A New Alternative for Community-Based Education: A Look at Education with a Postmodernism Paradigm

This article analyzes 1) the recognized educational ideologies, practices and effects on community life in Thai society, 2) the conditions leading to reviews and questions over the educational paradigm, and 3) reveals a new alternative for community-based education in Thai society, through a postmodernism paradigm. The results of the study revealed that formal education has been controlled by the ideology of country development for the growth of economic and industrial systems. Educated people are designated to have an industrial worldview to serve the labor market needs while knowledge that serves community life is seen to have no value and pushed to the periphery making modernism knowledge from outside society necessary. The crises of education that serves the economic system reflect various problems. Reviews and questions over education are thus, posed by thinkers, academics and people with questions of who education serves and who gain or lose in the education system. The government sector has proposed and set rules to solve the problems but it has been technical rather than changing the frame of thought. Nevertheless, a proposed new alternative for community-based education can no longer look at education with the perspective that implies dependence but rather question education, and look at education with a postmodernism paradigm. This may help solve problems in three ways: to understand the myths about education and modern academic knowledge; to question education and modern academic knowledge and to change to a paradigm and knowledge that comprises education that serves people’s lives, self-sufficiency, educational intelligence, creates knowledge and education for life.