressing
these contextual issues because the global education institutions explicitly or implicitly
influence national and local policy making, e.g., the SDGs. Thus, I argue that policy
making should be a consultation between the global, the national and the local
contexts, rather than transferring policy that neglects context.
In the case of Myanmar, the politics of participation in policy making remains a
sensitive issue. In this current political context, it is impossible to imagine any progress
towards different education actors will work together. For example, all the reform
progress and dialogue between different education systems were halted and
international support towards the SAC government is unethical (Htut, et al., 2022 ). On
the other hand, the NUG government capacity to bridge the global, national, and local
connection is questionable. In the cases of ethnic and monastic education, support is
needed more than ever to sustain and control the quality of education due to the
65
increased number of students. If all the components of the global, national, and local
do not work together there will be no quality education.
The impact of the covid-19 and the military coup have had a massive impact on
how the students, teachers, parents, the public, and the NGOs perceive schooling and
education. This study has only focused on the realities of education leaders in these
five basic education contexts, but the question can be asked, will there be quality if
there is no access to education? What is schooling and education? Is formal schooling
no longer needed? As Bantwini concluded in his study,
“To achieve social justice in education, corrective measures should be premised
upon the understanding of the social and contextual issues as these represent the
crippling factors in the province.” (Bantwini, 2019, p. 717)
If the contextual factor affecting the quality of education in Myanmar is the definition
of education itself, then this definition needs to be examined critically.
6 Critique of the Methods
6.1 Design
Qualitative research scholars argued that the researcher’s epistemological
assumptions, theoretical perspectives, methodology and methods must consistently
relate to one another to provide valid answer to the research questions (Crotty, 1998;
Maxwell, 2009). In this study, I have taken a critical realist epistemological position to
reveal the events, structures and mechanisms that were influencing education leaders’
views of quality education and affecting the quality of basic education in Myanmar.
Education leaders were used as cases in the instrumental case study design to
66
explore the problem of quality education in Myanmar. Using thematic analysis, I was
able to identify themes of quality education and some contextual factors that were
affecting the quality of basic education in Myanmar. However, some aspects of the
case study design have affected the rigor of the findings.
Case study requires a clear boundary of the case to produce trustworthy findings
(Bloomberg, 2018). In this study, the NGO participant could be considered as outlier
according to the criteria of the case as his organisation does not offer basic education.
However, given the growth of informal education provision and the connection of the
NGO participant with the complementary education systems, triangulation was
possible between the NGO participant and the EEO participant about ethnic education
system, which strengthen the quality of the data. Moreover, I also acknowledged that
using observation would have enabled me to engage deeply with the events,
structures, and mechanisms. In this study, findings were only based on the
perspectives of the education leaders and documents.
6.2 Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness refers to how the value of the conclusions drawn from the findings
were the authentic representation of the reality. To judge the trustworthiness of
qualitative research, Anfara et al provided four criteria: credibility (the plausibility of the
findings), transferability (the generalisability of the findings in other contexts),
dependability (the transparency of the process of design and analysis) and
confirmability (the evidence that researcher’s interpretations and findings are derived
from the data) (2002).
The credibility of the study can be judged by the prolonged engagement of the
researcher within the filed, member checks, triangulation, and peer debriefing. In this
67
study, the interview data were triangulated with data from the documents. However,
member checks and peer debriefing were not carried out due to the unavailability of
the participants. Moreover, some of the participants knew me personally and the
interview schedule were provided before the interview, thus the participants’ answers
may have been prepared and/or may be dependent on their perceptions of me. As
mentioned above, observation of leaders in their education contexts would have
improved the credibility of the data. Furthermore, the language interpretations may
have also compromised the cultural meanings of the data. Despite this, my insider
knowledge and prolonged engagement with the research problem helped achieve
credible data, e.g., the interview being in Mon and Burmese and my familiarity with the
participants have made the leaders comfortable in talking about the military coup.
In terms of transferability, purposive samplings were used, therefore research in
similar contexts may provide similar findings but it is not possible to know where finding
will be transferred. However, the process of developing themes using NVivo nodes
were provided to enable others who wish to transfer the findings can do so (See
appendix, Detail Analysis). For dependability of the study, the process of research
(forming the research problem, justification for the methods, process of data collection
and analysis) were described in detail to enable the reader to trace the evolving
process of the research. Moreover, theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues,
researcher’s thoughts and reflection about these issues were documented using the
reflective research journal to ensure the transparency of the process. For the
confirmability of the study, an inductive approach to data analysis was carried out to
ensure that the findings were derived from the data. Moreover, many data extracts
were included in the findings to support confirmability.
68
6.3 Critical Realist Data Collection and Analysis in Insider
Approach: Managing Researcher’s Influences
The use of critical realist interviewing and thematic analysis in insider approach
was not efficient to reveal the events, structure and mechanism that were influencing
leaders’ perceptions and affecting the quality of basic education in Myanmar. Two key
issues were identified. Firstly, the rigour of the analysis was too weak to support the
claims about the events, structures, and mechanisms. Firstly, no analytical framework
was set in analysing the data. In line with critical realism, the interview schedule was
designed based on the theoretical framework of quality education, but an inductive
approach was used in data analysis. This may have been a mismatch between the
design and the epistemological position. In critical realism, the researcher role is to
confirm or deny the theories. A deductive approach with an analytical framework
informed by the theories would have systematically mapped the events, structures,
and mechanisms. For example, developing ‘NVivo nodes’ for possible events,
structure and mechanisms and code the findings under those nodes. This would have
not only enabled a systematic way of producing credible findings but also to identify
new findings easily that were outside of the researcher’s framework.
Secondly, there were risks of picking and mixing of the data to support my insider
understandings of quality education in Myanmar. As an insider, whilst reading the data,
there was a huge tendency to confirm my belief that quality education in Myanmar
reproduces social injustices to ethnic students. Moreover, I may also have been biased
towards the EEO, MOE-NUG and NGO leaders as their perceptions of quality
education align with me. For example, before doing the interview, I was expected that
the SAC leader to be hesitant to critique the SAC government because that was what
69
the education leaders in the SAC schools were portrayed, ‘afraid to criticise the
government.’ I was surprised to find out how informed the SAC leader was about the
political crisis and his criticality of the SAC government. Although these small surprises
were found, I felt that there was no significant finding in the data that I was not aware
of. New findings were hard to identify because I may have been blurred by my
epistemological positions and insider knowledge.
However, Maxwell argued that the researchers’ ‘bias’ is not something that need
to be eliminated in qualitative research but one that provides insights, hypotheses, and
validity checks (Maxwell, 2009). For Maxwell, the importance of assessing
researcher’s bias is not in indifferences in finding but the integrity of the researcher’s
decision-making process (Maxwell, 2009). I have provided thick descriptions of the
process of the study for the reader to judge the integrity of the research. To manage
my influences throughout the study, the research journal was used to map the
decision-making process of the analysis to see the development of my thinking about
the implications of these findings (see appendix, the Research Journal). I found the
research journal useful with the write up, especially the process of the research, the
methodological choices, and the planning of the research. I have developed as a
qualitative researcher in managing data and risks associated with the study. However,
the lack of field engagement (observation) in the ground realities of the leaders’
context have impacted the comprehensive analysis of the reality. Despite this, in line
with critical realism, the reality is not determined by theory, therefore this is just one
theory about quality education in Myanmar and I took responsibility for these
interpretations and their consequences.
7 Conclusion
70
The study applied critical realist interviewing and thematic analysis in a case study
design to explore education leaders’ views of quality education and the events,
structures and mechanisms that were affecting the quality of basic education in
Myanmar. Despite the individual leaders have different perceptions of quality
education, four themes of quality education were found across cases: a student-
centred quality education, different skills and values for different students, teacher
quality, and quality education as ideals vs realities. These perceptions of quality
education were mostly based on the economic and humanistic theories of quality
education, except leaders in informal structures showed some engagement with the
social justice theory of quality education. The study also found that education leaders’
perceptions of ‘quality education’ were contextual, which means that their perceptions
were dependent on their personal experiences, the context of the school, the socio-
economic background of the students, the politics of schooling and the political
structure. The most interesting mechanism affecting the quality of basic education in
Myanmar was the recent Myanmar military coup which accidentally promoted an
acceleration of quality education that centre on students’ interests and well beings.
Moreover, the Myanmar military coup also provided a unique space for educators to
reconsider the idea of schooling because schooling is a political choice. I argued that
a definition of quality education must be developed from the bottom up that consider
all aspects of economic, social, cultural, and political issues if the purpose of education
is to achieve social justice, but democracy is a must have precondition to do this.
71
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8 Appendices
8.1 Participant information sheet (Myanmar and English)
English version below
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