University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Gender, learning, and trafficking: Helping vulnerable Thai women through NGO and government non -formal education programs

(USC Thesis Other)

Gender, learning, and trafficking: Helping vulnerable Thai women through NGO and government non -formal education programs

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GENDER, LEARNING, A N D TRAFFICKING: H ELPIN G VULNERABLE TH AI W O M EN TH ROU GH N G O A N D GOVERNM ENT NON-FORM AL EDUCATION PROGRAM S C opyright 2004 by Shelly W estebbe A D issertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillm ent of the R equirem ents for the D egree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (EDUCATION) Decem ber, 2004 Shelly W estebbe Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3155496 Copyright 2004 by Westebbe, Shelly All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3155496 Copyright 2005 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dedication This work is dedicated to the huge numbers o f women and girls who live in poverty and danger and strive to help their families before themselves. Having shared their stories and wisdom with others makes it possible for their hushed voices to be heard. “Her eyes were not allowed to look back, to see him, for this would make her stronger...” Fefii and Her Friends. A play by Maria Irene Fomes. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements I could not have done this study without the assistance of many others. First of all, I would like to thank the many women who shared their hopes, trials and lives with me. They shared their lives with me and helped me to understand better other women in similar situations as well as myself. My dissertation committee and my qualifying committee members—Nelly P. Stromquist, William R. Rideout, Jr., Nancy Lutkehaus, Linda Hagedom and David M. Eskey—have been challenging, supportive and careful guides from the beginning of this project. Nelly Stromquist’s unflagging interest and support, thoughtful feedback, and high quality criticism led me to think more deeply about the underlying issues, the women and the message of this study. Bill Rideout has provided guidance, insights as well as informal exchange from the beginning of my program and particularly improved my understanding of the social and cultural foundations of education and learning. Nancy Lutkehaus opened new and valuable doors in visual anthropology and feminism and I will always appreciate her insights into interdisciplinary resources, personal perseverance and faith. I hope we will continue to work together. Qualifying committee member Linda Hagedom has provided professional and personal inspiration on several levels and her example of personal and professional commitment to improving the lives of others continues to be an important part of my life. Qualifying committee member David Eskey left behind him an important legacy from his warm, collegial approach to students and the study of language acquisition and the infectious zest for international exchange learning that will be impossible to replace. Friends and readers of this study have made all the difference in the construction, implementation and execution of this study. Most importantly, Peying Chen and Jeffrey Kealing. Between Peying and Jeffrey, I was supported to a place where the left brain and right brain became friends at least for this journey. I thank my partner in life and love, Jeffrey, who helped iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. me believe in my academic abilities and to follow through the study. He helped me climb out of the immersion into intellectual analytical waters to a place where intellect, emotion, caring and lifework merge together. Staunch and steadfast friend of my heart in all phases of the Ph.D., Peying helped me work the content and structure of many versions to a point where my hope came true: the heart could inform and instruct the mind and so point my research and writing in a direction that is helpful to the women who shared their lives with me. Conversations, emails, and time spent with Dr. Damri Chartnapiraganit, Dr. Suvit Pichayasathit, Prof. Sidhom Saengdhanoo, Dr. Kruamas, Ms. Juthamas, Pantita Pirunlaong Schaedla, Tom Elam, Lina Cosico, Chancee Martorell, Sopon and Chalaipom Iamsiri, Nok, Nantha, Marvin Pannell, Usa and Dusit Duongsaa, Rangsun Wiboonuppatum, Srisarin Leowarin, Pimsuda Tianamen, Alisa Tangkangnukul, Helen Lake, Roger Harmon, Pinnapa Uatiwakul, and friends at the study sites who added to a more holistic context and contacts for this study. I will never forget Ajaans Suvit and Kruamas who left us at an early age after devoting their careers and personal lives to assisting others. Ratana Ratanaprom, a former Peace Corps colleague, made sure we had transportation, contact and friendship, along with Asdavudh Lohanan, who also helped with translation. Interpreters and friends in Thailand made an otherwise difficult project possible and evoked a caring and warm atmosphere in which relationships bloomed: Tattanakom Moekchantuk (Itim), Supicha Srihong (Oh), Sumalee Milne (Sue), Jomkwan Chairat (Milk), Chanapa Duangfai (May), Teerapong Laptwan (Terry). These dedicated individuals made this study richer and deeper than would otherwise have been possible and gave unstintingly of their time and energy. I would like to thank my Thai teachers in the U.S. and Thailand, starting with Supapom Boonraksasatya and Rawi Tantayakom at the U.S. Peace Corps. Jiap Akraratana (Jamie) provided helpful remedial language training and great fun at the Thai Temple of Los Angeles and iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Saowanee Damrongrojsakul o f Payap University put together crucial language skills in much needed classes in the early days of the project. My family, Richard and Barbara Westebbe in particular, have been unfailingly supportive of my explorations, resource needs and interested in this study. My family in-law, especially Jane Kealing, Brenda and Jim Kealing, have been extremely helpful and supportive during the prolonged absences and logistical support. I am rich in loved ones and very grateful for the web of care and support. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii List of Tables ix List of Figures x Abstract xi CHAPTER I: Introduction 1 A) Background o f Topic 1 B) Definitions of Key Terms 19 C) Statement of the Problem 28 D) Purpose of the Study 33 E) Significance of the Study 33 F) Research Questions 35 CHAPTER II: Literature Review 38 A) Theoretical Approaches to Change 3 8 B) Non-Formal Education for Marginalized Women 64 C) Factors that Promote Vulnerability of Women in Thailand 87 CHAPTER III: Methodology 109 A) Qualitative Approaches 111 B) Data Collection 115 C) Case Study and Participant Observation 116 D) In-depth Interviews 119 E) Site Selection 124 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. F) Role of the Researcher 131 G) Study Participants 13 7 H) Data Analysis 140 I) Data Validity and Triangulation 143 J) Ethical Responsibilities 146 CHAPTER IV: Findings: 149 A) Participant Vulnerability 152 B) Vulnerability by Program 156 C) Vulnerability Framework 157 D) Personal Histories 173 CHAPTER V : Findings: NGO and Government Program 189 A. DEPDC 191 1) Overview 192 2) Participant Background 193 3) Program Features 207 4) Teaching & Learning 218 5) Program Summary 228 B. DNFE 235 1) Overview 287 2) Participant Background 237 3) Program Features 258 4) Teaching & Learning 262 5) Program Summary 280 CHAPTER VI: Findings: NGO SEPOM 286 A. Overview 287 B. Participant Background 288 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C. Program Features D. Teaching & Learning E. Program Summary 307 319 350 CHAPTER VII: Analysis & Recommendations 357 A. Program Design and Participant Expectations 358 B. Impact Upon Participant Vulnerability 370 C. Recommendations 393 D. Final Remarks 399 REFERENCES 402 APPENDICES 421 Appendix 1. Map of Thailand 421 Appendix 2. DEPDC Photos 422 Appendix 3. DNFE Photos 423 Appendix 4. Sewing class materials 424 Appendix 5. SEPOM Photos 425 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Tables Table 2-1 Longwe’s Levels of Women’s Equality 40 Table 2-2 Emancipatory Teacher Guidelines 68 Table 2-3 NGO Collective NFE Achievements 78 Table 2-4 School Attendance by sex of secondary school: according to socioeconomic variables and parent’s expectations 93 Table 3-1. Study Participants by NFE Program 139 Table 4-1. Interviewees according to demographic characteristics 154 Table 4-2. Vulnerability and NFE Programs 156 Table 4-3. Participants according to NFE Program 157 Table 4-4. Individual Vulnerability Factors 160 Table 4-5. Vulnerability Categories Compared by Factor Weight 170 Table 5-1. DEPDC Participant Characteristics 195 Table 5-2. Living Expenses of Sewing Factory Worker 204 Table 5-3. Principles for Critical Consciousness Development 225 Table 5-4. DEPDC Participant Outcomes 229 Table 5-5. DNFE Participant Characteristics 238 Table 5-6. Principles for Critical Consciousness Development 269 Table 5-7. DNFE Participant Outcomes 280 Table 6-1. Participant Characteristics 291 Table 6-2. Principles for Critical Consciousness Development 342 Table 6-3. SEPOM Participant Outcomes 351 Table 7-1. Participant Expectations of NFE 359 Table 7-2. NFE Strengths Based on Stromquist Model 371 Table 7-3. Levels o f Vulnerability 372 Table 7-4. Participant Outcomes by Program and Empowerment Dimension 373 Table 7-5. NFE Accomplishments and Recommendations 395 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List o f Figures Figure 1-1. Continuum of Victimization 19 Figure 2-1. Factors Increasing Vulnerability o f Thai Women 88 Figure 5-1. DEPDC Network 212 Figure 6-1. Participant Childhood Vulnerability 290 Figure 6-2. Causal Map of Primary Conditions Surrounding Vulnerability of Participants 296 Figure 7-1. Placement of NFE Program within Stromquist Model of Empowerment 357 Figure 7-2. Life Stages of Participants by Program 359 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This study considers the arena of non-formal adult education where it converges with marginalized women. It is an effort to understand how the constructed meanings of Thai women’s lives impact upon their learning experience in non-formal education (NFE) programs. This study focuses on how learning occurs during NFE, and how learning vocational skills and learning as a social practice is experienced. Through in-depth interviews, observation, and participation, the researcher explored the individual and social learning and living experiences of women who participate in one of three non-formal education programs. This study focused upon participant experiences in three non-formal educational programs in order to glimpse women at different life points, interacting with significantly different programs. The wide-ranging sample of participants produced data which pointed to the fact that poor females become vulnerable early and have few resources with which to change. Female participants in the study came from a variety of backgrounds with several characteristics in common, such as poverty, lack of education, and weak family support and social capital. NFE programs in this study attract women with different constellations of vulnerability factors. Data analysis yielded patterns in women’s lives underlying a vulnerability framework. In cases of high vulnerability, women faced insuperable obstacles to personal safety and legitimate employment. Women who have been enslaved or trafficked typically experienced heavily weighted factors consistent with high vulnerability. Women enter different NFE programs depending upon their needs and stage o f life. Gender is an important part o f how women define themselves, and how they are defined by others; in the sort of work they look for, and are allowed to do; and in the sort of vocational education they are offered. Women’s participation in NFE programs demonstrates the xi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. possibilities in individual learning and the limits of organizational reach. Individual learning is closely tied to social interactions, modified cultural texts, and is influenced by gendered social relations in the family and the community. NFE accomplishments in economic and psychological empowerment are clearly demonstrated, as are NFE limitations, particularly in political empowerment. Recommendations include linking existing NFE programs together to take advantage of informal learning which can promote identity renegotiation and the synergies of program size. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1 Introduction The voice of women is critically important for the world's future—not just for women's future. (Sen, Amartya, 2000). A) Background of Topic Thailand’s educational system became highly visible when the country hosted the Education for All Conference at Jomtien in 1990. As in many other developing countries, females outnumbered males in terms of poverty and illiteracy statistics. At the conference, the Thai government pledged extensive educational changes to rectify huge gaps in adult literacy and educational access nationwide. The Thai Ministry of Education invested over one quarter of its total budget into expanding the Department of Non-Formal Education in order to reach disenfranchised adult populations. A United Nations Development Program review of Thai education indicate an impressive success story: primary school enrollment numbers are considered universal, in the high 90th percentiles and literacy rates for men and women are recorded at over 93% (1999). In spite of undeniable gains during the past decade, low female educational retention rates have combined with social and economic dislocation tell a different story. More women than men have never gone to school; more girls than boys drop out of primary and secondary school; and female illiterates outnumber males (UNDP, 1999). Research indicates that poor 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. females with little education or low literacy levels tend to be marginalized and are often migrate to survive (Skrobanek, 1997; Bales, 1999; Human Rights Watch, 2000). The nature and face of migration has become increasingly feminized as poor girls and women respond to the lures of capitalism and the negative impact of globalization at home. The intersection of female oppression with the growing drive to migrate takes its darkest form in trafficking, the involuntary movement of women and others, within and across national borders. Following is a summary of five major trends linked to the educational underachievement and increasing vulnerability o f Thai females: 1) the marginalization o f rural Thai girls and women, 2) Thailand’s economic, social and environmental decline, 3) an increase in rates of female migration and trafficking in Thailand, and 4) increasing attention by social service providers at the local level, and 5) an increase in efforts to combat trafficking. 1) Marginalization o f Rural Thai Girls and Women The roots of gender oppression run deep and take complex shapes. Factors leading to oppression derive in part from macro-structural forces of gender oppression and from micro-cultural and social forces which vary depending upon the country and culture. Rural Thai women from poor families experience a combination of macro- and micro-forces that cause a gendered distribution of poverty factoring in their tendency towards early school drop out. Once 2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. out of school, women have fewer and less stable job choices than men have while simultaneously being held accountable for the well-being of their parents, husbands and children. The macro-forces of globalization, development and capitalism interact to facilitate the evolution of a patriarchal and corporatized discourse of gender systematizing women’s subordination not only in Thailand but around the world. Mohanty has written about the “ ...interwoven processes of sexism, racism, misogyny, and heterosexism (that are) an integral part of our social fabric throughout the world... (These processes).. .underlie and fuel social and political institutions of rule” that condone the abuse of and attacks upon women” (Mohanty, 2003). Governments hard hit hard hit by economic crises have less money in educational budgets to make schooling available in remote rural areas, forcing some of the poorest children to commute, if indeed they can afford the price of transportation. Stromquist and Monkman (2000) describe an inexorable trend towards educational privatization and decentralization in primary and secondary education realigning education with the market instead of with social priorities. The Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s evaporated the surplus income and funds previously available to the poor to supplement childrens’ educational costs. This development, coupled with the increasing privatization trend, means that the cost of schooling for the poor will continue to rise. 3 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Linked to these forces is the proliferation of television and popular media from around the world functioning as a critical tool in promulgating this discourse of marginalization of women and the poor. The fostering of global consumer culture has had an insidious impact on traditional community and family values, creating demand for products that, among the poor, can only be satisfied by the sacrifice of family members, temporarily or permanently, as migrant workers or trafficking victims. Those who sacrifice themselves generate the income needed not only for survival, but to attain the much coveted material possessions broadcast by the media. In Thailand, and particularly the northern region chosen for this study, the devaluing of females is not new. What is new, however, is the widespread and systematic context within which the selling of women now occurs. Bales (1999) writes that in the past girls were sold to help the family survive an immediate financial crisis but that they were usually worth as much at home as they were away as a w orker. The current pressure to buy consumer goods has lowered the value o f daughters to roughly that of a television set. “A recent survey in the northern provinces found that of the families who sold their daughters, two-thirds could afford not to do so, but instead prefered to buy color televisions and video equipment” (Bales, 1999). Social, cultural and religious norms create powerful micro-level forces subordinating Thai women. Theravada Buddhism has played an important role in gendering Thai law, culture 4 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and social life that is linked to poor women’s marginalization. Theravada Buddhism is an ethic of human life that does not regard women highly (Brock and Thistlewaite, 1987). Females cannot attain spiritual enlightenment, so women must be particularly devout if they are to be fortunate enough to be reborn as men (Bales, 1999; Brock & Thistlewaite, 1996; Klausner, 1993). A number of researchers have drawn attention to the deeply-rooted cultural and religious expectation that Thai daughters must contribute in any way they can to the support of their parents (Podhhisita, 1985, Yoddumnem, 1985; Pramualratana, 1990; Yoddumnem-Attig et al, 1992). Buddhist scripture states that daughters have a duty "to sacrifice for the well being o f the family no matter what is the result of that sacrifice" (Proceedings, 1997, p. 341). This expectation, when combined with the high financial rewards for work in the sex industry, strongly motivates young women to migrate from their villages in search of income with which to support their parents (see Section 3). Bales writes that ” .. .prostitution is sanctioned; in the (Buddhist) vihaya, or rules for monks, it lists ten kinds of wives, the first three.. .are those bought for money, while others living together voluntarily and those to be enjoyed or used occasionally” (1999). Since sex in this case is not a sin, it must be endured as impersonally as possible because it is one of human attachments to the physical world of suffering and ignorance (Bales, 1999). 5 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sixty percent of a sample of CSWs (commercial sex workers)... identified poverty as the major reason for the decision to enter the CSI (commercial sex industry).. .the symptoms of poverty— such as unemployment, debt, aspirations to buy material goods and to maintain a steady job— as immediate reasons...’’(Sacks, p. 425, 1997). A 1994 survey found that Thai women do not aspire to sex work. Sacks quotes the survey results . .94% of teenagers interviewed see prostitution as degrading to women” finding that the number of women voluntarily entering CSI decreased due to women and girls hearing about the experiences and health threats of former CSWs (1997). The tie between sex work and the social obligation of daughters to provide for their families demonstratesis how Thai women’s sexuality is devalued (Lim, 1998; Barry, 1998). Many women enter sex work after losing their virginity before marriage because popular belief turns them into depreciated ‘goods’ (Skrobanek, 1986). The same is true for women who have separated lfom their spouses (Thaipakdhi, 1973). Not surprisingly, the consistently low status of women in Thai society can be linked with the declining economic, social and environmental situation in the country. 2) Thailand’s Economic, Social, and Environmental Decline For those who are poor, the difficulty of life in rural villages is exacerbated by the 6 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. economic dislocations caused by globalization and unbalanced economic development. Many development policies are seen as encouraging the expansion of the “bad” (not good) trades, in particular, growing trade in drugs and women. Feingold (1996) used the analogy of “the hell of good intentions” to describe this fact. Consequent job loss or relocations coupled with environmental degradation robs rural areas of traditional sources and forms o f livelihood. The resulting environment breeds powerful incentives to exploit the least powerful members of the community, girls and women. Increasing rural flight is accompanied by consequent community and family disintegration (UNDP, 1999). Women are more vulnerable as they increasingly become single heads of household. The lack of familiar social structures loosens the buttresses holding normal behavior in place and consumerism slips inside. Despite Thailand’s rich natural resources, the country has been hard hit over the last ten years by recurring drought, deforestation and more recently the Asian economic crisis. Bandarage (1999) blames corporate expansion and structural adjustment programs and (development) policies emanating from international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF for the economic and social devastation hitting women and children the hardest. Environmental deterioration also has occurred on many fronts. In the formerly forested areas, previous economic growth spurred on loggers, both legal and illegal; along the coasts, ruinous 7 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. fishing practices ravaged fishing stocks, while slash-and-bum agricultural habits spread beyond the traditional tribal habitats to create desert like conditions across rural areas. These factors have led to huge numbers of villagers relocating from rural to urban areas. The UNDP (1999) termed this phenomenon of empty rural villages without adults between the ages of 15 and 40 as social disintegration. Social and psychological dislocations continue to make themselves felt as traditional communities decline and resources are not available to replace missing social support structures. Rural-to- urban flight picked up through the 1990s due to the fast rising income of city dwellers as part of the spiraling national economic growth (UNICEF, 2000). Growth continued, spurred on by the demand for labor in huge production facilities built by international investors. Since most of the internal population growth centered on Bangkok, a drop in city dwellers’ standard of living began as municipal services strained to serve an explosion of people. Despite the economic growth of the late 1980s and early 1990s, few laborers enjoyed substantial improvements in their standard of living. A minority of educated, powerful Thais reaped huge rewards from production while shop owners and tourism facilities benefited from increases in tourism. Rural migrants, however, living on subsistence wages, often had to remit funds to their home village and had little left for themselves. Women with little education or 8 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. skills also had little income stability due to disproportionate placement in temporary and seasonal jobs, similar to low-income and indigenous populations elsewhere (Cortina, 2000). Thais who wanted to improve their position could either choose to migrate overseas or regain lost culture through collaboration in their home communities. Northern Thailand is the region of focus for this study due to its particular combination of economic, social and environmental problems. Much o f the prosperity of the 1980s passed it by due to its considerable distance from Bangkok. It is also a haven where dispossessed hill-tribe populations and Burmese refugees from the Myanmar border areas seek refuge from conflict and economic desperation. The economic crash of 1997-1998 added to regional woes in the North because large numbers of unemployed urban and overseas workers migrated back to their home villages (IBRD, 1998), leading to harsher competition for jobs (Thailand Development Research Institute, 2000). Women tended to face worse job prospects than men in this harsh climate. Women comprise the highest number of illiterates and early school leavers and therefore the highest number of low skilled adults. With few skills, illiterate or semi-literate women end up in low wage employment that is unstable and often dangerous, such as the chemical industry. Jobs that women relied upon to feed their families were given to men who retreated from the urban economic disaster. These factors underlie growing income inequalities that destabilize 9 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. traditional family structures as marriages and the childcare arrangements fragment under the strain of joblessness and lack of income (Lim, 1998). 3) An Increase in Female Migration and Trafficking Rates in Thailand Starting in the mid-1980s, huge numbers of poor Thais females emigrated to Bangkok and overseas from rural areas. Remittances from abroad have formed an important part of national and family income. The demographics of migration and emigration have shifted, from primarily male dominated agricultural and construction labor to female dominated domestic, factory and entertainment labor. Huang, Teo and Yeoh suggest that the term “diaspora” replace migrant in order to incorporate the notions of both permanent and temporary sojourns as well as both transnational and internal migration. (Huang, Teo and Yeoh, 2000). The conditions of migration have changed as well. Where earlier, male migrants tended to have legal status in their destination countries, and jobs tended to be wage based, the ease of travel and counterfeiting travel documents have opened the doors to criminal consortia who manufacture papers for women who are easily moved through and across permeable national borders. There is a tremendous diversity of women’s identities and experiences in the process of diaspora in which the involuntary movement of girls and women is a fast growing component of this larger trend (Bales, 1999; Human Rights Watch, 2000). Trafficking of humans, in particular, 10 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. women and children, is a fast growing phenomenon, moving four million people through illegal migration worldwide, according to United Nations estimates (Kanics, 1998). Most countries presently face the challenge of mobilizing resources to combat this human rights challenge both within as well as across borders. Thailand, in particular, is a hub for trafficking; it transfers close to $300 million annually from urban areas to rural families through remittances from women in the sex sector (Lim, 1998). The fact that some villages in the poorer North are depopulated o f women in particular illustrates the impact of macro and micro level destabilizing forces upon community well-being (Brock and Thistlewaite, 1987). Even more telling is the increase in well-built houses, televisions, radios, motor scooters in the home villages of absent young females (Lim, 1998). The Thai Government has taken significant steps in recent years to address trafficking, especially of children. A national policy and plan of action together with a multidisciplinary group have been set up since 1996 (Caouette, U.N. Working Group, 1998). In addition, the Act on Prostitution was changed to make sanctions against traffickers tougher and a new act to prevent and suppress trafficking was enacted in 1997. Thailand has made it possible for anti-trafficking coalitions of international agencies to work against-trafficking domestically and regionally. The presence and collaboration of high profile actors with government and non-government stakeholders have 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. made trafficking into a high visibility problem and encouraged the academic community to conduct related research. Thailand has also committed itself to addressing these problems through non-formal education programs for adults and reforms to its formal education system. “Trafficking” is different from “illegal migration” in that it is coercive and exploitative (Muntarbhom, 1997) and preys mostly on women and children due to their limited resources, relative lack of social capital, and over-representation in unrecognized labor sectors such as sex work, begging, domestic and restaurant labor (GAATW, 1996). Trafficking of humans is an illegal activity which means that reliable data does not exist. The International Organization of Migration (IOM), the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking (CATW) and other international and Thai domestic anti-trafficking groups must surmise trafficking movement from data available on illegal immigrants and deported or detained sex workers. A Chulalonghom University study estimated that sex work, both voluntary and involuntaiy, alone commanded $27 billion dollars or about 15% of the country’s GDP (Tunsarawuth, 1996). The U.N. Working Group used results of the same study to estimate 200,000 sex workers in Thailand (National Commission on Women's Affairs, 1994) and that total annual revenue from sex work amounts to 450-540 billion baht (US$20 billion at 1995 exchange rates) , approximately 50 percent of the overall Thai government budget for 1995 (Caouette, 1998). 12 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Inconsistencies in information and documentation hinder the efforts against trafficking as well; individuals from countries throughout Asia are trafficked into Thailand through borders that are porous and difficult to police. The numbers of trafficked Thai girls and women, as well as boys and men, are increasing every year (Bales, 1999; Human Rights Watch, 2000). This points to fundamental social and economic problems that have not been addressed effectively. The 1997-1998 economic crisis and prolonged aftermath continues to push an increased number of impoverished women in poor areas out of their jobs to go overseas. At the same time, a lack of coherent approaches to the burgeoning sex industry, particularly the safety of sex workers, means that rural women with little education are rendered more vulnerable to traffickers. Many are not told the truth about the nature of work they will be doing, while others, who know they will be sex workers, expect to have some say over their working conditions and customers (Skrobanek, 1997; Caouette, 1998; Human Rights Watch, 2000). Still other women are lured by stories of their neighbors living in comfort overseas with a foreign husband. Traffickers have exploited this seemingly above-board arrangement by drafting ’’marriage contracts”, “ household labor contracts”, or “entertainer contracts” for young women with a wealthy foreigner (GAATW, 1999’ CATW, 2001). When the woman arrives in the foreign country, she is either immediately moved to her future place of work or a marriage is 13 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. arranged with a citizen of the country but the woman is forced to work in the sex or sweatshop industry. The networks linking the domestic and international sex trade and powerful national institutions in Thailand such as members of the military, police force and criminal syndicates are indicative of the power of traffickers (Proceedings, 1997). Thailand also benefits from huge revenues supplied by international remittances from trafficked women (Caouette, 1998). This has made trafficking particularly difficult to suppress or eliminate. Trafficking ouside sex work for domestic, agricultural, restaurant or factory labor or body parts is not well understood (Caouette, 1998). The fates of those trafficked are not known except for specific cases o f those who returned voluntarily, were deported, or linger in detention overseas (Caouette, 1998). What is known often comes from frontline social service organizations that must cope with the victims of human trafficking. Parents may make arrangements directly with traffickers for their daughters for considerable sums of cash in order to buy televisions, motorcycles, jewelry and other goods. Agents o f trafficking rings have abundant resources to persuade parents to force their daughters or to persuade women directly to come because of the huge profits they earn. Often, agents are members of a recruitment network of current and former sex workers who target villages near 14 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their home for greatest credibility, providing the promise of culturally familiar connections upon arrival at the new job. In addition to the promised familiarity of friendly faces at the brothel, local officials and those with high social status are often involved in trafficking. Procurers regularly use bribes in order to b e : .. guaranteed access to those who are considered respectable in small villages - headman, chiefs of sub-districts, government officials - many of whom are recruited to work for crime syndicates" (Proceedings, 1997, p. 41). The recent trend in increased demand for workers to fill livelihoods traditionally considered feminine, such as nursing, entertainment, domestic labor and sex work, acts as a pull factor for migration in concert with the push factors taking women away from home. 4) Increasing Attention by Social Service Providers at the Local Level Non-formal education programs offer opportunities for women to meet and learn practical skills and useful knowledge about these serious problems caused by social dislocation in up-country Thailand. Most pressing of all is how to develop locally derived solutions to the deteriorating social circumstances and the widespread victimization of women that characterizes modem Thai life. Additionally, low-income women need ways to generate income that are stable and reinforce their self-esteem instead of destroying it in comparison with work in the sex 15 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sector in Bangkok or overseas. Finally, Thai women need to be more aware of macro-level and micro-level forces underlying their subordinate position. The extreme poverty of the northern region has fostered the creation and location of a number of formal and informal social service providers operating at the local level. These include government-sponsored think tanks and social welfare bureaus, non-governmental organizations, religious congregations, and international development agencies. The Directory of Non-Governmental Organizations and People’s Organizations in Thailand for the year 2001 lists over 500 entities now working for the social and educational development of the country. The Thai government has also gone on record as a strong supporter of non-formal education and life-long learning throughout the country (Educational Reform Act, 1999). Nevertheless, the downward social spiral continues in rural Thailand. Informally, social networks play a large role in providing contacts, learning opportunities and form part of many women’s support systems. For women who have migrated, these networks act as links back to their home communities as well introductions to women in their new locations. Within networks, social dynamics may function to facilitate or hinder migration and trafficking processes, income generating opportunities and other life experiences, and form an important source of learning in adulthood. Most importantly, networks act as mechanisms 16 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. through which women are recruited into non-formal education (NFE) programs . Many women in NFE programs learned about the program from another student, a graduate, a teacher, or NFE staff visiting their village. 5) Growing Efforts to Combat Trafficking The U.S. government’s conservative minimum estimate is that globally over 700,000 are trafficked annually, not including women and children who are trafficked without crossing any international borders. Approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked annually to the U.S., of whom 30,000 come from Southeast Asia (JHU SAIS, 2001). A variety of international agency, as well as multilateral and bilateral efforts, have been organized against trafficking. These include the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Sub-Region, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV-AIDS (UNAID) and others. Additional working group members include the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and such international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as Child 17 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Rights-Asianet, the Fund Against Child Exploitation (FACE), the Save The Children Alliance, World Vision, the Mekong Regional Law Center and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). GAATW is an example of a woman-centered NGO working against trafficking on several levels. They join other NGOs in complementing and supplementing the state and international efforts in Thailand. GAATW was started in Chiang Mai in 1994 at the International Workshop on Migration and Trafficking in Women. It now represents a worldwide membership of like-minded organizations and individuals coordinating information, action research, publications, human rights support and lobbying on behalf of trafficked women and migrants. The organization also promotes the development of women at the grassroots level around Thailand to facilitate their empowerment rather than treating them as victims. Other NGOs are working on the local level to terminate the continuum of victimization. In Figure 1 on the next page, a continuum illuminates different aspects of coercion that suppress poor women who are trafficked. Many of these women and girls wish to learn skills and mindsets that will allow them to be reintegrated into mainstream Thai society. NGOs serving this need work to support, educate, organize or refer trafficking victims or women who need help and include the Foundation For Women (FFW), Friends of Thai Women Workers in Asia, the Empower Foundation and the Population and Community Development Association (PDA). 18 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Women-centered NGOs range in size from small to very large and are funded by domestic and international donors (see Figure 1 below). Figure 1-1: Continuum o f Victimization Jdl________ (eL Completely More Voluntary Coerced Labor Labor (a)Victims forced and/or kidnapped, and trafficked. (b) Victims are given false information, and trafficked out o f promised jobs. (c) Victims (or parents) do not understand the nature o f the work or conditions that are promised. (d) Victims realize the nature o f work, but not the work conditions. (e) Victims realize the nature o f work, but are not aware and/or are able to foresee the difficult situations they may encounter. (f) Sex workers realize the nature o f work and work conditions, and stay to pay off debt or earn money for family. B) Definitions of Key Terms: 1) “Trafficking” A great deal of the literature on trafficking deals with the debate on how to define trafficking. In the U.S., legislation passed in 2000 has a two-part definition that differentiates between aggravated or “severe” trafficking versus trafficking that does not involve force, or in which force cannot be proven (Raymond and Hughes, 2001). In the international arena, the debate concerns whether coercion is necessary to the definition and whether trafficking can occur 19 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with or without the victim's consent. The United Nations General Assembly defines trafficking women and girls as: The illicit and clandestine movement of persons across national and international borders, largely from developing countries and some countries with economies in transition, with the end goal of.forcing women and girl children into sexually or economically exploitative situations for the profit of recruiters, traffickers and crime syndicates, as well as other illegal activities related to trafficking, such as forced domestic labor, false marriages, clandestine employment and false adoption. (Mekong Law Center & National Commission on Women's Affairs, 1997). The new U.N. trafficking protocol definition is as follows: a) Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transfer, harboring or receipt o f persons, by means of threat or the use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payment of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slaveiy or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs; b) The consent of the victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph a) have been used (Raymond and Hughes, 2001, p. 24). U.S. Senate Resolution 82 defines trafficking to "involve one or more forms of kidnapping, false imprisonment, rape, battering, forced labor, or slavery-like practices which violate fundamental human rights." This resolution, introduced in 1998, states: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Trafficking consists of all acts involved in the recruitment or transportation of persons within or across borders, involving deception, coercion or force, abuse of authority, debt bondage or fraud, for the purpose of placing persons in situations of abuse or exploitation such as forced prostitution, battering and extreme cruelty, sweatshop labor or exploitative domestic servitude (U.S. Senate, 1998). The working definition of trafficking for the purpose of this study is the following: The recruitment and/or the transportation of persons by others using violence or the threat o f violence, abuse of authority, deception or other coercion for the purpose of exploiting such persons sexually or economically for the profit or advantage of others. (Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking, 2001). The scope of this paper does not allow a full investigation of all victims o f trafficking. The trafficking of women in one developing country only is under examination. 2) “Empowerment” The word ’’empowerment” has been used in many ways. Most germane to this paper is the way that power, and knowledge about power, is used within society generally, and in adult education for women in particular. Sen and Grown (1985) describe the process of empowerment — either for the individual or the institution — as "crystallizing visions and perspectives to move beyond the present situation" (p. 89). Mies (1991) connects effective adult pedagogy and qualitative feminist research wherein both "eliminate the critical and dialectical distance” between the conductor of the activity and the participants in the activity - thus empowering both. Mies further calls for a fundamental shift in perspective where the vertical relationship, “'the view 21 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from above' must be replaced by the view from below so that research serves instead the interests of dominated, exploited groups" (p. 123, 1991). Asianian and Brickell (1991) suggest that empowering adult learning is linked to a life event, a benchmark. They suggest that this learning occurs within training that is conducted in an engaging and dialectical manner and that empowerment is the fulcrum on which this benchmark occurs (Asianian and Brickell, 1991). Stromquist (1993) describes”empowerment” as a serious word that brings up the question of personal agency rather than reliance on intermediaries, one that links action to needs, and that results in making significant collective change. In this sense, it questions the status quo that portrays women as subservient to men and relegates them to a larger share of illiteracy and poverty. Ideally, empowerment creates the conditions for a broader analysis of human rights abuses and social justice issues, a potentially threatening examination of social power brokers affected by any re-allocation of resources. Adult women are the key to this process precisely because their adult lives are constructed of experiences of subordination necessary for a dialectical approach as well as their potential to be critical actors in “breaking the integrational reproduction of patriarchal authority” (Stromquist, p. 14, 1993). Women who have not had formal education and who are not impoverished may find that it is easier to develop the critical mind necessary to 22 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. empowerment (Stromquist, 1997). Empowerment is more than participation and consciousness raising; it also calls for individuals to stay active in order to transform society non-violently. Most poor women from rural areas migrate for economic reasons and must do so through intermediaries, often because o f illiteracy, and end up paying exorbitant fees, entering unknowingly into debt bondage, physical and mental abuse. Leading theorists have suggested two ways in which gender might moderate empowered relations. Sen and Grown (1985) observe that the women’s movement is an attempt to convert men and the system to the sense of responsibility, nurturance, openness and rejection of hierarchy that are necessary foundations for empowerment. Consequently, when subject to empowering or dis-empowering situations, men and women may be differentially affected. More empowered women would be expected: a) To question the terms of the work contracts and debt, b) To verify information and promises made by prospective employers, c) That if they understand that parental expectations and/or commercial relationships are unfair, then to choose to forego them, and, d) To seek out alternative employment opportunities in the location of their choice and where the chances of serious exploitation are fewer and the benefits of a support system are greatest. Although both men and women are likely to be positively affected by empowering acts and negatively affected by dis-empowering acts, the magnitude of these effects is likely to differ according to their gender. Weiler (1998) recommends authentication of voices that challenge 23 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. prevailing ’’sedimented meanings”, and the celebration of cultural and political diversity. She also recommends fighting against the voices of bigotry and violence, while at the same time, working toward social relations that undermine the ideological, experienced relations of sexism, racism, and class discrimination. N on-form al education program s in Thailand offer a venue to test out the ideas o f em pow erm ent and transform ative education. The pattern o f early school drop out and poverty am ong m arginalized w om en in northern Thailand m eans a great and possibly latent dem and for the know ledge and skills previously unavailable to poor rural wom en. In addition N F E program s can function as im portant m eeting places for fostering em pow ered attitudes am ong Thai wom en. M ohanty (2003) affirm s non-w estern m anifestations o f resistance to exploitation and coercion that contribute to identity form ation and considers the developm ent o f personal agency in the form o f testim onios, the valuing o f m em ory and w riting, as em pow erm ent tools that take us outside narrow w estern cultural perceptions o f identity. In non-form al educational settings, w om en participants have the opportunity to share their stories, build netw orks o f m utual support, and try out activism in their com m unities to help stem the global tide in trafficking o f wom en. 24 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3) “Nonformal Education” The term “non-formal education” (NFE) is misleading because it implies no formal structure and, as an educational term, it is open to multiple interpretations. Bock and Papagiannis (1983) call for NFE to be re-framed to look at the underlying social processes of education, particularly the structure of the activities and the effect the activities have on participants. They claim that NFE is more than a corrective reaction against current educational arrangements because it is a vehicle of socialization with similar features to other socializing organizations. Walters (2000) further defines NFE as an analytical construct that gives shape to a range of activities fundamentally linked to other forms of economic, cultural, social or political life. Historically, NFE has been defined as “any organized, systematic educational activity outside the framework o f the formal school system designed to provide selective types of learning to particular subgroups of the population, adults as well as children" (Coombs and Ahmed, 1974; LaBelle, 1986). The University of Massachusetts (1979) characterizes it as a cheaper and needs-oriented alternative to the formal educational system, which is typified by peer learning and a link to productive activity. In the public sector, NFE refers to short-term and flexibly planned educational activity outside the purview of the formal educational system, such as health or literacy education, often to serve the needs of the poor. La Belle (1986) points out the tendency 25 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of NFE to focus on programs for poor or otherwise marginalized adults in Third World countries as well. In his opinion, the purpose is to connect community efforts to the actual needs and experiences o f adult participants. Wolpe (1994) defines NFE to include both the social purposes of education and the impact it has on women’s lives. She classifies it as consisting of educational strategies for survival, skills for the informal economic sector, formal labor market skills (including retraining) and political and cultural NFE aimed at social justice and participation in civil society. Walters (2000) groups NFE, informal education and formal education under the larger category o f “adult education” and differentiates them based on their funding, control and locale. From this perspective, NFE and informal education differ from formal education in that they take place in a variety of settings such as the family, the community and the workplace and receive support from many sources. Formal education, by comparison, tends to be financed and controlled by the state. In terms of educational content and delivery, however, the boundaries between NFE and informal education are blurred, often overlapping. Governments are increasingly using adult education as a vehicle for developing certain knowledge, skills and attitudes that promote certain political or social agenda items among adult populations. This has caused a blurring of the line between formal education and NFE, which is 26 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. also used for political ends. Walters (2000) uses “adult education” as an umbrella term for adult learners generally, and women in particular. Therefore, for the purposes of this paper, “non-formal education” and “adult education” will be used interchangeably to reflect these blurred boundaries between the different settings and varied purposes for which adults learn — with particular reference to Wolpe’s fourth category of NFE which addresses social inequities and the need for change. 4) “Rural Areas” Rural areas are not defined in a clear-cut way for both the developed and developing world. Typically, rural areas are more closely linked to their immediate environments. Ahmed (1999) defines a rural area as “ a geographical area away from laige urban settlements and towns which is inhabited by rural people” (p.81). Homes and shops in rural areas tend to be concentrated around a central “village square”, market place or Main Street. Villages or rural areas often exist on waterways, canals or river tributaries, although isolated herders live in more remote dwelling places. Hill tribes in Thailand tend to live away in isolated mountain sites, far from lowland Thai villages and towns. Their villages are often located in remote or difficult to access sites. This is due to some extent to a lack of social services and infrastructure such as investment in road building. 27 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C) Statement o f the Problem Women’s access into and need for non-formal educational programs arise from a variety of factors. Existing scholarship has not sufficiently investigated the sociocultural contexts within which adults learn (Merriam and Caffarella, 1991). The life context, learning needs and learning experiences of vulnerable women are less understood. Policy decisions affecting the lives of rural women are based upon considerations that have more to do with political imperatives and western models of development. Thai policies have resulted in reduced female access to tools to build social capital. Inadequate social capital in turn has meant reduced opportunities for women’s employment and political representation in addition to lower pay than males for the same jobs (UNDP, 1999; Hartmann, 1983). The 1997-1998 regional economic crisis exacerbated the impact of existing development led incentives to expand export led industry and urban development at the cost of rural econonomic dislocation and environmental degradation. The huge difference in female and male lived experience in Thailand may best be told by 1998 UNDP statistics: • Females in Thailand control only two-thirds as much GDP per capita ($4,159) compared with males ($6,755), • Although Thailand has a middle score of 62 in the Medium Human Development range o f the Gender-related Development Index, their HDI-GDI rank is low at + 3 > • Women number less than a quarter, 21.6 percent, of total administrators and managers. 28 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. According to the United Nations Human Development Report for Thailand, women make up the majority o f adults without formal education, 11.5% of all women, compared to 9.6% of men nationwide (HDR, Table 6, 1999). The figures are much higher in the poorer northern regions - almost 41 percent of women in the northern region of Mae Hong Son have never been to school (HDR, Table 11, 1999). Most Thai female victims of trafficking come from impoverished rural areas and tend to be illiterate (Skrobanek, 1999; Lim, 1998), leaving them ill prepared to cope with the demands o f surviving in urban environments. Access to education is inextricably tied to socio-cultural and religious norms that interact with family income to reduce women’s chance for schooling. Despite great strides in primary school enrollment and official literacy figures, poor adult women are the majority of illiterates and receive little vocational skills training. Thailand's historical social, cultural and religious norms subordinate women, considering them to be lower status beings (Klausner, 1993; Skrobanek, 1999). Traditionally, the female has deferred to the male in Thai society (Klausner, 1993). A saying goes that men are like the front legs o f the elephant and women are the hind legs. Thailand's efforts to modernize along capitalist lines strengthened the role of patriarchy in the allocation o f social resources, contributing to the further subordination of women marginalizing their economic and social access. 29 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Girls and women who are trafficked tend to have primarily low-income backgrounds (Lim, 1998) and are therefore socialized to accept authority, belief systems and expectations that are constraining but at the same time "naturalized" and therefore rarely contested (Stromquist, 1993). Poverty and education, in this context, function to promote and reproduce women's subordination. Poverty is a driving force accelerating female illiteracy, and a causative factor in low female educational retention (Stromquist, 1991, 2001; Sutton, 1998). These factors contribute to the migration of women from poor rural areas to urban centers. Poverty is also implicated in the strong attraction that the lures of traffickers provide to parents and the young women themselves (Lim, 1998). The Thai social construction o f prostituted sex as a viable employment option for poor women explains a significant aspect of the gendered nature of this human rights violation (Barry, 1998). The potential of generating enormous sums of money from selling females led to a psychological re-alignment that reinforces the global discourse subordinating women particularly through objectification of women’s bodies as sexual and disposable commodities. Women’s relatives, neighbors, and local officials are part of the social circle persuading or pressuring them to sign contracts they cannot read or agreeing to go with a trafficking agent. Agents target poor villages and the poorest inhabitants with daughters and young mothers, promising huge sums of 30 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. money and consumer goods in exchange for “labor in a shop or factory”. Thais fleeing the barren economic and physical rural landscape found few options in Bangkok for those without education or job skills. Trafficking is differentiated from legal migration that has always involved the active participation of independent women (Hondagneu, 1994) in that it reflects a variety o f factors relegating females to marginalized educational, social, economic and political situations. For poor migrant women seeking employment, their lower status and lack of social capital meant that well paying jobs were unavailable. Women themselves are caught up in the illusion of fast money that will take care of their families’ needs and wants and the glamor of working abroad. For example, women are directly approached by representatives of transnational organized criminal syndicates that use Thailand as a center o f activity to maximize profits (Office of the National Commission on Women's Affairs, 1999). They are then forced into the commercial sex business, sweatshop, or forced to beg, mainly in urban areas. Women who fall prey to traffickers are usually told that they will be put into jail with criminals if they speak with customers or outsiders about their situation. They are put into debt bondage that mounts quickly ensuring a steady flow of income to brothel owners and intermediaries (Skrobanek, 1997; Office of the National Commission on Women's Affairs, 1999). Women that survive the experience of trafficking return home with physical and 31 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. emotional scars that continue to diminish their self-esteem, mental and emotional stability (Caouette, 1998; SEPOM2002). Trafficking itself is very hard to fight, as it is illegal migration, for several reasons: First of all, data cannot be easily and systematically collected on underground activities. Secondly, when law enforcement authorities identity trafficking victims, they tend to send them home quickly and their testimony is unavailable for prosecuting traffickers. Thirdly, trafficking victims come from coercive, often abusive situations and are disinclined or intimidated from pursuing justice for fear o f reprisals from traffickers. Finally, Thai trafficking victims rarely possess literacy, social capital or self-esteem at a level that would enable them to deal effectively with foreign law enforcement officials or to confront traffickers in the first place. Many women who do press charges against traffickers find themselves arrested for prostitution or illegal status (GAATW, 1999). The complex nature of women’s oppression and subordinate status leading to lower status, dropping out o f school and consequent vulnerability to trafficking and exploitative labor practices warrant a complex multi-sectoral response. Non-formal education programs have the potential address women’s vulnerability before, during and after they are abused, but require simultaneous action on other fronts to address political and social discrimination. 32 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. D) Purpose of the Study The purpose of this dissertation is to reveal how participation in non-formal educational programs influences the ways that marginalized adult women create meaning about learning and structure their lives and goals. This study broadens our understanding of adult women’s learning within environments undergoing rapid change in reaction to the forces of globalization, development and migration. Particular attention is paid to learning during various phases of women’s lives and to learning within and outside the non-formal education setting. E) Significance of the Study: This study has significance for policy, practice and research. It addresses a gap in research at the junction of social learning contexts in adult learning, gender relations and non-formal education. The nature of social processes in migration (Monkman, 1997), gendered work patterns and the force of globalization in perpetuating female oppression (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994, Stromquist and Monkman, 2000) have moved the study of non-formal education into a more holistic understanding of the forces influencing maiginalized women. The implications for educational policy for adults is important as well. This study identifies questions about the organization of both national and non-governmental non-formal educational programs, such as which structures or approaches are most beneficial to the large 33 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. population of low-income women learners. The experience of women participants in non-formal education calls into question some of the assumptions about learner needs made by policy makers. The question of collaboration as a tool for improving the design and reach of non-formal education programs for adults may also be worthwhile. This study adds to the literature de-constructing power asymmetries and underscores the role of human agency in bringing about collective change that may be replicable in programs designed to combat trafficking and assist in rural development. This type of study is also valuable in terms o f inspiring the practice of teachers and facilitators. Those working in adult non-formal education often lack training in the socio-cultural and economic context of women’s lives. Vocational teachers have limited agendas: teach sewing, machine operation skills, and so on. As women’s needs change, non-formal education teachers and administrators must be prepared to more fully understand their background and experiences. As this study decomposes the dynamics o f women’ s non-formal education program participation and their reactions to pedagogical approaches, it illustrates realities common to many marginalized Thai women. Gender studies o f poor women have shown that educational experiences are gendered in essential ways (AAUW, 1992; Lind and Johnston, 1990, Streitmatter, 1994; Stromquist, 1994, 34 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1997). Finally, the question of whether or not non-formal education provides female program graduates with the necessary skills and attitudes to change their lives will be investigated. As Longwe states “... it is assumed that women’s increased access to literacy skills, as well as higher forms of education, will automatically lead to their increased self-reliance and empowerment.. .But this is not always the case" (UNESCO, 1999). By voicing the perspectives of formerly trafficked and potentially trafficked women, this research contributes to an informed understanding about women’s learning experiences and the pressures they face as they struggle to find work and contemplate migration. This study affords these women a potential platform that may be useful for policymakers and non-governmental organizations to incorporate realistic dimensions of a marginalized population that is traditionally voiceless. Examination of the relations between non-formal education programs and adult female participants is of critical importance for deconstructing and promoting effective alternative learning environments that work against the trafficking and exploitation of humans. F) Research Questions: This study explores the processes of learning in non-formal education programs and the results of participation. It looks at how program dynamics and gender relations shape the 35 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. learning experience. In particular, participant understanding of the social construction of subordination and available strategies for change through an “empowered agency” are investigated (Stromquist, 1993; Freire, 1988). Questions directing the research are tied to the process of empowerment in individual participants and groups: 1) The first set o f questions focuses on personal experiences, concerns and interests of the participants. What factors account for the formation of empowerment in individual students? How are gender relations defined and negotiated in contexts of home and learning? Who are important members of social network? Do these relationships influence educational, vocational or other decisions? How does communication occur among members of the social network? Are learning goals and opportunities valued differently by and for males and females? 2) The second set of questions focus on the participant response to specific NFE curriculum, practices and any changes they experienced as a result of the program. What conscientized practices promote an empowered awareness through the non-formal education process? How do participants integrate their personal situation with the demands of the program? Do women question their sources of knowledge? How do social relations and interactions among group members relate to the learning experience? Are there particular participants, teachers or leaders who influence you? How do they influence you? 36 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3) The third set of questions refer to the micro- and macro-level structural factors that affect participant vulnerability and the extent to which their NFE program addresses these. How do self-efficacy, agency, poverty, and illiteracy interact as environmental factors that may affect participation in non-formal education programs? Do gendered social relations in the family, home, community affect their learning opportunities and direction? The actual questions that were asked of study participants varied somewhat from individual to individual. Semi-structured interviews took into account the social dynamics between researcher and participants which resulted in questions being asked at different points of time in each interview. Specific questions were asked in a different variety of ways and sometimes in several ways in the same interview. In general, the interviews were guided by questions about 1) learning processes, and 2) gender and social change. Within these categories, specific questions were used to more thoroughly explore those concerns, related gender dynamics and relationship to Stromquist’s (1993) model of empowerment along four dimensions: cognitive empowerment, psychological empowerment, economic empowerrment and political empowerment. These research questions were addressed through in-depth interviews, unstructured group interviews and participant observation. 3 7 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter II- Literature Review This literature review is organized into three sections. The first section examines in depth four theoretical approaches to change. The second section describes the full range of non-formal education for adults while the final section discusses key factors that promote or prevent socio-cultural, economic, and political change in Thailand. A) Theoretical Approaches to Change 1) Feminist Theory A basic precept of feminist theory is that women, through the prism o f gendered global, national and local economic, social and cultural realities, are oppressed. Women, because of patriarchy, capitalism, development approaches, culture and society, are subject to unequal distribution of power in what Mies (1991) calls a vertical relationship, in which a top down male dominated structure of privilege exists (p. 123). Radical feminists argue that we live in a patriarchal world in which men keep power over women (Sutton, 2000). This power distribution controls the acquisition of gender identity and the nature of the social system continually reproduced through formal education. According to this perspective, the socialization of boys and girls into sex roles is a necessary adjunct for the perpetuation of male dominance (2000). The concomitant process of knowledge production and control takes its cue from the gendered 38 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. distribution o f power in society, therefore minimizing contributions of women outside their delineated roles as mother and wife. Education in this scenario transmits male centered knowledge, causing schools to trivialize or ignore women’s experiences and contributions to society (Sutton, 2000). The existing social structures conspire to prevent change. However, social change in feminism can occur individually or collectively. The most widely used measure of change is empowerment (is this true?). In reference to adult education, “empowerment” refers to a shift in the way that power is perceived and used within society generally and by adult women in particular. The process of growth that occurs in a power shift can take place intellectually, emotionally and psychologically. The context of growth can be in formal, non-formal or informal learning circumstances. In non-formal education, the individual learner either alone or as part of a group, is enabled to move psychologically or emotionally beyond her current situation (Sen and Grown, 1985). As she achieves enough distance from her experience to perceive it analytically (Mies, 1991), she begins to take control of her own learning. When the learner connects her actions to needs and works with others to achieve collective change, her personal agency is fully invoked (Stromquist, 1993). 39 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nussbaum (1999) terms women’s lack of empowerment to be a problem of justice because a series of chance events placed them where they were bom, how they are shaped and controlled . Justice calls for all of us to support women’s underlying human powers of choice and intelligent self-formation to be revealed and free (p. 54, 1999). Women must be able to change their situations for the better and have more choices such as . .the opportunity to form communities of affiliation and empowerment with other women” (1999). Longwe (1999) argues with prevailing development and capitalist discourse that women’s poverty and lack of empowerment come from oppression and exploitation, not from a lack of productivity. Table 2-1. Longwe’s levels of women’s equality Control Women’s participation in the decision-making process is an important tool to achieve equal balance of control between men and women over the factors of production Participation Women’s equal participation in decision-making process, policy-making, planning and administration. Development example: includes women’s involvement in needs assessment, project design, implementation and evaluation. Conscientization Difference between sex and gender roles understood and agreeable; belief that gender relations and the gender division of labor should not based on the domination of one over the other, should be fair and agreeable to both sides Access Pertains to women’s access to factors of production -land, labor, credit, training, marketing facilities, and all publicly available services and benefits - on an equal basis with men. Equality of access is obtained by securing equality of opportunity through legal reform to remove discriminatory provisions. Welfare Level of material welfare of women, relative to men, with respect to food supply, income and medical care No reference to whether women themselves actively create or produce their material needs. 40 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Longwe identifies five levels of equality, arranged in progressive hierarchical order, with each level denoting a higher level of empowerment. These levels are listed in Table 2-1 on the previous page. These levels are a useful basis to understand and assess the extent o f women’s empowerment in various areas of social or economic life. In addition, this approach may be used to inform educational or outreach programs for women. .Moser (2001) looks at women and social change through a development lens . She categorizes the major development policy approaches towards women’s problems by representing macro-economic policy shifts. The most recent approach, empowerment, is articulated by Third World women. This approach intends to empower women through greater self-reliance based upon the belief that women are not only oppressed by males, but also by colonial and neo-colonial oppression. Empowerment recognizes the triple role in the construction o f subordination and acknowledgement o f empowerment collectively through bottom-up mechanisms. This approach takes Third World feminism more into account. Moser (2001) says that its avoidance of Western feminism makes it unpopular except with Third World women’s NGOs . Stromquist (1993) observes that adult women are critical to the empowerment process because they have the experience of subordination that inform learner-directed andragogy. As the most marginalized members of society, adult women 41 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. voices are important in the deconstruction and decomposition of patriarchal authority (Stromquist, 1997). Weiler (1988) and other feminists validate the importance of involving marginalized populations whose voice is rarely if ever heard by decision makers. She calls for authentic voices to embody cultural and political diversity as a challenge to embedded bigotry and violence within the current social construction of reality. Her other social change goal is to produce transformative social relations that eliminate class, race and sex discrimination. Feminist theorists assert that adult women are key actors in the empowerment process precisely because their adult lives are constructed of experiences of subordination which are necessary for a dialectical learning approach to be effective (Weiler, 1988; Hart, 1990). Adult women have greater immediate potential to be critical actors in breaking the integrational reproduction of patriarchal authority (Stromquist, 1993; p.14, 1994) Strange source. Women with little formal education may find that it is easier to develop the critical mind necessary to empowerment because they have not experienced systemic reproduction of women’s subordination (Stromquist, 1997). Empowerment in this context is more than individual participation and consciousness raising; it is also a calling for individuals to stay active and work with others in order to revolutionize society non-violently. 42 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Weiler (1988) incorporates both radical and feminist theories of schooling and pedagogy, linking theory to practice in a critical pedagogy for empowerment. In this approach, the concept o f resistance is explored as a heuristic device to examine the possibilities o f human agency. She argues that it is necessary to expand and develop the view of agency to go beyond mere resistance alone to oppressive beliefs and practices and to move on to action in Freire-like organized and conscious collective actions called ’’counter-hegemony” in critical theory (Freire, 1988; Weiler, 1988). Amot (1982), although influenced by reproduction theory and sympathetic to a materialistic analysis of social inequalities, is critical of the failure of feminist reproduction theory to deal with questions of resistance and the contested nature of the construction of both class and gender identities. She suggests replacing the concept of reproduction with Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. This substitution makes it easier to remember the ".. .active nature of the learning process, the existence of dialectical relations, power struggles and points of conflict, and the range of alternative practices which may exist inside, outside and be brought into the school” (p. 66, 1982). While critical theorists emphasize the examination of the reproduction of existing social, gender and class relationships, feminist theorists look at the role of agency and the production of 43 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. meaning and class and identity through resistance to imposed knowledge and practices (Weiler, 1988). Weiler observes that women learn to negotiate and construct their own gendered identities through an amalgam of definitions of woman from families, peers, school, and the media, which involves sorting through contradictions and conflicting meanings . Like Amot, she stresses the idea that the existence of hegemony and competing codes of meaning enable the individual to unravel the complexities of both capitalism and patriarchy on individual lives without falling into the mechanical functionalism o f reproduction theory. The fluid nature of social relationships is connected to the role of individual human agency in the construction of reality existing within a web of power and material constraints (Weiler, 1988). Again, Weiler looks at Amot’s feminist sociological analysis of Bernstein and Bourdieu - particularly traditional reproductive theory - that produced a complex analysis of the relationship between gender, class and schooling. The historical specificity of the ideological forms of masculinity and femininity cannot be disassociated from either the material basis of patriarchy or from class structure (in Weiler, 1988, p. 60). Both Freire and Giroux (1988) echo Weiler’s belief that critical pedagogy goes beyond education because it is a form o f cultural politics (in Weiler, 1988). Weiler uses the idea of “voice” as a pedagogical tool to explore the ways in which teachers and learners interact, the 44 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. knowledge each brings to the classroom, and the new knowledge jointly produced. Voice in pedagogy is the means by which learners and facilitators identify and make themselves visible in history as well as the way they define themselves as active agents in their own worlds. In this sense, it represents those multiple subjectivities, discourses, and biographies that make up learners and teachers, who are represented by voice within the linkages of power, history and experience. In this approach, the notion o f a radical praxis is extended far beyond the parameters employed in earlier critical pedagogy. Weiler (1988) identifies dogmatic shortcomings in critical pedagogy that limit learning goals to a theoretically correct understanding in order to read the world differently. An important difference here is that pedagogy itself becomes part of knowledge production and helps the creation of something new between learner and facilitator/teacher. Freire identified the importance of three elements that interact to produce a transformation of consciousness: the teacher, the learner and the knowledge produced together (Introduction, Weiler, 1988). Feminist socialist theory has begun to address the role of schools in the reproduction of gender oppression. Feminist reproduction theories share a common belief in the power of material historical analysis and focus on the relationship of class and gender especially (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). Feminist theoreticians emphasize the ways in which schooling reproduces existing 45 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gender inequalities and draw a firm connection with women’s oppression in society as a whole. Weiler (1988) asserts that an alternative view of schools is necessary because she believes that human beings have the power to act as agents able to contest and redefine the ideological messages they receive in school. More radical feminists have begun to investigate women’s experiences in schools from a resistance and cultural reproduction theory perspective. Some argue that resistance has different meanings for girls than for boys and that girls’ resistance can only be understood from the position of gender and class (Connell, 1985, Davies, 1983, Kessler, 1985). c) Critical Theory Critical education theory shares the goal of critically analyzing society with feminist social and cultural theory, but operates through different theoretical lens. Critical theory considers the analysis o f the actors in competing power interests to be a useful basis of analysis. As the competition for power is a dynamic process, there will be changes in the identity of the winners and losers. This is where social change occurs and useful lessons lie (Fehr, 1993; King, 1996; Cary, 1996). Critical theory frames education within these power dynamics. Learning therefore is an effort to gain power and control one’s own lives as part of a community oriented towards justice 46 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). Critical research fosters this approach through identification of the forces that constrain and marginalize individuals from exerting control. In addition to research, domination is influenced by learner awareness of how class, race, gender and economics function in the exercise of power and oppression (Kincheloe, 1995; Carlson, 1997; Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1999). Gramsci’s concept of hegemony is central to critical research and analysis o f oppressive power. Gramsci made it clear that power is used as a social psychological tool to dominate discourse through the family, schools, media, and religious institutions. He warned that students and researchers of power are themselves socialized by hegemonized structures just “ .. .as our field of knowledge and understanding is structured by a limited exposure to competing definitions of the sociopolitical world” (Denzin & Lincoln, p. 283, 2000). Freire introduced the concept of conscientization to describe learning that goes beyond understanding the social, political and economic contradictions of hegemony to take action against the oppressive elements of reality. In this concept, people are limited in their temporal-spatial situations and will only reflect on their situations when they receive challenges to act (Freire, 1993). Individuals in this situation are ready to commitment to real change if they observe others in a similar situation and that this 47 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. situation is understandable and problematic, so that they can step away enough to see what is happening at an intellectual distance (1993). Freire warns that those who promote such social change are themselves products of the hegemonic system around them, particularly the banking concept of education (1993. The banking system takes a hierarchical form in which social relationships create the conditions for dominant groups to impose their construction of reality. Mayo describes this process as follows (1999): Those being educated are denied the possibility of bringing their own culture to bear on classroom proceedings. Their culture is not valorised; it is not engaged with in a manner which implies a recognition o f its value; and it is not allowed to constitute an integral part of the general learning process taking place, (p. 27) These instruments of alienation in one set of hands are often used by change agents in an attempt to liberate those oppressed in a paradox (p. 60, 1993). Critical theory would use the pedagogy of non-formal education not only develop concrete skills and abilities in learners, but also to instill in the poor a sense of pride, dignity and self-reliance (Torres, 1990). Recognition and valuation of learners, particulary from indigenous cultures, is absolutely essential. Under this construct, cultural respect, gender and social justice are all recognized: “a reconfigured set of relations between men and women, knowledge about women’s new role in the economy and society, and the will to promote democratization efforts” (p.96, 1990)). 48 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Giroux (1988), Apple (1988) and others drew upon Gramsci’s concept of the organic intellectual to develop the idea of the teacher as a transformative intellectual, a facilitator who is committed to the political development o f his/her class (Gramsci, 1971). The transformative intellectual holds to Freire’s pursuit of mass literacy in various forms, including teaching the oppressed to understand the power of language in everyday life and cultural production as well as literacy (Carlson & Apple, 1998). Teachers or adult trainers in emancipatory education for liberation must be strongly committed to a process of “self-actualization” that not only empowers students but enhances teacher’s well being if they are to be effective (hooks, 1994). Freire (1988) explains that the point of counter-hegemonic pedagogy is part of the dynamic process of production in which the teacher becomes the theorist/learner and the student is the leamer/reader/critic. Pedagogy always operates within asymmetrical relations of power but is able to engage specific cultural forms and experiences which create different meanings for teachers and learners about categories of gender, race and class (Freire, 1988). hooks goes beyond the cognitive changes sought by critical and popular education theorists such as Freire and calls for an ‘engaged pedagogy’ that empowers learners. This approach is based on the philosophy that integrates the mind, body and spirit. 49 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Feminists have criticized this approach as limited to class based issues that universalize oppression and assumptions that knowledge and reason are enough to win power. Feminist pedagogy within critical theory look more deeply at women’s diverse situations and the institutions that frame those situations (Olesen, 2000). Feminist pedagogy unearths factors of women’s oppression such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality and others. Learning, within this context, is not geared so much towards an objective depiction of social phenomena as toward the building of alliances and coalitions to restructure power relations. Britzman (1992) describes this process as “constructing contextually dependent relations that recognize the power of lived experiences and of ideology” (p. 153). It seems clear that NFE programs for women must be structured differently than general programs. Empowered learning for women has many dimensions, which is understandable considering women’s circumstances differ between cultures, countries and generations. In the third world, overall, the situations for adult women are frequently worse than the situations for adult men. Poverty, societal expectations, and responsibilities conspire to limit women’s ability to participate in learning and literacy programs of any kind (Stromquist, 1997). For those women who are able to participate, their very presence in a learning group is intrinsically a form of liberation and empowerment. For many poor women, group meetings alforded by any 50 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. community learning program are their first public experience. The social spaces afforded by such programs open the way to envisaging ways of improving themselves and their lives (Stromquist, 1997). Non-formal educational learning programs for women should address immediate needs and concerns while also working implicitly working to explore and develop the awareness that women have about their present world and the norms, values, and role expectations that provide meaning to poor women (Beneria and Roldan, 1987). Discussions of women’s awareness, the norms and values that guide them can lead to a frank discussion of the ways that women feel exploited and subordinated in their daily lives and possible solutions. Empowered learning for men is linked to empowered learning for women as men frequently act as gatekeepers for their wives’ participation in activities outside the home. More and more organizations are emphasizing and supporting the role of men as partners in favor of equal rights for women and are working to free men from the limits and risks of stereotypic definitions for their own gender roles (Hayward, 2001). The challenge for NFE is to carefully raise the question about automatic male power and privilege along with the ingrained assumption of female inferiority. 51 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Male learners must build upon their gender empowerment as well in order to develop what Gramsci terms a complex consciousness that includes an awareness of the historical bases of social inequality, an understanding of the mechanisms of domination by the ruling class, and insight into their own experience within the context of class experience (Weiler, 1988; Mayo, 1999). Gramsci said that all men are philosophers but that individual philosophies should be based on common sense (Weiler, 1988). Recently, other contributions to critical theory have expanded our understanding of social change from postcolonial, postmodern and post-structuralist theories. Giroux (1992) and McLaren, in particular, have illustrated the art of critical teaching as being facilitating learners to cross borders between opposing forces that structure relations of domination. It also engages students in dialogue about power differentials and the politics of difference, particularly within the system of formal education. 3) Adult Learning Theory Non-formal educators must be mindful of how, why and where adults learn and why they teach as well. Adult learning theories (andragogy) show that adults learn differently than children (Roby Kidd, 1975). Bruner’s theory of learning, constructivism, is particularly appropriate for adult populations (1966; 1986; 1990). This theory states that learning occurs 52 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. actively as the learners construct new ideas or concepts based on their accumulated body of experience and knowledge. As learners select and transform information, they are able to construct hypotheses and make decisions which rely on a cognitive structure. This structure provides meaning and organization to their learning experiences, allowing learners to extrapolate beyond the given information. Bruner (1996), a cultural psychologist, postulates that there are basically two ways by which we organize and manage our knowledge o f the world-through logical- scientific thinking, and narrative thinking. It is only in the narrative mode," Bruner points out, "that one can construct an identity and find a place in one's culture. Schools must cultivate it, nurture it, cease taking it for granted" (1996). Bruner sees narrative accounts as constructed along several universal principles, such as: set upon an unfolding series of events, with characters motivated by real beliefs, desires, and values (1996). Bruner finds that narrative meanings are always open to interpretation and can serve as lessons that contravene the established order since they confound legitimate notions or what listeners expect. Bruner writes th a t".. .education could provide richer opportunities than it does for creating the metacognitive sensitivity needed for coping with the world of narrative reality and its competing claims" (1996). 53 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Adults learn best when their experiences and real-life materials are integrated into the learning environment (Roby Kidd, 1975). Carl Rogers observed that adults have a natural propensity to learn and that the role of the adult trainer is to facilitate learning by enhancing the cognitive, emotional and physical climate, organizing learning resources and sharing feelings and thoughts with learners without dominating (1969, 1994). Knowles (1980) assert that the learner's experience must be integrated into the adult learning environment and that teachers of adults must become coaches who facilitate self-directed learning . Beyond mainstream adult learning, Paulo Freire’s ideas have informed much of the writing related to emancipatory education (Merriam and Caffarella, 1999), but the development o f this form of adult education was also influenced by the German philosopher Habermas Mezirow’s work on transformative learning, feminism, and critical theory. Emancipatory learning can only take place in adulthood, according to Mezirow, because, “ .. .it is only in late adolescence and in adulthood that a person can recognize being caught in his/her own history and reliving if’ (Mezirow, p. 11, 1981). The goal is to enable the transformation of learners by freeing them from constraints that limit their choices and personal control in order to work for political and social change (Cranton 1994; Inglis 1997). Much of adult education does not favor this approach and many adult educators support such a challenge to existing structures. 54 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Emancipatory adult learning represents one pole in the field, promoting societal change through full citizen participation and social justice (Cunningham, p. 1, 1996). The other pole in adult education facilitates adult learning within the existing social, economic, and political framework (Baptiste, 1998; Foley, 1998). Emancipatory learning principles may conflict with other prevailing adult learning principles. Andragogy, as indicated above, holds that the experiences of learners are important components of learning. Harden (1996) posits that the use of learner life experiences may constrain the development of critical consciousness because learners may resist reflection and analysis, privileging the pre-existing understanding of the world (Avis 1995). Adult learning is facilitated when the learner is involved in all aspects of the learning process, has control over its nature and direction, receives content based primarily upon confrontation with practical, social, personal or research problems, and engages in self-evaluation as the principal method of assessing progress or success. The nature and context of relationships are important features of empowerment learning as well. Jean Baker Miller find that “women stay with, build on, and develop in a context of connection with others” (p. 83, 1986). Miller’s self-in-relation theory states that women develop autonomy, assertion and creativity when functioning within relationships (1986, Jordan, et al, 1991). 55 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Although adult education classrooms may focus on empowering learners, these actions do not necessarily lead to emancipatory learning because they only teach adults how to operate successfully within existing power structures (Foley 1998; Inglis 1997). It is not unusual to hear adult educators speak of empowering learners by helping them develop self-awareness and social and political understanding (Foley 1998). Learning that is emancipatory includes not only understanding existing power structures but also how to resist and challenge these structures and their underlying ideologies (Inglis 1997). Transformative learning, for example, with its emphasis upon critical reflection and perspective transformation, is not necessarily emancipatory in nature if that transformation does not lead to some kind of action. Although empowerment can take place as a part of emancipatory learning, it does so within the context of social and political transformation (Inglis 1997). 4) Social Change Theories a) Social Cognitive Theory Social cognitive theory posits that adults are not simply reactors to external influences, but also select, organize and transform the stimuli that impinge upon them (Bandura, 1976). Bandura explains that social learning occurs when people observe and recognize their own capacity for self-direction as a necessary component change in which they develop self-regulatory 56 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. paradigms where they themselves serve as the principal agents for change . Beyond an inspiring, change-oriented mission and the use of a participatory, adult-centered instructional approach, adult non-formal educational programs need to develop curricula designed to foster progressive change that is affordable and flexible enough for women with limited means. Social cognitive theory supports the assertion that attitudinal and behavior changes among adult populations are both possible and practically achievable. Social influence, social comparison and convergence theories all posit that individual perceptions of self-efficacy and behaviors are influenced by those of one’s peers, especially in highly uncertain or ambiguous situations (Piotrow et al., 1997). Adult educational programs must integrate components of reciprocal determinism in which cognitive, behavioral and environmental determinants are considered. Self-efficacy (self-belief) refers to a person’s judgment and understanding of their own capability to perform a specific task and is an influential arbiter in human agency. Bandura recognizes humans as producers rather than simply predictors of behavior in social cognitive theory, noting that that people’s self-belief influences their behavior (1986). This key element of social cognitive theory provides a foundation for understanding the concepts of self-knowledge, self-regulation and self-reaction as well as how these concepts affect task performance in 57 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. non-formal education programs. Bandura’s self-efficacy construct refers to situation-specific confidence that learners gain from coping with high-risk situations (changing destructive behaviors) without relapsing to previous habits or behaviors. Learner perceptions of the task environment can be affected by such dimensions as self-reliance, past similar experiences, expectations or verbal persuasion (Bandura, 1991). Self-efficacy is intricately related to the concept of “agency” and empowerment. When people actively influence their behavior through self-belief, they are influencing agency. Perceived self-efficacy, therefore, refers to belief in one's agentive capabilities and that one can achieve a higher level of attainment. Strong self-efficacy is a critical antecedent to empowerment. A participatory learning environment that provides constant encouragement and learning support is an important part of personal change. As learners in a nonformal education empowerment program change their self-perception and become more self-reliant, they are able to renegotiate household and community authority. Success in personal change leads to increasing positive changes in self efficacy (Stromquist, 1993). Learners’ perception of their task environment is filtered through an activated self-regulatory system and results in more self-initiated learner interactions with the environment. The dynamic relationship between human agency and self-efficacy and empowerment becomes 58 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. clear as the learners become “actors capable of reformulating projects for the future and realizing them” (Sewell, 1998). Self-efficacy and empowerment are tightly linked to non-formal educational programs, which approach adult learning in , which is specifically directed towards the increase in human knowledge, awareness and skills related to literacy, numeracy and social situations. NFE in this context includes the social construction of new knowledge and awareness, plus specific skill development, behavioral change and attitudinal change. The personal dimensions in self-efficacy are described as a function of self-regulatory mechanisms made up of three subsystems: Self-observation (self-monitoring of behavior determinants and effects); judgment (related to personal standards and environment standards); and self-reaction (an affective component) (Bandura, 1991). The processes that govern self-aspiration cut across differing spheres of operation in both affective and motivational components. There are additional cognitive processes involved including self-monitoring, standard setting, evaluative judgment, self-appraisal, and affective self-reaction. Bandura concluded that the regulation of motivation and action relies on an anticipatory system in contrast to a more reactive, critical feedback that is predominant in traditional Thai formal schooling. Self-efficacy is expected to influence empowered behavior 59 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. because the learner’s perceived control over her/his own performance leads to a greater sense of agency. The converse - that a perceived lack of control would lead to lowered self-efficacy and therefore agency - has been demonstrated in Bandura’s work as well. An empowered agency and positive self-belief are necessary components to empowerment. The psychological and intellectual transformation achieved in self-efficacy generates change-oriented behavior. Personal transformation is based upon the understanding of how the social construction of oppression operates. This involves the construction of alternative ways of understanding the world, of ways of making individual choices, and of creating community networks to promote awareness and critical consciousness in others. Self-efficacy achieved through nonformal education evolves into positive strategies for personal and social change in order to empower women against trafficking and other exploitation. Individual and group efforts of empowered women will guide the trajectory of personal change and community activism that effect deeper changes, b) Social Practice Theory Social learning is an important precursor to adult empowerment in non-formal education. In this context, adult learn to change through the social construction of new knowledge and awareness, in addition to the development of useful skills, behavioral change and attitudinal 60 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. change among participants. Anne Firth Murray, the founder of The Global Fund, looks inward in her definition of empowerment that it: “releases the power that people already have inside them”, adding that it this happens when there is an enabling environment for learning (1998). Empowered learners change as a result of a continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral and environmental determinants (Bandura, 1976). In an evaluation of whether grantees (women’s NGOs) have empowered women, the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health found that “women see improvements to their lives.. .in terms of feelings of self-worth or control rather than physical” (p.vii, 1998). Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social practice offers an explanation of why women join vocational educational programs (1977). Social practice theory holds that individuals amass social, cultural, and symbolic capital based upon their family circumstances which continues to accrue throughout their life and their position within dynamic fields o f social forces . In this theory, women have tools and strategies to position themselves in social fields. Women already possess the ability to obtain and increase the kinds of capital needed for various positions within the social fields, such as non-formal education programs, they encounter. Bourdieu (1977) makes the point that there are environmental and personal forces that may operate negatively or positively upon a women’s ability to change her situation . Non-formal educational programs 61 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. are fields or opportunities where operating influences are positive and the effects of negative power structures are mitigated in order to facilitate the learning of new knowledge and behaviors allowing for personal transformation. The discourse on learning has evolved to include the social context of learning and is no longer confined to behavioral terms alone. Peter Jarvis notes that "learning always occurs within a social context and that the learner is also to some extent a social construct so that learning should be regarded as a social phenomenon as well as an individual one" (p. 15, (1987). Jarvis explains that learning now includes "...knowledge, skills, and attitudes required or needed in the process of social living" in its social dimension (p. 315). Women construct and are constructed by the social reality around them. As learners understand the social dimension of their lives and development their personal histories take on additional nuances. There is a distinct advantage for learners who understand their situated-ness in the social world, space and time as they may more easily contextualize their understanding o f society and their relations with others (Lave and Wenger, 1996). Lave and Wenger define an individual both as a member of socio-cultural communities as well as the world, relying on social participation as fundamental to individual relationships with other individuals, communities, the world as well as the individual’s relationship with knowledge and understanding . They posit 62 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that the situated learning theory includes "both.. .the development of knowledgeably skilled identities in practice and the reproduction and transformation of communities o f practice" (p. 15, 1996). In this way, the theory of situated learning locates the individual's personal learning within a social and a community context. The theory embodies the vibrant interchange between individuals and social groups and their effect upon each other. Situated learning theory integrates important features of social practice and social context theories to underscore the attributes of individual learners, the strategies in which they engage to build different capitals and the nature of social relationships within which learning and change occur. Emancipatory learning takes social practice further into social and individual change. It has not been embraced by adult education as a major purpose, despite the fact that it may be a type of learning that is unique to adulthood. One reason for this may lie in how the field’s knowledge base has developed. Until recently, research in adult learning has been dominated by a focus on the individual perspective (Caffarella and Merriam 1999). This perspective views learning as an internal activity that can be guided by a set of principles that can assist all learners, regardless of their background. Evidence exists that individuals can and do engage in emancipatory learning. The women in Loughlin’s study (1994), for example, came to 63 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. understand existing inequities and injustices within society through emancipatory learning, and, as a result, engaged in social action to make changes . This one views learning as contextual and takes into account both “the interactive nature of learning and the structural aspects o f learning grounded in a sociological framework” (p. 2, 1999). Only within the past decade has another perspective re-emerged because o f its emphasis on social change, it has been proposed that emancipatory learning is a collective social activity (Foley 1998; Inglis 1997). Many of the adult educators aligned with emancipatory learning are identified with this second perspective. Through a process of critical reflection and analysis, individuals act collectively to address inequalities and injustices (Foley 1998). Although both perspectives are important, more work needs to be done to link the two (Caffarella and Merriam 1999). Perhaps when that occurs, emancipatory learning will be better understood and accepted within the fields of social learning and adult education. B) Non-Formal Education For Marginalized Women Non-formal education (NFE) programs are primarily administered by national governments or NGO providers. In developing countries, NFE has traditionally comprised efforts to serve adults outside the framework of the formal school system (Coombs and Ahmed, 1974). NFE contrasts with traditional forms o f adult education that supplement some aspect of 64 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the formal school system in its affinity to critical pedagogic practices (UNESCO, 1975). A review of the literature on NFE focusing on women in developing countries reveals that programs are primarily skills based (literacy, health knowledge, reducing fertility, math skills and rural development). Despite their potential to effect personal and social change, many NFE programs fall short o f transformative learning goals in one or more areas. Non-formal education (NFE) programs designed and implemented along non-traditional lines offer an opportunity for women with little or no education to learn outside the formal school curriculum away from the subordinating and gendered discourse. A continuing problem in education is the universal reliance of the male as the norm and the point of departure, making non-male concerns irrelevant (Stromquist, 1998). NFE offers practical and transformative knowledge and skills that can remedy women’s lack of skills and self-esteem, making them more competitive in the economic and political marketplace, a) Theoretical background: The discourse of formal education tends to reproduce orthodox views of society while its practices tend to reflect the existing hierarchy and distribution of power in society (Stromquist, 1994). Knowledge is the stock in trade of education and is socially produced, like gender identity, embodying specific interests and historical circumstances (Stromquist, 1998). Torres 65 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (1990) systematizes the general rationale underlying educational practice by organizing theory into incremental and a structuralist categories . The incremental view maintains the socioeconomic system in which education has taken shape during the post World War II era. It reflects the functionalist/modernist view mentioned above. Many educational interventions for marginalized populations, particularly international projects, reflected this philosophy. By contrast, Torres (1990) finds that the structuralist perspective analyzes the process of economic, social and political development in which education is an important tool of capitalist growth (p. 4). In this view, the state is not seen as an autonomous political institution operating outside society and the economy; rather it is the place where the conflict between social classes and the production system manifest through public policies (Torres, 1990). This theory includes two contradictory perspectives, one of which questions the capitalist basis of society derived from the Marxist tradition and another that accepts this basis. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operate most often from the latter perspective. The Marxist or radical perspective envisions an alternative society based not upon capitalist foundations but upon principles from critical and feminist educational theory. Stromquist (1994) characterizes the weakness of many NFE programs in that they fail to address women’s pervasive social inequality and therefore do not participate in a transformative 66 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. educational vision. Emancipatory non-formal education for women is intellectually closer to critical pedagogical approaches than traditional adult education theory. The latter emphasize the more specific task of supplementing some aspects of the formal school system or addresses gaps in human capital production. Adult education theory and practice is sited within formal educational systems and in the case of Thailand and other developing countries, utilize instructors and materials o f the formal system (UNESCO, 1999; Stromquist, 1994, 1996). Torres (1990) describes the similarity between the educational theory of modernization and social engineering in which both see the function of education is to serve the needs and requirements of industry . Human resource development is considered a tool for economic purposes in this framework, which assists in the maintenance of the status quo. Government operated schooling implements a hidden curriculum to assist the reproduction of dominant norms. Underlying the hidden curriculum is a subordinating discourse in which an ideology of femininity is synonymous and limited to the role of wife and mother (Stromquist, 1994). There is a need for an educational agenda that shifts women away from the role of passive recipients of state generated assistance, an approach which has been historically ineffective in achieving social and gender transformation (Stromquist, 1994). Non-formal education has the potential to address many of the micro level causes of the vulnerability of marginalized women because much o f an 67 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. individual’s gender identity is derived from social interaction, particularly in educational settings. The macro level forces that cause trafficking and other forms of exploitation of women are tightly linked to the larger context of the subordination of women and are harder to address within local level programs. Stromquist (1997) outlines important prerequisites that NFE teachers or facilitators in emancipatory education. These are listed in Table 2-2 below. Table 2-2. Emancipatory Teacher Guidelines: Ideological and cultural beliefs that define women as inferior to men and uniquely suited to taking care of home and family______________________ Women’s vulnerability to physical and sexual violence__________________ Women’s inferior role in income and jobs in the formal economy__________ Women's relative political invisibility_________________________________ Source: Stromquist, 1997 Women participants in emancipatory NFE must learn about the social and economic structures that subordinate them. NFE curriculum must convey knowledge concerning the norms, values and beliefs that construct reality to participants as a precursor to understanding a more abstract worldview o f subordination (Beneria & Roldan, 1987). It is also important that such education provide a vision of the future that reclaims women’s active and decisive roles in historical social conflicts as well as foster self-esteem and assertiveness. b) Government NFE Programs: Government-operated educational programs tend to follow incremental theoretical approaches and traditional formal educational patterns (Torres, 1990). The state in this model is 68 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. assumed to represent the interests of all individuals or, at minimum, is a neutral party or mediator of struggles between groups and social classes. Technical concerns of education take priority and any educational reforms should contribute to the structural differentiation of society through skill improvement (Torres, 1990). With their access to national budgets, government educational interventions tend to be relatively more stable and well financed. The large scale of national educational planning tends to reflect pro-capitalist development policy that is linked to the training of human capital or structural adjustment. Under incrementalism, education will reduce inequality only if an increase in the population’s level of education results in an increase in remuneration of the labor force. Poor adults who are already working have little time and few resources to achieve the type of education that would substantially change their remuneration or status and would therefore remain marginalized. Governments, especially in less developed countries, need to offer education as a potentially powerful institutional remedy for underdevelopment (Bock & Papagiannis, 1983). “Citizens see education as a way to ‘access modernizing economic and political sectors’ and therefore a higher quality of life” (p. 168). However, formal education for adults is not as popular because of fast rising costs and rising population growth rates. Also, there has been too much discrepancy between the planned demand for labor and actual school production. All of the above reasons 69 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. are part of the renewed appeal of NFE, particularly because it is believed to be cost-effective and to provide needed education. The government mission statements for formal and non-formal education differ in terms of content and approach. In practice, however, both educational sectors promote national development goals and citizenship ideals. Maguire (1984) terms this an ’’equilibrium” world view, one that supposes that people in society share the same basic values, and that society is presumed to operate in everyone’s best interest. Formal and NFE sectors maintain dominant gender and class ideologies through educational material, images and tracking students into gender appropriate vocational study. In Thailand, the practice of importing many teachers from primary and secondary schools, particularly in the DNFE general education program, results in teaching approaches more suited to children than adults. Government generated NFE curriculum acknowledges the maturity of the learner with added material that is problem based, concerning AIDS awareness and prevention and drug abuse prevention (DNFE, 2000). c) NFE Programs of NGOs: NGOs bridge the gap that separates policy and implementation in development, particularly development of women (Bravo and Monkman, 2000. NGOs centered on women have been instrumental in reframing development efforts around the actual conditions they experience. 70 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mainstream NGOs have provided a needed alternative to state initiated programs, but have not usually succeeded in addressing women’s real needs. For this reason, this discussion of NGOs will focus on women-centered organizations as those most likely to serve women. NGOs in general include more participatory and community based activities than government projects, focus more on local institution-building, are freer of bureaucratic and historical constraints that get in the way of innovative efforts and are closer to the poor and rural clients who need advocates. Bravo and Monkman (2000) describe two broad orientations of NGOs depending on their assumptions regarding gender inequality. One orientation focuses on the poverty of women and their survival needs. Programs with this orientation do not look at the underlying causes of women’s poverty and do not question the power relations between men and women, operating survival programs. The second orientation explicitly seeks to change the position o f women, placing equity, justice and human rights as the foundations of development. NGOs with the latter orientation operate from a feminist perspective, and in some regions share characteristics of liberation theology, popular education or Marxist theory. NGOs develop educational projects along deep or broad lines, some focusing on one specific skill or knowledge area while others serve a broad range o f needs. The range of needs 71 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. served by NGOs are capacity-building in education, reproductive health, human rights, agricultural technology, entrepreneurial businesses, self-esteem, women’s identity, etc. In addition to classes and projects, NGOs provide substantive support such as health clinics, public opinion and advocacy, research and dissemination of information. NGOs serve as an important source of new messages to and about women, influencing a range of actors from national policy makers to local community leaders, d) International NGO NFE Programs: A variety of international agencies, as well as multilateral and bilateral efforts, offer a variety of anti-trafficking education programs or policy efforts. These include the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Sub-Region, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNESCO, UNIFEM, UNAIDS and others. Additional working group members include the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), and such international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as the Child Rights-Asianet, Fund Against Child Exploitation (FACE), the Save The Children Alliance, World Vision, the Mekong Regional Law Center and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). 72 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GFW Partnership Award is made to provide women's organizations with the opportunity to re-grant funds to smaller emerging groups in their own countries or regions. Kongadzem (Cameroon) works to raise women's awareness of AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy. The group completed its re-granting activities in 1998 and conducted an evaluation of the grants in 1999. The members of Kongadzem were able, therefore, to re-grant these funds as they saw fit. The group had established its own grant-making criteria and process, created an awards committee, made site visits, and awarded twenty-three grants ranging from $150 to $450. In many cases, these relatively small sums corresponded exactly to the amounts requested, indicating that NGO grants enabled awardees to gain experience with their projects in the way they planned. Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe in Kigali, Rwanda is an NGO coalition of some 30 women's groups and associations from throughout Rwanda. The Peace Village - Nelson Mandela built after the genocide and presently housing more than 250 families- offers female heads of households, some o f whom are girl orphaned during the genocide, discussion forums and ongoing support as they learn to manage on their own. Very specific empowerment needs for Rwanda were identified: having more advisors familiar with the situation on the ground; helping groups 73 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. cover basic costs of telephone, fax, and local travel; lending assistance in capacity-building and technical training; and encouraging women's groups to pool resources and form networks, e) NFE Programs in Thailand: There are a variety of providers of non-formal education in Thailand, most importantly, the Thai Ministry of Education Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Thai government NFE program (DNFE) operates in the functionalist/modernist paradigm and is administered in a similar way to the formal school system (Papagiannis, Klees, and Bickel, 1982). In this context, NFE is a tool for human capital development, building the skills and traits needed by a modernizing society (Bock & Papagiannis, 1983). This viewpoint has been the ideological foundation for national development in the majority of developing countries as well as international development agencies. Adult educational expansion culminated in 1979 in the establishment of a national Department o f Non-formal Education (DNFE) within the Ministry of Education (DNFE, 1999). In that year Thai adults aged 20 years or older averaged 32 percent literacy (DNFE, 1999). Thailand recently reported nearly 100 percent primary school enrollment nationwide and over 95 percent literacy attainment (ACCU, 2001). The DNFE has made a serious effort to enfranchise marginalized populations in rural areas, particularly after the 1990 Education for All Conference 74 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in Jomtien, Thailand (ACCU, 2001). DNFE goals have expanded to include traditionally marginalized populations such as poor women, prison inmates, the disabled, and hill-tribes (DNFE, 2000). Outside of the USAID sponsored Hill Areas Education Project (HAE) community based participatory learning project for hill tribe members, the Thai government approaches to formal and non-formal education resemble each other closely in some ways. In the past, the Thai government programs have tended to operate from pre-existing program designs and curricula utilizing teachers who are already trained from a traditional pedagogical approach. Thus, their efforts have been focused on delivering NFE in the field at an appropriate field site, i.e. a village with the characteristics/needs suitable for such pre-packaged programs. In the case of the “khit-ben” (good thinking) program that was implemented extensively in the 1970s and 1980s in rural Thailand, it seems that preliminary assessments were not done adequately. The program reflected formal education practices where the teacher was the locus of authority and learners were expected to be passive recipients. A Thai DNFE program report states that a strength o f the NFE system is that teachers and facilities come from the formal educational system (1992). Many NFE teachers are required to volunteer to lead NFE but it is "not supposed to be of the same standard as the in-school education system" (p. 23, 1992). 75 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This viewpoint directly contradicts the statements of other Thai officials that NFE content should be directly linked with the formal school content. Duongsaa (1986), echoing adult learning theory, points out that adult participants in the program needed to be active participants at all stages, from need and program identification through curriculum development to evaluation. Gramsci and Freire observe that adult education is destined to transform existing dominating power relations in society and requires a strong commitment on the part o f organizers and educators alike (Mayo, 1996). f) NGOs in Thailand: NGOs in Thailand are a major provider of NFE and have tended to take the lead in fighting a variety o f social ills, from AIDs prevention and treatment, to housing and educating street children (PDA, 2001; Buddha Dharma Center, 2001). NGOs are supported by their headquarters if they are a branch of an international organizations such as CARE, World Vision or Save The Children or amass funding piecemeal through fundraisers, international and local donors, and sales of crafts or products. Many arise as a result o f community concerns and needs and find support through the local Buddhist temple or Christian organizations. The flight of low-income adults from rural villages in Thailand has occasioned much cause for concern, generating a new wave of NGO programs and organizations. In Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, 76 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. NGOs offering NFE programs for at-risk women tend to cluster under the type that receive international or national government funding (Empower Foundation, Hill Areas Development Foundation, Buddha Dharma Center, etc.). They have benefited to some extent from the high visibility given to trafficking by the United Nations and U.S. Agency for International Development anti-trafficking coalition, g) NGO-Govemment Collaboration: Eritrea is an example of a successful working relationship between the national government and mass membership organizations (Global Fund, 1999). While the Eritrean government imposes sevens restrictions on development projects run by outside aid organizations, they strongly support home-grown solutions such as the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS), which has an active gender equality focus (Global Fund, 1999). NUEYS organizes development aid forums and educates young women and girls by keeping them in school at least through the primary grades and postponing the age of marriage. NUEYs works through its all-female membership composed of diverse women, including war veterans, who command a great deal of respect. Its primary programs supplement limited government education by focusing on issues affecting youth: strengthening links between better-educated urban women and their rural counterparts; raising awareness of gender issues; conducting sex 77 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. education classes; teaching family planning; providing information on HIV/AIDS, and working to change traditional practices that are harmful to women. Women-run NGOs are concerned with attracting and retaining illiterate women in non-formal education programs. These women have often been acculturated to subordinate their interests after their family. Thai women, for example, have learned their place within the hierarchical division of labor as reflected in the vertical authority lines between parents to children and teachers and students. It is only a short mental leap to the paradigm of exploiter and exploited. (MacDonald, 1988). Table 2-3 lists NFE achievements by NGOs: Table 2-3. NGO Collective NFE achievements Forming and leading non-governmental organizations_______________________________ Lobbying for policy changes at the national level___________________________________ Using their skills as lawyers to push for just laws that protect women from domestic violence and to ensure that rape used by soldiers in conflict is defined and punished as a war crime Establishing schools and working as teachers______________________________________ Offering health services in rural clinics___________________________________________ Responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis with innovative programs that educate men and women to change sexual behavior and practices__________________________________________ Running for political office to serve as legislators and public officials___________________ Women-led NGOs are making serious inroads in several important ways. The Global Fund for Women (GFW) (1999) did an assessment of women-led NGOs and found significant NGO contributions to collective empowerment. 78 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. h) NFE Shortcomings: Strom quist (1994) characterizes the w eakness o f m any N F E program s as the lack o f official recognition o f w om en’s pervasive social inequality that m ust underpin a truly transform ative educational vision, sim ilar to Thailand’s N FE program s in the past. M ies (1993) calls for a fundam ental shift in perspective from the dom inant vertical perspective where ’’the view from the top” m ust be replaced w ith input from below to ensure that research serves the interests o f dom inated, exploited groups instead. Stromquist (2000) mentions UNESCO’s limited funding for adult education despite the agency mandate for education. However, NFE and other forms of adult education are gathering strong support among nongovernmental forces which has resulted in community level NFE expansion. Program shortcomings may occur in needs assessment, stakeholder inclusion, program design, execution and/or evaluation design. Targeted women may not be included in the design of program and the selection of learning sites. If participants are not included in curriculum design, it may reflect economic development priorities, providing more skill training than knowledge production. Developing country budget pressures may eliminate or reduce program follow-up, particularly in short-term programs. Reduced follow-up leads to lack of reinforcement for participants seeking to hold on to or implement new knowledge or behaviors. 79 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When NFE programs are organized and designed centrally, insufficient attention is generally given to specific community and cultural characteristics (Barua, 1999; Fuentes 1998; Smith 1997; Dejene, 1980). Non-formal education is part of a social process that can either reinforce women’s subordinate position, or challenge and transform it (Walters, 2000). Walters notes that cultural, social, political and economic contexts influence the structure and character of educational programs. At the same time, there exist universal themes of colonialism and subordination that transcend national boundaries and challenge feminist educators seeking to challenge women’s subordination. In developing countries, education often masks the reproduction of colonial inequalities. The association of education in some developing countries with a former colonial power fosters an educational smokescreen hiding structural violence (Stromquist and Monkman, 2000). This violence occurs through the reproduction of the colonizing society and accompanying subsystems projected into the conquered society through the “manipulation of the mind space of its inhabitants” (p. 16, 2000). Women in some non-Westem societies experience an additional violation in which their traditional cultural status diminishes considerably from a “pre-colonial role as a sacred mediator between the transcendent and humankind to a Westernized role of social and cultural reproduction” (p. 16, 2000). 80 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Women’s subordination is an overarching theme that transcends national boundaries. Marginalized women’s educational needs are not sufficiently met in any form within patriarchal societies because governments do not tend to fund non-formal education and since women’s economic role is not usually acknowledged, non-formal education is not as visible as formal education (Walters, 2000). Formal education that gives certification considered useful in the formal economic sector and that does not challenge the social status quo tends to be more highly valued. Adult education has yet to benefit from focused state policy support or funding (Stromquist & Monkman, 2000). A complete picture of NFE programs for the world, or even for any one region, is impossible due to the diversity of programs offered by state and international agencies as well as NGOs. A review o f the literature on NFE with women participants in developing countries reveals that they are primarily skill based (literacy, health knowledge, reducing fertility, math skills and rural development). Even when communication skills, awareness and empowerment are overtly stressed in the program, programs fall short in one or more of several areas. Since adult education tends to be located near marginalized populations and women tend to be restricted in their movements, non-formal education is a particularly useful vehicle to address women’s learning needs. Grassroots efforts have been much more effective in 81 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. supporting the educational needs of poor and marginalized adults than government programs. Bhola (1998) issued a challenge to adult educators to create an important space for human solidarity through re-inventing globalization. This challenge is echoed by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development’s call for massive adult education, especially women’s education (Stromquist, 2000). The 1997 Fifth International Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg featured a call from both government and civil society representatives for human rights, female empowerment and democracy (Bhola, 1998). Thai government-sponsored nonformal education programs rarely differentiate between the needs of men and women or between adults of different generations. In Chiang Mai, for instance, a large program at Sri Don Chai Temple near the night bazaar utilizes formal schoolteachers and curriculum, mixing students of both sexes and varied ages together. The Thai DNFE policy language expressed in the Education Act of 1999 explicitly uses the term ’’empowerment”. Officials have also publicly stated their plans to address poor women as part of a newly expanded program focus. State led non-formal education limit programmatic offerings— programs focus on delivering knowledge and skills in the health, family planning and nutrition areas— reflecting dominant perspectives on the role of women. Walters (2000) finds that the human capital 82 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. paradigm is dominant in adult education in many other parts of the world, raising concerns that the interests of large private sector corporations drive planning. Governments that are recipient of international donor aid have considerable contact with international development agencies and much less interaction with other members of civil society. Recipient countries develop permeable borders with aid agencies enhancing shared paradigms and educational problem definitions (Stromquist, 1994). In less developed countries, a sizeable minority of the population works in the informal sector and lives in poverty. The human capital paradigm in education means that adults working in the informal sector will not benefit from non-formal education curriculum and likely not qualify to enter such programs. The state, the largest provider of non-formal education programs, will only impose gender policy reforms that do not threaten the existing development and social framework (Stromquist, 1995). In international terms, non-formal education for women also serves economic and human capital development goals rather than transformative egalitarian ends (Stromquist, 1995). The World Bank is the leading lender in educational development and a leading proponent of capitalist driven economic development. Its educational model is intended to make women more productive and efficient and does not question underlying social and cultural systems subordinating women. International development agencies collaborate with governments in 83 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. developing countries on educational projects that are often predicated upon the assumption that women are passive not active actors in the economy. International agencies do not see the need for women’s emancipation or liberation or for combating ideological forces that sustain women’s subordination (Stromquist, 1994). In this scenario, women receive educational solutions from governments and international aid agencies that are designed to make them more efficient reproducers and producers. Development policies, particularly for rural and indigenous women, are geared towards improving children’s health or women’s skills in sewing, food preparation and handicrafts. Such efforts support the incrementalist vision of education under a benign state benefiting all citizens who choose to participate. Such aid efforts pursue the domestication of women through the provision of mother-household manager courses in nutrition, health, water and sanitation and family planning in addition to income generation based on extension of women’s work. Community activists have been more successful through community watch education programs engendering changes in social attitudes (Bruce, 1996). This is often a partnership between NGOs and governmental organizations. Prevention and rehabilitation education programs do not always address the root cause of the problem, which in some cases is the family 84 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Lim, 1998). Programs that educate formerly prostituted or trafficked women have had mixed results. Successful programs offer training in alternative job skills combined with participant choices in what they study and decide to do. Educational programs that focus on domestic or basic vocational skills tend to be less effective because realistic economic choices are not given. National surveys o f sex workers found that they had low self-esteem and low ideas of self-worth (Caouette & Saito, 1999). The first few months of such educational programs were critical because participants were cut off from their income source and were unable to see themselves as worthwhile human beings with a future. Such programs are also frequently stigmatized. Finally, those programs that provide monitoring, follow-up and aftercare for program graduates are critical for preventing the return o f the participants to their former occupations. Decentralized, community-level support programs have been found to assist their re-socialization and re-integration into society. However, follow up and tracking tend to be the weakest part of such NFE programs. Other non-formal education suppliers base their programs upon different principles and priorities. Feminists in modem society challenge the masculine structures of the state and the market driven functions. Feminists operating NGOs and other organizations in civil society challenge modem society to not only recognize the existence of a patriarchal order but to act 85 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. against this order to work for a society of equal citizenship (Walters, 2000). NGO managed adult education programs for women are freer of the bureaucratic impetus for reproduction and have the opportunity to use traditional topics such as health and family planning as .fundamental entry points for access to contested and emancipatory gender knowledge” (Stromquist, p. 201, 1997). NFE programs that target the women most in need tend to come primarily from the NGO sector. The small capacity of social programs intended to address the most vulnerable women is mostly due to the limited government funds set aside for such programs. Health programs, such as those that address HIV/AIDS, tend to be well represented. However, government-sponsored social welfare programs in the Philippines and Thailand do not address the economic incentives that encourage parents to sell or persuade their daughters to go into prostitution. Stromquist describes an alternative approach to non-formal education for women’s development as one that values women’s traditional knowledge, builds on it to examine the roots of such knowledge, and links this to wider concerns for independent citizens (1997). The connection between traditional and new knowledge takes the situated-ness of the adult learner’s experiences within the community and social context (Jarvis, 1987; Lave and Wenger, 1996). In this scenario, adult women have the opportunity to build upon existing social practice (Bourdieu, 86 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1977) and strategize to acquire different capitals in non-formal education programs designed to assist learners emerge from oppressive circumstances. Since illiterate people rely on oral communication, word of mouth as an advertising vehicle can work for or against non-formal education or empowerment. If women feel welcome and productive in such programs, they are likely to encourage others to join. The reverse is also true; an uncomfortable, irrelevant curriculum or materials can work against student retention. In addition, if the curriculum or materials have little to do with the needs or daily lives of participants, there will be little motivation to stay. C) Factors that promote vulnerability of women in Thailand There are several factors that promote the vulnerability of women, particularly women from rural areas with little education. The inter-relationships between social, cultural, political, and economic factors are depicted in Figure 1 below. Factors are organized into pull and push categories and the mechanisms which operate at the local level are highlighted. These factors are discussed according to three areas: social/ cultural, political, and economic, immediately following the figure. 87 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 2-1. Factors increasing women’s vulnerability to trafficking ____________ Pull factors________________________________ Push Factors________ Patriarchal values norms, subordinating women, condoning coercion, violence Increasing western media influences objectification of women and consumerism Proliferation of trafficking networks via porous international borders, technology to counterfeit passports, visas Government labor export policies, tourism promotion, corrupt officials alanced Local Push Local Pull factors: Factors: Social, Increasing rural religious, poverty, lack of cultural rural schools, norms school drop out, obligating lack of literacy, females to Low self-esteem provide for through multiple parents, messages, low families, social capital, inferiority to experience of males, few abuse, violence, job choices. unstable family, family demand for consumer items development s favoring: western ^/sty le capitalism, workplace ^discrimination,rural dislocation, :ntal degradation, :xport development, f rural industry and jobs le self-esteem ent upon male oriented ination, need for al, socialization to please s avenues for survival narrowed to domestic or il migration 1) Social and Cultural Factors: Women who are marginalized come primarily from low-income backgrounds and are, therefore, socialized to accept authority, belief systems and expectations that are constraining but at the same time 'naturalized' and therefore rarely contested (Stromquist, 1993). Thailand shares a 88 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. capitalist trajectory o f development that reinforces patriarchal divisions of labor and resource allocation. The dominant religion in Thailand, Theravada Buddhism, subordinates women to men, considering them unfit for monkhood. Social and cultural expectations place extraordinary pressure on females to provide for their parents and families while restricting their access to opportunities to develop social and cultural capital. The forces of globalization have brought mass consumerism in its wake, which, combined with developmental imbalances impacted negativelyon traditional family structures and values. Klausner found that “a better life is defined by the (Thai) villager in worldly terms which have little relevance to the Buddhist ideal o f extinction of desire and craving” (1993). He emphasizes that for majority of rural Thais the better life translates into aspiring to greater wealth, power, prestige, health, and community well being. King and Hill (1993) explain that countries with greater equity between the sexes produce female education patterns that are linked both with lower levels of maternal fertility and infant mortality as well as higher levels of life expectancy and GDP per capita (Sutton, 2000). Sutton also notes that the linkage between social benefits deriving from education appears predicated upon equity at all levels of education. This means that both girls and their families must see that there are rewards for girls who persist into higher education. 89 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Poverty and education operate within a gendered system to reinforce and reproduce women's subordination. Education plays a critical role in transforming the elfects of patriarchal culture upon women’s participation in the economic and political systems of countries. In Latin America, women’s political and social participation provided evidence o f ‘disappeared’ family members during a time o f great political turmoil temporarily providing them with significant political visibility (Schmukler & Valenzuela, 1998). However, in order for women to move beyond temporary political visibility, it is necessary to revisit the way that gender roles are constructed and how these influence educational, social and economic participation. Conventional roles for men and women are learned through knowledge and practices taught at school: who talks, who listens, who is rewarded, all are reinforced by remarkably consistent textbook messages across countries (Stromquist, 1998). Sixty percent of the 100 million children who do not attend primary schools are girls. This indicates that a literacy differential will continue along with the gender divide (Sutton, 2000). Traditional gender roles for men and women also predict differential educational access and completion due to differing social and cultural assumptions regarding the value of and need for education across genders. Girls are consistently more likely than boys to drop out in the primary grades in the poorest countries and more likely to be illiterate (UNESCO, 2001). UNESCO enrollment data 90 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. showed larger gaps between primary and secondary school enrollment for females than males, indicating higher female drop out rate . In the developing countries enrollment category, 47 percent of girls made it from primary to secondary school, compared with almost 51 percent of boys. In the least developed countries, only 21 percent of girls starting primary school made it to secondary school. In addition to fewer girls than boys attending primary school, more girls than boys drop out from primary school (Sutton, 2000). Girls in developing countries often grow up illiterate, to become mothers with less knowledge, motivation or economic resources available for their childrens’ education. Filmer (2000) found that the education level of adult females had a significant impact upon the enrollment of children even after controlling for wealth in many countries. Sutton describes the report of Herz et al (1991) on seven studies that found significant associations between levels of parent education and educational attainment of children in eight countries. They found that the mother’s education was either as important as or more important than the fathers’ in influencing children’s educational outcomes. Social indicators play a large part in educational outcomes, particularly for gender and wealth. The World Bank published a study on the linkages between gender and wealth indicating that the educational gap between men and women in developing countries has been exacerbated in recent years (Filmer, 2000). In India, there is currently a 2.5 percentage point difference 91 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. between male and female enrollment in the wealthiest households and a 34 percentage point difference in the poorest households (Filmer, 2000). This pay gap reinforces educational investment preferences by parents for boys rather than for girls. Poverty and education function to promote and reproduce women's subordination. Girls and women from poor backgrounds - particularly rural and agricultural ones in developing countries - are most likely to never attend or to drop out of primary school (Sutton, 2000; Stromquist, 1997; Davison & Kanyuka, 1992; Filmer, 2000). This continues despite evidence that countries that prioritize girls' and womens' education benefit economically. Sutton describes the consequences of social sorting by gender and class that starts at the earliest levels of education when young girls begin to understand the socially sanctioned options limiting their educational choices (2000). Schools display the traditional sexual division o f labor, often with men administering schools and women doing the teaching (Stromquist, 1994). Textbook images and stories overwhelmingly portray males with authority and leadership (Anderson, 1993) constructing representations of what is appropriate for men and women (Stromquist, 1998). Schools more often reproduce social norms instead of transforming gender ideologies. Poverty accelerates female illiteracy as a key factor in low educational retention rates for females (Stromquist, 1995). In poor agricultural areas, hunger, limited school places and distance o f school from home also 92 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. limit women’s access and retention in school due to preference for boys education and fears for the chastity of females (Sutton, 2000). In the poorest areas of Thailand, between 60-90% of young women never finish primary school (UNDP, 1999). Women with less education accrue less social and cultural capital and possess fewer vocational choices. Culture is another factor impacting girls’ vulnerability, leading to disparate educational gains between girls and boys (Fagerlund & Saha, 1997). The following table is from a SEAMEO study of rural Thai parent’s decisions about schooling children. Table 2-4. School attendance by sex of secondary school: according to socioeconomic variables and parents' expectations of future help. Lower-.econdury I 'pper som nd.iry Quality o f house: Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Worst quality 46.7 41.8 43.9 33.6 27.1 30.5 Medium quality 50.2 45.4 52.6 40.9 29.9 38.9 Highest quality 66.1 59.6 64.3 55.1 45.4 52.1 Ownership o f household items: [Lowest quintile 50.1 45.7 48.6 31.3 28.5 30.6 [Middle quintile 52.9 48.9 50.8 37.9 34.8 36.3 Highest quintile 65.1 60.8 64.8 57.2 51.2 56.3 Value o f house if built today: Lowest quintile 46.9 43.6 46.7 32.4 26.1 30.4 Middle quintile 56.2 50.9 54.4 39.3 34.9 37.4 Highest quintile 69.3 62.8 66.9 58.7 50.3 56.0 Education o f mother: i l l 1 I [No formal schooling 26.8 24.8 25.3 18.9 18.4 17.7 1 to 3 years 36.4 32.7 34.9 27.4 25.2 26.4 4 years 57.7 52.5 56.2 42.4 36.5 40.3 [5 or 6 years 58.7 49.6 53.7 45.9 40.4 43.6 7 to 9 years 72.5 70.8 74.6 59.3 54.2 61.9 10 or more years 88.6 79.6 84.1 86.0 74.0 80.3 93 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table 2-4 continued: Education o f father: 1 j [ | 1 1 INo formal schooling j 26.9 j 23.9 26.6 | 18.0 I 7.8 i 12.7 4 years 55.8 1 50.2 53.9 40.6 135.1 38.4 5 or 6 years 57.1 | 48.9 56.3 48.6 38.9 45.3 7 to 9 years 64.6 1 j 63.0 | 63.5 51.9 47.0 51.4 10 or more years 76.6 1 i 74.4 | 77.4 72.3 165.3 70.5 Financial help: i 1 1 Not expected 46.7 i 41.8 j 43.9 47.8 141.1 45.9 Expected 54.6 55.2 f 55.9 39.3 134.8 37.9 Help with parents' own work: |Not expected | 54.6 r 55.2 55.9 42.3 37.0 r ~ 40.5 Expected j 46.7 | 41.8 43.9 44.1 38.5 f 42.9 Help with housework: 1 i 1 I | Not expected [ 54.6 1 55.2 55.9 43.9 36.5 I 42.7 . . . . . . . . . . Expected [ 46.7 f 41.8 43.9 42.7 38.2 [ 41.0 Help when in ill health: [ ! | Not expected j 54.6 1 55.2 55.9 48.1 [42.8 [ 46.7 Expected [ 46.7 I 41.8 43.9 38.8 32.9 f 36.9 Total percent j 57.1 | 52.2 56.0 43.0 37.6 1 41.5 Sample N J 1,389 j 1,373 1,740 1,389 1,373 [ 1,740 The table indicates that a smaller percentage of girls are sent to lower secondary school by parents than boys at nearly every level of socioeconomic status. This discrepancy between girls and boys holds true for upper secondary school attendance as well and is a pattern throughout the study. This relationship holds across levels of education o f both parents, and relative wealth as indicated by socioeconomic indicators such as housing quality, and overall value, as well as the value of items owned by household members. In several categories, differences by sex are more pronounced among the higher socioeconomic groups than among the 94 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. lower. The study incorporated focus group findings which reflect Pramualratana's (1992) discussion of gender differences in favor of males in socialization. He cites Rabibhadana who argues that sons in Thai society are given quite a bit more freedom from their teenage years as opposed to the increased responsibility given to their sisters (1984). Girls’ behavior is circumscribed from an early age unlike the freedom of young boys to go about in gangs or hang around. Pramualratana goes on to explain why daughters are not given more freedom as teenagers is that parents are afraid that they will become sexually active willingly or unwillingly (p. 50, 1992). Gossip of such a possibility alone will affect community perceptions of the parents' moral standing. Parents are held accountable and criticized for their daughters' behavior if they run loose. Customs in many developing countries cause women and all of her belongings to become possessions of the husband’s family. In these families, investment in females is seen as a loss for the bride’s family and a gain for the husband’s family. Thus, there are pressures to make greater investments in education and training o f males in order for such investments to remain in the family and to attract a better dowered bride (Sutton, 2000). Theravada Buddhism considers females to be lower status than males while expecting women to be primary caretakers of their parents and families (Bales, 1999; Skrobanek, 1977). 95 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Davison and Kanyuka (1992) describe how socio-cultural factors contributing to attitudes toward educating females are grounded as much in the school as in the home or community. As individuals, Thais frequently have difficulty in expressing themselves and in being assertive. Thais describe this characteristic with the word krengchai, which means to defer to those of higher status or in higher authority. Like many other Southeast Asians, Thais’ respect for authority in general and for teachers and other educators, in particular, may inhibit them from voicing their views, as well as from discussing any problems they may be encountering” (Bempechat and Moroi, 1990). This is particularly true of females. Among Thai adults, open conflict or contradiction is virtually unthinkable because social harmony must be preserved at all costs (Klausner, 1993). Women are under powerful social constraints to appear quiet and subservient, as violence is never far away. The avoidance of confrontation is a pervasive behavior influencing relations with neighbors and other members of the community. Thais take extraordinary measures to diffuse anger early in a discussion (George, 1987). Avoidance of overt acts that express anger, displeasure, criticism and the like is one o f the most prevalent patterns of social behavior in Thai society. The jai yen (cool heart) is the ideal (Klausner, 1993). Thai women, especially in rural areas, are expected to accept different sexual 96 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. standards for men, including sharing their husband’s income and attentions with a second wife and family. Despite the taboo on open conflict in interpersonal relations, Thailand has a great deal of conflict with its northern neighbor Burma as well as hostile relationships between its police, military and hill tribe people. Many miles of Thailand’s border, particularly in the north, allow military, political and economic refugees to come across. Hill tribes along the border move voluntarily or involuntarily. As a result of these movements and displacements of people, families are fragmented and re-assembled in new ways. Traditional Thai family authority structure is tight-webbed and patriarchal. Children must obey parental authority and all adults are due respect. In return, families and elders look out for the well being of the child. When these patterns of living are disrupted, isolated individuals not only struggle to survive, they also struggle to replace their social identity and missing relationships. This is a particularly vulnerable moment in the lives of displaced or unstable women. Traffickers are often aware of this and fill the social and cultural gap represented by the loss of family members and relationship structures. Poverty is blamed for prostitution and for much of sex trafficking (Lim, 1998). However, if this view were accurate, the reduction in poverty that accompanied the swift economic rise of 97 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand would have consequently recorded a decline in the sex sector. This has not happened in large part due to the absence of social safety nets and the continuing inequality of income and status of women. Adult women in most developing countries who are fortunate enough to receive supplemental training learn such mother-household manager courses as nutrition, health, water and sanitation and family planning. All these educational programs have in common the targeting of women who are displaced through various processes from the protective custody of private patriarchy (Stromquist, 1995). One of the most pernicious consequences of modem patriarchal capitalism is that the state monopoly of education, instead o f working to transform the social relations of gender, merely serves as a tool to legitimate the existing hierarchy (Stromquist, 2000). Patriarchy interacts with class and gender to give males preference over females for household expenditures for opportunity cost decisions. When poor households must limit expenditures, males are given preference for available funds and females are relegated to domestic roles that seem to require little education. At the same time, women have little power over the conditions of their lives. Educational decision makers often overlook this reality, even though women's use and management of local environmental resources is fundamental to household and community well-being. Poverty, patriarchal culture and religious norms resulting 98 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in consumerism, imbalanced development and a lack of education are keys that explain the increasing supply of women into migration for work, consequently rendering them vulnerable to traffickers. 2) Economic Factors: Asia is a study in economic contrasts. On one hand, women and girls with little or no education provide lucrative returns to countries from the trafficking and slave trade, netting an estimated $3 to $33 billion a year for Indonesia and Thailand respectively. On the other hand, the rapid development of industrializing economies in Asia along with the increasing tendency to cluster in regional markets has created an unparalleled demand for educated workers, including women (Stromquist and Monkman, 2000). Women are most strongly affected by economic, environmental and social shifts. One of the most positive things about globalization is the increased number of women in the labor market. Increased movement by women into the labor market has been eased by the idea that women’s integration is necessary for economic development to succeed. Stromquist and Monkman explain that the form of women’s incorporation into the labor market has not, however, been as advantageous as predicted (2000). In Japan, for example, the dual nature of the occupational lifecycle has been reinforced by tax codes that reward women for contributing relatively less to family income than men. In 99 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thailand and other developing countries, urban migration has made family fragmentation necessary for survival. Economic restructuring in Asia has caused the labor force participation rates of women to increase dramatically, with accompanying advantages and disadvantages. In Singapore, women have been pressured not only meet increased labor demand, but also to have more babies (Summerfield and Aslanbeigui, 1998). Some governmental non-formal education programs have inadvertently contributed to the spread of prostitution and trafficking by encouraging the exportation o f labor. The Philippines, for example, set up training and orientation programs to prepare young women to go into the entertainment industry in Asia and Europe, an immigration category commonly used to disguise sex workers (Lim, 1998). Both the Philippine and the Thai governments have permitted the practice of mail order brides who are used by traffickers for sex work upon arrival in a strange country. The strict austerity measures imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have created crushing schedules of debt repayments that have contributed to sharp declines in living standards that most severely impact women and children(World Bank, 2001). National macroeconomic policies that emphasize exports and industrialization along with urban development have added to the relative neglect of rural areas where many trafficked women 100 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. originate. Poverty and illiteracy work in concert to socially construct females as subordinate objects, perpetuating violence against women in various forms (Stromquist, 1998, p.60,). The gendered socioeconomic development of the state and world promotes the objectification of women, resulting in the rapidly growing industry of voluntary and involuntary prostitution, debt bondage and other forms of exploitation (Barry, 1997; Mohanty, 2003). As poverty persists and, in many parts of the world, deepens, women's income from such activities becomes critical to family survival—reinforcing the importance of the environment in women's lives (and increasing the dangers posed by degraded environments). Governments began awareness-raising and orientation programs to protect female citizens emigrating for work, but the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and ineffective enforcement fails to protect women from traffickers, even if they have legal domestic service contracts. The need for stability of foreign exchange earnings, generated to a large extent through labor export has made sending countries more responsive to international pressure and human rights sanctions. In the growing number of female-headed households, women’s work is essential, particularly for children’s welfare; women already head almost a quarter of rural households in the world's poorest countries.Women's income can simultaneously create the conditions for 101 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. expanded opportunities, choices and autonomy (UNFPA, 2001)— if they have equal access to the tools of social and cultural capital which provide equitable vocational and domestic arrangements. Degraded environments mean that women must spend more time and effort to find fuel or produce food, but their other responsibilities, for meeting household needs and ensuring family health, do not diminish. Gendered divisions of labor have so far resisted real change. In developing countries, poor families usually do not have enough for food and fuel (Davison & Kanyuka, 1992). Girls make a significant contribution to domestic labor in such tasks as gardening, farm work, water/wood collection, marketing, food processing and preparation and childcare. The 1999 UNDP Human Development Report states that not only is much of women’s work unrecognized and unrecorded, but that women have shouldered a disproportionate share of the economic burden, making up to 60-80 percent of workers in export-oriented industries while being the lowest paid. In many countries, women already work 12 hours or more a day in and out of the home; in Africa and Asia, women work an average of 13 hours more each week than do men (UNFPA, 2001). Marketplace realities exacerbate difficulties for poor women seeking employment. The gendered nature of social and cultural roles result in reduced labor market opportunities for women, placing them in less stable and more dangerous employment (UNDP, 102 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1999). With comparable levels of education, women and girls earn less than men boys for the same work and have fewer occupational choices, making the relative return on females education much lower for parents (UNDP, 1999). King and Hill’s (1993) summary of several studies shows that primary school girls devote from 1.5 to 2.5 times as many hours to domestic labor as boys do (Sutton, 2000). Poor families must consider the costs of domestic labor or income foregone if girls do go to school (Sutton, 2000; Davison & Kanyuka, 1992). Although Thailand’s public school is tuition free, families must bear supplemental costs. Children’s educational opportunities are dependent on the family’s ability to pay for school fees, uniforms and sometimes transportation for distant schools. Urbanization offers a series of risks and opportunities to women. Urban growth and poverty produces new environmental threats that increase health risks. Again, those most exposed are women and their children. On the other hand, pregnancy and childbirth are generally safer in urban areas, where health care is more likely to be accessible. City life also offers women a broader range o f choices for education, employment and marriage, but it also carries the heightened risk o f sexual violence, abuse and exploitation. For poor women, urbanization means less physical labor to find fuel, food and water, but they often lose direct control over quality or 103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. quantity of basic inputs. For the very poor, these basic resources are more expensive— in absolute as well as relative terms—than for better-off groups. As women join the migration from rural to urban areas, they are vulnerable to economic and sexual exploitation— sweatshop labor, trafficking, abuse or violence; factory workers face possible exposure to chemicals, dust or other forms of pollution. Along with the risks, however, go new economic opportunities. Freedom from the social and gender hierarchies of rural communities may also open up chances to go to school, college or university, to acquire marketable skills and to choose whether, when and whom to marry, if basic survival needs are met. 3) Political Factors: Education for poor Thais has been a Thai government goal for many years. Since World War II, Thailand has expanded adult non-formal education programs. With the help of USAID the government operated a number of literacy campaigns designed to reach large numbers o f the population never served by formal schooling. In addition to literacy skills, these programs were designed to build citizenship and problem solving skills. In 1979, the Department of Non-formal Education (DNFE) was established to overcome a national literacy rate of 32%. This new department was tasked to address the needs of illiterate adults, particularly rural areas. 104 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When Thailand hosted the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA) in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, it was able to take advantage of the experience of development agencies and other countries. Since that time, Thailand was successful in reducing adult illiteracy by 50& in 2000 and has achieved almost universal basic educational access. Non-formal education was seen as the best vehicle to reach traditionally marginalized populations such as poor women, prison inmates, the disabled, hill-tribe populations, slum dwellers and Thai people in foreign countries (DNFE, 2000). The DNFE budget was doubled in the early 1990’s from 1,384.4 million baht (about $56 million) to 2,896.8 million baht (about $110 million) in 1999 (Thailand EFA Assessment, 2000). DNFE client numbers surged to three million by 1995 out o f a total Thai population of just under 60 million (DNFE, 2000). Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have generally been at the head of programs attacking a variety of social ills in Thailand. Programs sponsored by Buddhist temples have led the country in direct non-formal education and support. Temple based programs have strong popular appeal since they are based in every community and religious assistance is viewed by the majority Buddhist population as an opportunity to make merit, gaining higher social status in this world and the next. Outside of Chiang Mai, the northern capital, the Buddha Dharma Center provides resident non-formal primary and secondary education, as well training as in personal 105 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ethics, vocational training and religious instruction for predominantly young hill-tribe females considered to be at risk for exploitation or impoverishment. Despite significant governmental and NGO efforts to fill the educational and social gaps, serious problems persist. The discussion of social, cultural and economic factors earlier underlines structural imbalances that disadvantage females, particularly in rural areas. Centralized governmental programming located in Bangkok colors educational design, materials and implementation by necessity. Promises of support and change by central government authorities do not disguise the urban-rural imbalances that cause local leader’s skepticism. Bock and Papagiannis (1983) explain that local leaders are likely to feel threatened by and resist the emergence o f a new, and to them rival, power base or approach from central government. Top down directives often fall on deaf ears, even as efforts to promote gender awareness and more equitable resource distribution. Stromquist notes the minimal communication generally occurring between civil servants and women working in NGOs or women’s groups (1996). She says that gender awareness in national governments results in programs serving small numbers of adult women, focusing on increasing their efficiency in household and childcare. In this climate, change in the direction of true equity and localization will necessarily be slow in coming until central government leaders agree to share power and invite stakeholders to sit as equal partners at 106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the same negotiating table. One reason why local leaders and activists distrust Bangkok reforms agenda is the latest in large-scale policy initiatives by the Thai Ministry of Education. The National Education Act of 1999 proposed sweeping changes to all aspects o f education in the country (ONEC, 1999). Formal educational changes were to include the decentralization of curriculum design and control, in contrast to decades of centrally directed educational content and teacher training. Section 29 of the “National Education Guidelines” section states that the objective is to emphasize collaborative inputs to education: Educational institutions in cooperation with individuals, families, communities and community organizations, private organizations, professional bodies, religious organizations, enterprises and social institutions shall contribute to strengthening the communities by encouraging learning in the communities themselves, (p. 13) There is no process established by which these new inputs will be collected and integrated into educational planning. Women and NGOs are invisible stakeholders. With no mechanism in place for a greater number of stakeholders to agree on learning objectives or processes, it unlikely that actual participation in the planning process will increase. Later in the same publication, in Section 31 of the “Educational Administration and Management” section, policy makers reverse the earlier collaboration back to traditional centralized control: 107 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Ministry shall have the powers and duties for overseeing all levels and types of education; formulation of education policies, plans and standards; mobilization of resources for education; as well as monitoring and evaluation of results of education, (p. 13) The official language can be contradictory. When maintaining control over all aspects of education, central government planners make it clear that the input of other stakeholders will have little impact upon educational practices. Today developing countries such as Thailand support the development of export led industry sector and minimize attention paid to subsistence agriculture or the informal economic sector, both of which employ laige numbers of women (Stromquist, 1996). As long as governments see education as a vehicle for economic development, their borders with NGOs and civil society actors promoting more equitable development will remain strong and impermeable. 108 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter III Research Design and Methods Overview: Qualitative research has become mainstream by the end of the twenthieth century. Earlier reliance upon quantitative approaches has given way to acceptance of the validity of qualitative research. The debate over which methdology is best no longer applies as research is increasingly conducted with the methodology that fits research questions and assumptions. Each form of research attempts to answer different questions based on different guiding premises. The assumption in this chapter is that qualitative research in social science is a valid and appropriate methodology facilitating a broader understanding of the social world than quantitative methodology can accomplish. Denzin and Lincoln (2000) describe qualitative research as a “set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible” (p.3). The aim o f this study is to make particular participants visible during a selected period of time in order to research the impact non-formal education programs. Such a study necessitates a qualitative approach in order to decompose the processes and dynamics of adult learning in non-formal education programs and meanings brought to learning by program participants. Qualitative and feminist methods are appropriate for the purpose of understanding the process of women’s learning and pedagogical strategies that are used to facilitate their 109 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. empowerment. A feminist and qualitative definition of methodology refers to the study of methods not just the techniques themselves (Nielsen, 1999). The primary end product of this dissertation is detailed case studies of participants in three non-formal education programs in northern Thailand— one of the most economically destabilized areas of the country. The three programs represent different stakeholders— participants at different life stages and different educational approaches, delivered by government and non-government organizations. Qualitative research is used in this chapter to refer to several approaches in social research which are flexible, holistic and interpretive (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998, 2000). This study takes aims to acquire a holistic and integrated understanding of interaction between context and human action under study, which calls for qualitative methodology and design (Polkinghome, 1991). Section A presents a discussion of approaches related to qualitative research. Section B reviews data collection devices and site selection. Section C introduces the study participants and the role of the researcher and Section D indicates how data will be presented. The chapter concludes with Section E, a discussion o f data validity, delimitations and liimitations of the study. I spent approximately twelve months in Thailand conducting the majority o f the study. The first two months was spent collecting background information from government, academic 110 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and program sources and investigating, visiting and selecting three non-formal education programs (one government and two non-government). A) Qualitative Approaches: 1) Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology My study goal is to understand how raising women’s awareness and empowerment can help them resist trafficking through NFE training processes. It is necessary to understand, therefore, how human perception and consciousness can change over time. Naturalistic research is a good fit. It is “based on the philosophical viewpoint of phenomenology which allows for multiple realities arising from natural differences in the development of human perception” (Isaac & Michael, p. 218). Bourdieu (1998) equates phenomenology with Ethnomethodology, defining both as setting "out to make explicit the truth of primary experience of the social world" (p. 3). Bourdieu insists that interpersonal relationships are never, except in appearance, individual-to-individual relationships and that the truth o f the interaction is never entirely contained in the interaction” (p. 81). Husserl (1970) maintains that there is an active relationship between perception and its objects where the consciousness constructs as much as it perceives the world. Schutz (1970) also links phenomenology and ethnomethodology by applying Husserl’s 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ideas to the ways that ordinary members of society attend to their daily lives, arguing that the social sciences should focus on the ways that its members experience the world. Schutz notes that individuals approach the life world with a stock o f knowledge that is socially constructed and makes the phenomena of everyday life organizable into categories or types and therefore meaningful. These types, or typifications, shape experience and elaborate the stock of knowledge, primarily through language where words and categories are social building blocks. Ordinary language as a process of typification therefore creates the sense among users that the life world is familiarly organized. Schutz explains that individuals who interact with each other are sharing in an environment that is concurrently constructed and experienced in basically the same ways by all members. 2)Feminist Methodology To make adult women’s voices and perceptions o f social reality explicit in my study particularly demands feminist insights of how to do research for women. Especially how women can be seen as agents who can empower themselves to resist and change their conditions. Acker (1994) describes the starting point of feminist scholarship as a desire “to remedy a history of exclusion (of women) and distortion (of women’s experience). She summarizes the core assumptions in feminist research, including awareness of sexually based injustice to women, goal 112 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to improve women’s lives, centrality of gender to all aspects of human existence, existing knowledge and techniques are deficient, research should start with women’s experience in patriarchal society and that the researcher should enter into the same space as her subject. Feminists such as Westcott and Fox have called attention to women’s invisibility in social science and rejected the socially constructed notion of women’s inferiority thereby challenging the assumption that self and society interact in mutually supportive ways (in Nielsen, 1999). Westcott discusses the conflicted social contexts in which girls and women grow up that are opposed to their needs as human beings (ibid). Westcott (1990), Fox (1977) and Hartmann (1976) argue that women are devalued and controlled by men through the organization of social relations and material goods in a patriarchal social context. The feminist critique of traditional social science methods does not accept the mainstream positivist emphasis upon objectivity where the object of knowledge can be separated into “an ‘other’, an alien object that does not reflect back on the knower” (Nielsen, 1999, p.61). Feminist methodology grounds inquiry in concrete experience rather than in abstract categories as a reflection o f women’s historical identification with everyday life and survival. The social context of the idea of the human being as completely and freely creating herself and the world in which she lives and negotiating such creation through dialog with others affirms the sense of humanism in feminist social science. 113 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Stromquist (2000) credits the evolution of feminist theory with the shift towards an awareness of gender, the social construction of sex attributes. This shift has also implied a recognition of the role o f institutions in society in the establishment and at times, changes in gender relations. Most importantly, “the research treatment of gender has shifted from its use as a mere variable statistically controlled in order to isolate effects of other forces to its examination as a major factor shaping socioeconomic outcomes and as a dynamic and contextual force that permeates practically all aspects o f the social world...” (p.227, 2000). Stromquist (2000) describes the link between theory and praxis in feminist perspective, which have resulted in probes for the potential and actual cases of human agency within schools where students, parents and teachers themselves are seen as actors capable o f producing change. She notes that the concept o f agency draws attention both to how systems of meaning are formed through everyday actions and specific personal realities, as well as how such actors can be encouraged to reflect upon their daily practice and condition. This study examines empowerment from the perspectives of women participating in an educational program. A working assumption of the study is that marginalized women are more than products o f their environment and their interactions with it and can change their perceptions and constructions of the world. It draws upon phenomenological, critical and feminist educational 114 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. theories, gender and adult learning studies to explore how marginalized and formerly trafficked women explore the formation of systems of meaning and the influences of social distance and hierarchy upon personal and group agency through program participation. Stromquist (2000) says both a personal and group definition and affirmation underpin a necessary collectivity o f interests in order to question the present and to create an alternative future. This study will use methodological approaches and tools from feminist and qualitative disciplines to enable the researcher to enter into the socially constructed space of the subject and avoid objectifying the experience, concerns and voices o f marginalized women. B) Data Collection: In this study, I use case study as my primary device. I will observe two NFE programs and conduct in-depth interviews with adult women who take courses in these two programs. Qualitative case study with in-depth interviews and observations is most appropriate to capture the complexity and dynamics of the lived experience of 10 northern Thai women and specifically how gender, culture and poverty affect their decisions to participate (or not) in NFE programs. The qualitative methods I select are to explore the understanding of the following factors: 1) to explore what factors may account for the formation of empowerment in individual students; 2) to identify the conscientized practices that may promote an empowerment awareness through 115 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the non-formal education process; 3) the interaction of and environmental factors that may affect participation in non-formal education programs; and 4) The potential interaction among the above three factors. C) Case Study and Participant Observation: This inquiry is designed as case studies of women’s participation in three non-formal educational programs. The case study research will be conducted from a feminist critical perspective, exploring the ways the educational system is structured patriarchically, ways they may feel devalued or marginalized and how they might participate in sustaining these structures. In this particular study, a gender and class-based perspective will be considered to try to understand how poverty shapes these women’s learning and use of education. Document analysis, course and participant observation, detailed open and semi-structured interviews are the primary data sources. To better understand the rich environment of the informants, I also intend to pay attention to macro level events, institutional and structural forces as well as the individual and the community level. Case studies typically rely on a variety of ways to gather data over a period of time (Rossman & Rallis, p.71, 1998). Case studies “seek to understand a larger phenomenon through close examination of a specific case and therefore focus on the particular (p.70, 1998). I will 116 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. employ a strategy focusing on three case studies. The primary qualitative research devices will be open-ended interview, class and participant observation and document analysis. The goal is to explore whether, how and by what means NFE participants attain new knowledge, attitudes and skills. Stake says that case study is not a methodological choice, but a choice of object to be studied (1998). I chose to study the case since it is defined by interest in individual cases, not by the method of inquiry. Adult female participants in non-formal education programs are as the units of study. A total of 28 women from three programs were selected for in-depth interviews in addition to program staff, teachers and other stakeholders. It was helpful to have a variety of participants for several reasons: • First, to understand the differences in experience that may result from non-formal education programs with different approaches, curriculum and reach; • Second, to ensure that data collection will continue if a participant drops out of the study; • Third, to include women with a variety o f characteristics to more closely mimic the larger population of marginalized women; and • Fourth, to include a variety of stories in an attempt to more broadly sketch the complexity of reasons behind the marginalization and trafficking of women. Stake (2000) describes three types of case studies: intrinsic, instrumental and collective, which have different, research goals. Although my study will be intrinsic in the sense that I focus on each person’s situation and want to understand each of them clearly, in another sense it will be 117 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. instrumental and collective. This is because my goal is to also offer an understanding of non-formal empowerment education in Thailand through the examination of more than one mini-case. In this way, the single case is of secondary interest; it plays a supportive role, facilitating our understanding of something else (Stake, p.88, 2000). Observations will include NFE classes, individual interactions and social/family interactions of participants. Stromquist explains that the best type of observation and dialogue would be that provided through participant observation, but living together with low-income women is rarely possible and such an experience would be difficult for both the researcher and the women and their families (1997). She suggests the alternative expedient o f collecting data through in-depth interviews (p.56, 1997). Jorgenson (1989) indicates that participant observation is particularly appropriate when little is known about the phenomenon, there are important differences between the views of insiders (marginalized women) as opposed to outsiders (male decision makers), the phenomenon is somehow obscured from view (trafficked women are usually moved to urban and overseas areas) and the research problem is concerned with human meanings and interactions viewed from the insider perspective (1989). Jorgenson cautions that the researcher must be able to use qualitative methods and data, gain access to an appropriate setting, the phenomenon must be observable within an everyday life situation or 118 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. setting (in this study, an NFE community based program) and that the phenomenon is sufficiently limited in size and location to be studied as a case. Lofland and Lofland describe participant observation as field observation, qualitative observation or direct observation, which involves the researcher, establishes and sustains a many-sided and relatively long term relationship with a human association in its natural setting (1995). They emphasize the mutuality of participant observation and intensive interviewing as the central techniques of qualitative investigation (p. 19, 1995). In this way that observations will be conducted must be decided at the NFEn location, as I understand the individual site and the nature of the participants better. Research questions, preliminary data collection and document analysis will guide me towards more or less structured observation, as well as determine the length of each observation, and how broadly to focus on information, behaviors and the environment during the observation itself. D) In-depth Interviews: Interview data from participants, teachers, facilitators and staff at all programs helped to create a multi-dimensional picture of the non-formal educational environment and learning dynamics for women. According to Strauss & Corbin, "the broader conditions that affect the phenomenon under study must be built into its explanation (and, further that)... any change must 119 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be linked to the conditions that gave rise to it" (1990). The educational experiences and perspectives of female adults who are participating in three government and non-government non-formal education programs will be elicited to construct qualitative life histories supplemented through participant observation of program classes and the daily lives of interviewees. These adults reside in Chiang Mai, Mae Sai and Chiang Rai, Thailand and are members of various social networks that influence their daily lives and learning in non-formal education programs. Intensive analysis o f docum ents, field notes, and interview s and observation records constituted the bulk o f qualitative m ethods used to generate m eaning from the data. The researcher built a thick description based on this data, w hich w as analyzed and interpreted through participant reported experiences and researcher observations. Oakley (1981) suggests the best w ay o f finding out about people through interview ing is w hen the researcher invests their ow n personal identity into the relationship in a non-hierarchical w ay (Fonow , 1991). Fem inist theorists and researches have found that the w ays that research participants are treated and the care w ith w hich researchers attem pt to represent the lived experience o f research participants is a central concern. Oakley asserts the im portance o f collecting data by interview ing w om en because it is the 120 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. condition under which people come to know each other and to admit others into their lives (1981). Lofland and Lofland (1995) describe intensive interviewing as a guided conversation whose goal is to elicit from the interviewee rich, detailed materials that can be used in qualitative analysis. This is in contrast to structured interviews where the goal is to elicit choices between alternative answers to preformed questions on a topic or situation, the intensive interview attempts to discover the informant’s experience of a particular topic or situation. Lofland and Lofland indicate that intensive interviewing with participant observations in another culture in numerous anthropological accounts (1995.). They further suggest that sociologists collect the majority of participant observation data from informal interviews and supplementary observation as well. In this sense, participant observation involves the interweaving of looking and listening, of watching and asking, and some of that may be exactly the same as intensive interviewing. This is particularly necessary because some social situations (death of loved one, for example) may be masked in ordinaiy interaction and may only be uncovered through interviewing. In extensive, open interviews with women, factors, events and influences upon their behavior may be detected that relate to past educational attainment, NFE participation and future 121 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. behavior about trafficking. Interviewees will be asked about the impact of the content and process of their non-formal education training programs upon their self-image, lives and aspirations. An underlying question is why some girls do not (or cannot) stay in school and why more women than men go without formal education. This will inform the interviews and program observations. Finally, women graduating from non-formal education programs into a society that does not support their newfound skills or confidence are important on many levels as they inform policy planners, educators and researchers more deeply about the failure of efforts to improve the quality of their lives. The ongoing relationship with participants over one year allows me to develop and continue relationships with participants and other interviewees, to monitor individual and program changes over time and chart important events as they may occur to participants. The length of the study also allows the researcher to note the responses of the participants to the educational experience as well as tailor questions to changing situations. Stromquist, (2000), notes that interviewing people means assessing their views and capturing the nuances of their statements without reducing such statements to a single line. The researcher cannot rely on a single voice to summarize a complex series of events. 122 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As I go through the interview and information gathering process, I will be better able to choose which interview format will work best with each type of interviewee. Merriam’s definition of an interview is a ‘conversation’ that discovers things (thoughts, feelings, interpretations, past events, etc.) that are not knowable by other means (1998). There are three main types of interviews: structured, semi-structured and unstructured. In-depth interviews appear to be necessary at this time, using open-ended questions, listening (recording) to the answers and probing for more information with more questions. Unstructured interviews will probably work best with non-formal educational participants due to the extent of cultural, social, linguistic and lived experience difference between the researcher and the informants. The more relaxed nature of open-ended interviews allows researcher and informant to begin a friendly relationship and create a climate of trust necessary for fuller disclosure. A more structured interview format may be more appropriate with educators and researchers. Interviewer methods used most extensively included introductions by officials, teachers, peers; networking via gender groups, activities; class/meeting observation evolving into friendly overtures which evolved into casual conversations leading to interviews, usually including meal or beverage. The process of informal conversation stated a process that built trust and comfortable relationships which often resulted in assistance with further interviews. 123 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. E) Site Selection As there are significant differences between the government and the non-governmental (NGO) non-formal education program literature, staff and teacher approaches and curriculur goals, I anticipate significant differences in program impact upon participants and social learning that occurs. Organizational literature indicates that the government program reproduces centralized educational approaches and content while NGO goals are oriented towards social change and participant empowerment. The extent of these differences and freedom of program organizers and teachers may depend upon funding availability and the intention of program funders. These programs may not be representative of other non-formal education programs for marginalized women. The section following discusses the program selection. After wide-ranging travels, I chose a one government program, a county learning center that attracted impoverished women from several nearby villages and the town of Mae Rim. The government program is in the northern province of Chiang Mai, located outside the city o f Mae Rim. It is one of the older county level programs in the north, serving a population of over 77,000 people. Earlier contacts established within the Thai Ministry of Education in national and regional offices as well as international development agencies, Chiang Mai University and local programs were key to gain access to provincial and country officials, staff and teachers at 124 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. each level of DNFE. Unlike many county programs, the Mae Rim DNFE location shares a compound with the provincial office of the DNFE in Chiang Mai and has greater visibility than some district offices. This meant that provincial DNFE staff introduced me to county DNFE staff and courses, which facilitated researcher entry onto and relationships with program stakeholders. In-depth interviews were conducted at various locations. Regional and county officials invited interviews in their offices or over meals in addition to informal conversations around the offices and at local workshops. Provincial officials facilitated introductions and interviews with county and community educational stakeholders on their premises in villages and towns throughout the province, because most trafficked women come from small towns in the north. Staff members and teachers in these locations were very cooperative concerning researcher observation and interviews. The county offered courses seven days a week in vocational and literacy programs and served low-income, marginalized adults, particularly women, hill-tribe peoples and Burmese refugees. Informal discussions with students during the initial phase of research made it clear that DNFE county staff, teachers and volunteers were committed to practical interventions for populations unable to take advantage o f mainstream economic activities such as tourism in the booming resorts of nearby Chiang Mai city. 125 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The government DNFE programs operate from standardized curriculum and teacher requirements and training which makes it highly likely that programs across the country are very similar. Differences may arise in terms of local needs assessment which has some influence over unbudgeted funds. Most DNFE programs are located in relatively large villages, often quite far away from large towns, transportation and facilities which was a factor in site selection. DNFE programs requirements are flexibly administered which ensures a variety of student levels and interests in addition to range of ages. The course instructor has some leeway with student levels and delivery of the curriculum in addition to setting their own class atmosphere. This study o f a Thai government vocational course began in the summer of 2002 and finished in January of 2003. I was introduced to the instructor by the provincial official who was the liaison with the county program. Students and the teacher welcomed my colleague and me and we stood in the back of the large rectangular classroom and watched as a group of young women in the front area practiced cutting material and shaping patterns. Other, apparently more experienced students, gathered around a large table in the back of the room. They were already designing and sewing their own outfits. Three of the students in the back of the room invited us to sit with them and we began a relationship that extended over many visits, interviews and informal discussions. I was also able to observe general education and literacy classes several times. 126 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I arranged convenient times and days to visit the class with the sewing teacher, whose class was located in a separate building in back of the county DNFE offices and separate barber shop and beauty salon classes. Her program provided basic to intermediate level sewing skills courses culminating in a certificate for low-income county residents and non-residents who had a local sponsor. I visited the classes three times a week at the beginning, observing the interaction between students and teacher and among the students themselves. At meals and breaks I chatted informally with students, and after several weeks, conducted semi-structured interviews with small groups of students. Class observations took proportionately less time as in-depth interviews with students and graduates increased. Most graduates lived between 30 minutes to one hour away over narrow roads that were poorly surfaced. In some cases, one interview took half a day. Introductions to the non-governmental (NGO) programs I chose occurred in a similar way. Ajaan (teacher, senior head) Damri of the Chiang Rai DNFE provincial office introduced me to members of a non-governmental network with gender capacity building as one of its functions. I met the coordinator for SEPOM there and over time, she invited me to the NGO to meet other staff and learn more about its programs. Due to the vulnerability o f SEPOM members, this was the most delicate and lengthy relationship of the three sites. After initial 127 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. meetings with my contact and other staff, I was invited to meet the program founder, a woman who had been trafficked twice to Japan. She told me her story and encouraged me to become involved with the program. The final gatekeeper was the co-founder, a dedicated woman from Japan who performed liaison functions betweeen Japanese funders, outside researchers and the program. My interpreter, who is part Thai, greatly facilitated the relationship building. The NGO is located in Chiang Rai, a medium sized city which is the capital of Chiang Rai province. This province is not as populated or developed as Chiang Mai and retains much of its rural nature as well as a large presence of Thai military near the border where unrest with Myanmar is concentrated. SEPOM worked with women who were extremely marginalized often having difficulty in coming to weekend programs. Some of the women had children of mixed heritage with no citizenship and were extremely stressed. Members, while polite, were much more subdued than participants at other non-formal education programs. Regular program meetings occurred every Sunday and sometimes special events were held on Saturdays as well. This timing was designed to minimize conflict with member’s jobs and family responsibilities. The program supported several members with stipends which allowed them to get public transportation and necessities for themselves and their children. The weekend programs usually featured a member meeting in which ongoing issues and needs were discussed. Most Sundays 128 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the meeting was followed with lunch prepared by group members all together. Informal conversations allowed me to get to know several members individually and arrange follow up interviews. The staff were very careful to monitor the comfort level of interviewees but once they made it clear they trusted me, it was easy to move in and out of group and individual communications. I was able to set up visits to group sessions and individual interviews with some advance notice. Meals were very easy to arrange and I often took advantage of these to maintain our relationships. As with DNFE, observations of group activity diminished as time went on and relatively more time was devoted to individual interviews and follow up questions. I was introduced to the DEPDC non-governmental program by colleagues at Chiang Mai University who were intrigued with its campus full time program for vulnerable young women. My initial meetings there took place with dedicated Austrialian and British volunteers who formed an important bridge between the NGO and outsiders. The founder was called away often on fund raising or promotional visits which took time since DEPDC is not located in a major city. Eventually I was able to talk to the founder and senior staff several times and learned about their pioneering work. Mae Sai is located exactly on the border with Myanmar and features aspects of both cultures but suffers from frequent unrest between Thai and Myanmar authorities as well as militant hill tribes who are disaffected from both regimes. DEPDC draws many of its 129 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. students from migrants who originate across the border or from mountains along the border. Their mandate is to identify and rescue youngsters in danger of trafficking or slavery which resulted in many students who cannot speak Thai, at least initially. DEPDC is unique in non-formal education programs for young women and men in that they have a full time campus residential facility in addition to providing class and vocational training space for commuting students. The volunteers set up my initial meetings with the sewing teacher, program graduates some of whom work as teachers and staff on campus, and students nearing graduation. Since students come to DEPDC from crisis situations and have little experience with the outside world, the staff are quite careful to accompany current students on interviews and were available to set up any interviews I wanted. There was no problem about interviewing staff and teachers on my own. Residential students live in dorms on campus and either attend the primary or vocational training on campus. High school students commute to the high school in the nearby village but along with commuter students, perform chores such as raking, sweeping, trash collection, kitchen help, classroom cleaning, and sometimes office help on a regular basis. Older students coach and monitor younger students. There were plenty o f opportunities to encounter interviewees on campus in between classes and chores, but chaperones had to be arranged as well. These 130 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. younger interviewees were not subdued, but excited to be talking with a foreigner for the most part. Although none of the interviewees had been trafficked, several were refugees far away from their families. I arranged convenient days and times to visit the sewing class with the sewing teacher and over time, the students became comfortable enough for taping their interactions and lessons. F) Role of the Researcher Qualitative research is strongly linked to the role of the researcher. Feminist researchers who advocate a participatory research strategy emphasizing the dialectic between researcher and researched (Abdullah & Zeidenstein, 1978, Bamdt, 1980, Fonow, 1985) allows the researcher to connect to the experiences of the research subject (in Nielsen, 1999). Mies (1983) calls for “conscious partiality” where the researcher’s understanding of how she is connected to the experiences of the research subject result in partial identification, replacing positivistic indifference towards subjects (Nielsen, p. 76, 1999). Since “the real world makes a material difference in terms of race, class and gender”, it is important to make known the researcher’s relationship to the study and make their identity explicit (Denzin & Lincoln, p.27, 2000). Due to language, race, cultural and educational barriers, in addition to extensive living and working experience in country, I had no misconception that I would be considered an ‘insider’ or be 131 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. considered as representative of my informants. I came to this study as a white middle class woman with a great deal of education leavened by a good working knowledge of the Thai culture and people. The intent of this feminist research focusing on education was to seek an explanation o f the barriers facing poor women in a rural area (Stromquist, 2000). Most feminist researchers are members of the middle class because they have had access to more education and leisure time to reflect, as such, their gender identities are shaped by their location vis-a-vis such markers as social class, ethnicity, and gender in society (Stromquist, 2000). Women of all social classes, however, do share their position in an oppositional category to men in many ways. As a researcher coming from a position o f relative privilege, it was helpful to consider the educational dynamics and benefits that have accrued to me and the connections between knowledge and domination that operate at higher levels of wealth and prestige (Stromquist, p.255, 2000). It was also necessary to be alert to ways in which I might have contributed to the status quo. Stromquist also calls for more attention to be paid to the interplay between ethnicity, class and gender whereby contradictions may emerge through differing values concerning family, education, reproduction or through differing perceptions of participant’s problems (2000). 132 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. My rapport with research subjects benefited a great deal from exploring the ways in which my gender identity, apart from social class, was shared with interviewees as an oppositional category to men (Stromquist, 1997). Woman to woman interviews were relatively quite easy to develop in contrast to woman to man interviews, and gender was an important factor in addition to social and cultural distances (Stromquist, p. 56, 1997). Divisions of social class were reduced through clothing, interpersonal skills, speaking Thai, laughing at mistakes, and willingness to share meals and beverages. Language cues remain a strong indicator of difference and potential obstacle to open and relaxed communication ( Stromquist, 1997). Stromquist (1997) further describes how the social distance between researcher and interviewees was minimized due to her lack of fluency in their language. As she spoke slowly and mixed languages, it appeared that language distinctions did not make her appear superior. She worked with a native of that country from a very different class background than the interviewees who was friendly and accessible. In that environment, the use of a tape recorder seemed to threaten the relaxed relationship that existed. I expected and received similar reactions to difficulties I experienced using Thai, considering my ability to laugh at my mistakes, and access to an interpreter, a woman who is from a very similar background to participants who had the advantage of working experience in government and international programs. 133 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Although I was not completely fluent in the Thai language, my working experience in Thailand and the help of interpreters helped me overcome possible barriers between the researcher and the researched. My previous experience working and studying in Thailand gave me competence in communicating with and working with a range of Thai individuals. As a U.S. Peace Corps Thailand program officer, I gained valuable hands on experience managing training programs and site logistics with Thai villagers, townspeople, co-workers and government officials which often entailed living in rural villages and towns for weeks at a time while performing at a high level. Since 1998,1 have been a literacy and social skills training volunteer with the Thai Community Development Center o f Los Angeles developing and delivering adult literacy, empowerment and other courses. Course participants come from impoverished rural environments in Thailand and many were trafficked to the U.S. They taught me a great deal about their lives back home and settlement issues overseas and have been most generous in allowing me to interview them as I prepared this study. Developing positive and non-threatening relationships with these women, many of who are illiterate in Thai and unable to communicate fluently in English has helped me understand effective ways to approach their counterparts in Thailand. Establishing my identity and goals in a pro-active manner will be very important, as 134 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. well as creativity in finding ways to be supportive of interviewees without directing them. Having an initial introduction from a credible member of the community, i.e., the NFE program staff establishes relationships more quickly and positively. Demonstrating genuine interest and concern through appropriate verbal and body language is important to building warm and open relationships as well. Teaching English informally has also been a wonderful vehicle for opening doors and prolonging interactions. All of these findings will go a long way towards reducing potential negative reactivity of interviewees. I have been able to enlist an extensive network of cultural and professional informants in Thailand that helped me conduct preliminary research in July of 2001. The primary documentation and educational materials I collected would have been impossible to access in the U.S. Initial communication with program participants and facilitators will be directly with me as I am able to converse in Thai language about general subjects. I established relationships alone initially with interviewees and again with my Thai female interpreter. The interpreter’s significant experience in rural community development accounted for specialized rural dialect and specific vocabulary and nuances that I might have missed. Thais socialization avoiding confrontation, hesitancy in asserting their rights, and lack of individual initiative could have meant it would have been difficult to discern discomfort, but my interpreter and increasing 135 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. cultural competency created an observant comfortable environment for interviewees to stop or change subjects or leave when necessary. These cultural traits also make it more difficult for women to question authority figures and males in general, particularly traffickers. Migrants in Los Angeles explained that it was very difficult for them to adjust to the U.S. individualistic assertive culture as it was very different from Thailand. My experience in Thai female dominated situations indicated that Thai women had a very different private face (non-public), and in these contexts, are quick to share stories about families, work and problems, once my role was established to be social and non-authoritarian. These were the reasons that I was be able to interact effectively with research subjects and gather useful and enlightening data through interviews and observations. In order to crosscheck my understanding of the data I am collecting, I tape recorded those interviewees where subjects were comfortable with equipment. I chose not to introduce mechanical devices where I believed individuals would be uncomfortable or less authentic in the presence of a tape recorder. Oral testimony o f participants provides the most direct link to the experience of those marginalized by formal education and now participating in non-formal education. Interview information must be carefully contexted as they are documents produced at specific historical moments, under particular circumstances, with specific audiences in mind. 136 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. G) Study Participants This section introduces the participants in this study. Twenty-six women were interviewed for this study in addition to course teachers, program staff, administrators and other stakeholders. These women made it possible to capture the complexity and dynamics of the lived experience, and specifically how gender, culture and poverty affected their participation in non-formal educational programs. Participants in government and non-governmental programs were chosen for their perspectives on non-formal education program design, implementation and participant support. Participants were identified through introductions provided by teachers, administrators, other participants as well as through casual conversations during visits to programs. Participant selection was deliberate, not random, as participants fulfilled certain criteria (low literacy, low income, risk of trafficking) and particularly willingness to participate in this study. All women participated in either an NGO or Thai government-sponsored non-formal education program. In some cases, women participating in an NGO program were also continuing their studies at a nearby government educational center. This study depended on developing a relationship with participants who freely choose to engage in open ended interviews in various settings. The nature of the study was small scale and extensive and based the 137 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. development of rich data from this number in order to get beneath the more surface level findings o f data from participants in a non-natural environment. In addition to interviews with program participants as detailed below, program staff, administrators and stakeholders were interviewed as well. For the DNFE program, interviews included the Chiang Mai DNFE provincial and vice provincial directors, the provincial international coordinator in Chiang Mai province. Other DNFE interviews in Chiang Mai included the beauty school teacher and the barbering teacher, the sewing teacher and the county course coordinator. SEPOM related interviews included the director of the NGO Hill Area Development Foundation which served as coordinator for the gender capacity project including a SEPOM representative, the DNFE Chiang Rai regional director and associate director, DNFE representative on SEPOM’s board, a local lawyer on SEPOM’s board, two Thai volunteers who worked with member’s children and housing and a Japanese researcher who helped document and produce NGO materials. DEPDC related interviews included colleagues at Chiang Mai University Department o f Non-Formal Education, researchers in Chiang Mai and NGO staff in Chiang Rai familiar with the program. In addition, interviews were conducted with the founder o f DEPDC, a former staff member, a new Board member, training coordinator, office manager, a 138 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. social service network member, the sewing teacher, the weaving teacher, a kindergarden teacher and local family members who came to campus. The table below describes characteristics of program participants, grouped according to NFE program. Table 3-1: Study Participants by NFE Program A) Development Education Program-Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) Study Participant Age Children and Ages Marital Status Study and Work Status Inka 18 0 Single Student, works at school. Bua 18 0 Single Student, works at school. Sala 18 0 Single Student, works in school cafeteria Fran 18 0 Single Works at school weaving Bela 18 0 Single Graduate, DEPDC Kindergarten Teacher Nan 22 0 Single Graduate, sewing factory worker Nu 23 0 Single Graduate, sewing factory worker Pia 24 0 Single Grad, weaving teacher Dela 25 0 Single Grad, DEPDC Staff Trainer Department of Nonformal Education (DNFE) Lisa 42 1 (15 year) Married Grad, Home business (seamstress, laundry) Kara 34 1 (4 year) Divorced Works in bar, Lives with son Nancy 33 0 Separated Restaurant worker, sewing student Terry 33 2 (5, 13 year) Married Grad, Sewing factory worker Nina 30 0 Single Works as domestic, lives with employer Lulu 30 0 Separated Lives alone, works in bar Tan 29 0 Single Grad, runs sewing business, bookstore, etc. Lek 28 2 (3.5, 7 year) Married Graduate, works at home Ting 25 1 (9 year) Widowed Lives with daughter, works in bar Mook 24 0 Single Lives with aunt, poor health, no job Sida 18 0 Single Lives with friend o f sewing Teacher Amm 18 0 Single Lives with mother, no job Self-Empowerment Program O f Migrant Women (SEPOM): Liam 27 2 (3, 7 year) Separated Lives with family Bualom (Lorn) 28 2 (5 year old twins) Separated Lives with family Su (Sai) 29 0 Divorced Lives alone, SEPOM office staff Paula (Pranee) 32 1 (lyr) Married Farmer, SEPOM staff Duan 33 4 (4-14) Separated Lives with family Nan 33 0 Married Farmer, Lives with family Sada 45 2 (8, 13 year) Divorced Lives without children, alcoholic, masseuse 139 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. H) Data Analysis: Compilation and analysis of this data will illuminate participant experiences over time with non-formal educational programs in three non-formal educational programs in the north of Thailand. Since the goal of the research is to understand the experience of female participants in a non-formal education program, it is necessary, as Miller & Crabtree state, to “use an analytic method that keeps (me) open and intimate with the text” ( Denzin & Lincoln, p. 305, 1998). The first step was to produce a thick description of the participant’s experiences and sift through raw data in order to organize interviews and observations by participant and program. Handwritten notes and audiotapes when available formed part of the raw data that I typed up. Written interviews were then coded, initially according to various issues relating to learning and personal history that were clear. Later on the coding categories became more specific relating to educational and economic issues. I generated coding categories based on patterns arising from the data to do with vulnerability and motivation to participate in non-formal education. At some points during the process, certain themes, such as vulnerability, were focused on for another round of coding. This process reflected the focusing coding of grounded theory (Lofland and Lofland, 1995). The framework of vulnerability arose from recurring patterns of childhood poverty, educational problems, family instability and issues of self-esteem. The vulnerability 140 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. framework consists of three levels of vulnerability relating to the degree of risk experienced by participants. It is presented in more detail in chapter 4. During the time of initial coding and write up, additional subsequent interviews occurred along with interviews with new interviewees. These transcripts and notes went through the same process informed by the earlier experience. Analysis of the data looked particularly for recurring patterns, categories and relationships, as Janesick recommends (in Denzin & Lincoln, p. 48, 2000). Analytic memos were written, usually after coding sessions, to put codes and the relationship between codes and patterns into narrative form. I initially focused on the substance of the findings to more clearly understand the meaning of the informants’ experiences. The next level of analysis o f transcripts explored specific participant reactions to the non-formal educational program, participants and the teacher or facilitator. Janesick (2000) recommends Denzin on bracketing, in which the researcher: • locates statements that speak directly to the phenomenon in question, • interprets the meanings o f phrases as an informed reader, • obtained participant’s interpretation of these findings, if possible, • inspected these meanings for what they reveal about the phenomenon’s essential, recurring features, • based a tentative statement or definition of the phenomenon on the above steps. This process allowed all data to be treated equally. Data was organized by category for interpretation. As patterns emerged, they were considered against Stromquist’s model of 141 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. empowerment (1993). This model categorizes empowerment into four areas: cognitive, psychological, economic and political. Women may experience new knowledge, awareness and personal change in any one or more of these dimensions. Data fitting into the cognitive empowerment category comes from new participant knowledge of women’s subordination, differential treatment between males and females or other inequities in their lives. In the psychological dimension, women experience shifts in self-confidence and self-esteem. Economic empowerment arises from income that women personally control, often leading to greater input and control over other factors in their lives such as household decision making. Political change occurs on micro levels in which women take steps towards more independence and personal control or on a macro level where they begin to organize collectively to effect local or national change. The data organization step is followed with a clear, comprehensive narrative organized around the patterns and themes discovered during analysis. This study explored themes related to the position of women mired in poverty. These themes were: (1) gendered patriarchal systems, the idea that women are more than products of their interactions with their environment, the (2) need for learning and change inherent in empowerment education that offer life choices (Westcott (1990), Fox (1977) and Hartmann (1976) (cited in Nielsen, 1990) and (3) social construction of females and its relationship to learning and 142 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the growing threat of trafficking. I) Data Validity and Triangulation There are several ways researchers can account for the question of validity in qualitative research without using quantitative approaches. Quantitative methods are not appropriate for this study as these methods, as Isaac and Michael indicate, presuppose a single reality governed by a finite number o f laws that may be discovered by investigating cause-and-effect relationships among variables under controlled conditions (1997). Hammersley (1990) summarizes much of the criticism of quantitative research as its failure to capture the true nature of human social behavior for it relies on the study of artificial settings and what people say rather than what they do. By seeking to reduce meanings to what is observable, quantitative methodology reifies social phenomena by treating them as more clearly defined and static than they actually are (Hammersley, 1990). Bourdieu (1998) criticizes the lack of attention of quantitative researchers to the complex context produced by different conditions o f existence that “ .. .impose different definitions of the impossible, the possible and the probable, (and) cause one group to experience as natural and reasonable practices which would be unthinkable or scandalous, and vice versa” (p.78). Member validation was another way I checked the accuracy of the data. From time to 143 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. time, I would share themes and patterns arising from the data with interviewees. These conversations verified when the analysis made sense and agreed with their perceptions. Qualitative methodology accounts for the role o f subjective judgment in generating data, allowing exploration of such subtle phenomena as social learning and personal change. The constructs of data validity and reliability have evolved since being borrowed from quantitative and statistical analysis for use in qualitative research. External reliability in this context has to do with the ability of other researchers to replicate findings or constructs in similar settings. Internal reliability is concerned with whether other researchers could match data with previously generated constructs in the same way as this researcher. Validity relates to correctness of the findings. Internal validity has to do with accuracy of observations while external validity addresses how well representations can be compared with other groups. Feminism has been particularly influential in directing research methodology discussion about criteria and standards. The social relationships between researcher and researched, social responsibility and the impossibility of achieving an objective truth are important questions brought by feminists. The positionality of the researcher must be acknowledged as central to the research process and product (Addelson, K.P.,1991; Hesse-Biber, Sharlene, Gilmartin, Christina & Lydenberg, Robin, 1999). The reality of power relations in data collection and analysis 144 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. process is a critical point in feminist research and gender analysis (Mies, 1983; Acker, J., Barry, K. and Esseveld, J., 1991). Unger (1981) notes that it is important to know not only what can be measured about the differences between the sexes but also how far these differences contribute to our sexual reality (Fonow and Cook, 1991). Unger also observes that the researcher-subject relationship is personal and acknowledges the value of the lived reality of the subject, manifesting the feminist viewpoint that the personal is political (1981). In addition to above approaches, I used several strategies to ensure that data was trustworthy including triangulation, multiple voices and reflexivity. The use of multiple voices reduces the dominance of the researcher as subjects speak on their own behalf (Anderson, 1997; Lather & Smithies, 1997, Reinharz, 1992). A wide range of semi-structured and open-ended interviewees produced a range of conflicting and congruent interpretations that were plausible (Ellis, C., C.E. Kiesinger, and L. Tillmann-Healy, 1997). The voices of study participants were included as much as possible so that readers would understand what my interpretations were based upon. Document analysis, participant observation, detailed open and semi-structured interviews constitute triangulated primary data sources. Both macro level events and institutional and structural forces were considered in addition to events at the community and individual level. 145 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I demonstrated reflexivity through earlier reading, research, and conference presentations about Thai education and women. My work experience ranged from rural development training, government liaison, literacy and formal education, health and vocational training, educational reform and non-formal education programs. Previous visits to urban and rural locales and programs linked with Thai language skills helped establish my credibility with program participants. My work with Thai migrant workers female and male over the past five years particularly prepared me to look deeper into the experiences of similar individuals in Thailand with empathy and greater understanding of the circumstances that propelled their involuntary migration overseas. J) Ethical Responsibilities: Every effort was made to ensure that this study is conducted in an ethical manner. Official approval was obtained from the Graduate School’s Institutional Review Committee for work with human subjects. I obtained permissions to tape record interviews and, at times, to videotape non-formal education sessions. I provided a Thai language consent form (where appropriate) that granted me permission to use data collected in this study to be published. Program participant confidentiality was assured through the use of pseudonyms. I was sensitive to the expressed wishes of study participants to omit certain statements in the 146 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. transcriptions of interviews and certain sections in the taping of videotapes. I used professional translators for the translation of written materials from Thai to English and on professional interpreters for language assistance in certain situations and on certain technical matters. Many of the interviewees knew each other from the program. Due to this, I made it clear to each interviewee that I would not discuss their information with other interviewees. Several women shared personal details of their lives, which aided my understanding of their situations a great deal. The names of individuals have been disguised and certain specific details have been changed to insure anonymity. The protection of participant privacy meant that the social relations among participants were not affected and that my role would not jeopardize their well-being. Finally, since some participants were not in the country legally it was important that their openness with me should not be penalized. Delimitations: 1) The primary field sites are limited to female participants in non-formal adult education programs in two provinces in Northern Thailand, 2) Women in two programs have never been trafficked while women in the third program have all been trafficked, 3) The primary sample is limited to low-income female Thai adults living in Northern Thailand, 4) The sample is drawn from only one country, 5) Conclusions and analysis will be based on subjective judgments made by the researcher, 6) The researcher is not Thai and did not experience conditions o f difficulty similar to participants in the areas of poverty or trafficking. 147 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Limitations: 1) Participants may not be representative of their gender, ethnic, cultural, linguistic or national group. Programs may not be representative of non-formal female adult education programs in Thailand or elsewhere, 2) Factors or patterns identified as influential or relational in the data may not completely account for participant behavior or participation in non-formal education programs or experience with trafficking. The researcher acknowledges environmental factors affecting participants and non-formal education programs in Thailand that are beyond the scope of this research. 148 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter IV: Findings Description of Vulnerability Framework Study participants grew up in poverty, sometimes extreme, that resulted in diminished educational, social and employment opportunities. Globalization and diaspora, or migration, combined to produce limited and dangerous choices for young women in search of employment that would help them support their families. Female vulnerability under conditions of inadequate social and cultural capital was exacerbated by the impact of globalization to the transformation and degradation of the agricultural, forestry and job base of their villages and towns. Economic and environmental degradation led to loss of livelihoods directly impacting upon local ways of life, particularly in the case of a majority o f the population between 14 and 30 departing to seek employment elsewhere. While vulnerability is sometimes thought to be a fairly narrowly defined construct—to be unprotected, exposed to danger or attack, able to be hurt or wounded— upon more in-depth scrutiny we find that vulnerability is a broader construct that influences many other aspects of one’s life. The interviewees in this study have discussed their particular stories; that is, how they decided to participate in non-formal education programs, how they were able to commute to the program and how they lived their lives while studying or after graduating. They also talked 149 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. about how they had left their families and homes and how the actions of others in their social networks and the circumstances of their lives have affected their own lives. Diaspora, a term which more broadly encompasses the complex and multiple relationships migrants have with their native lands and new places where they work and live, describes an important factor in the increasing vulnerability of poor women with little or no * education interviewed for this study (Huang, Teo and Yeoh, 2000). Although globalization and diaspora do not necessarily share the same causes, they occur together with significant social and economic impact, particularly upon impoverished populations. Within the context in which women in this study lived, diaspora meant that neighbors and family members left home to go elsewhere in Thailand or out o f the country to earn funds to send back to their families. Many study participants participated in this emigration either temporarily or permanently as a result of economic difficulties or military conflicts. Interviewee data indicated that their experience of migration for unskilled work occurred in circumstances which were different and degrading in comparison to the migration experience of skilled workers (IOM, 2003). Due to the historical, political and economic relations between northern Thais, border dwellers and the Thai government, the poorest and least educated population is the most 150 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. marginalized. Study participants from these areas shared their stories, which yielded patterns tying together commonalities between women in each program as well as linking the larger group in a framework of vulnerability, concerning their risk of exploitation. O f particular note are participants’ experiences and thoughts about learning to cope with marginalization starting in their childhood. Women recounted the construction of personal vulnerability as occurring through a complex interaction of factors that defined their lives, expectations, and their beliefs, first as children and later as adults. Their vulnerability took many different forms and originated through different combinations of events and factors over time. It is therefore important to understand vulnerability in the individual and larger environmental context. This chapter presents and discusses a framework of vulnerability of marginalized northern Thai women that emerged from the study data. According to Strauss & Corbin, “the broader conditions that affect the phenomenon under study must be built into its explanation (and that)... any change must be linked to the conditions that gave rise to it” (1990). The chapter is organized into four sections: the first two sections provide an overview of the factors of vulnerability in terms of (A) study participants and (B) non-formal education programs. Section (C) introduces the framework of vulnerability and the organization o f vulnerability categories. The concluding section (D) uses personal histories to illuminate each category o f vulnerability. 151 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In subsequent chapters, the design and curriculum of each NFE program is described along with student profiles, student motivation to participate in NFE and the impact of the program upon the students are all explored. A) Participant Vulnerability: Twenty-eight female participants in a non-formal education (NFE) program in northern Thailand were interviewed for this study. These women, with few exceptions, have little or no education, are poor and have had no previous non-formal education or vocational training. All interviewees participated in either a Non-Government Organization (NGO) or the Thai Ministry of Education Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE) program. The two NGO programs were the Development Education Program-Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) and the Self-Empowerment Program of Women (SEPOM). These programs will be explored in detail in following chapters. This study focused on the north of Thailand, which borders with Burma. This area has been a site of military and political unrest for many years, featuring incursions of militia from both countries, hunting of hill-tribes on both sides of the borders and porous borders for traffickers of humans. Even when active fighting has stopped, uncertainty of renewed military conflict or extortion by criminals or police looms. Lingering uncertainty destabilizes the 152 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. uprooted or shrinking families and survivors who pay a high price for the long-term lack o f stability as well as the inability o f the Thai government to legalize the status o f refugees, hill-tribes and others without identity cards. For those who grew up speaking a hill-tribe language or Burmese and without access to school, they face the difficulty o f learning Thai as an adult in a foreign land if they are fortunate enough to be admitted to a Thai school or adult class accessible to them. D em ographic characteristics revealed by interview data illustrated the pow er o f the intersection o f poverty and lack o f educational access to m arginalize study participants. D ifficult living conditions becam e an incentive for m any w om en to leave their hom es at young ages. Interview ees explained that their ignorance and innocence w ere im plicated in abuses they experienced after leaving hom e. Som e participants left hom e because o f dom estic abuse. Lack o f educational access w as a recurring them e. Interview ees reported that m ale siblings in poor fam ilies had different choices than females: boys w ere given first chance at school in fam ilies w ith lim ited funds and could also receive free education in a B uddhist tem ples. Participants recounted substantially different opportunities and experiences for m ales com pared w ith fem ales. Boys had few er dom estic chores, had m ore authority over fam ily resources, and had greater access 153 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to lim ited fam ily funds. These realities point to gender as a salient factor in restricting w om en’s lives. D em ographic characteristics o f interview ees are listed in Table 4-1: Table 4-1: Interviewees according to demographic characteristics Study Participant Age Children and Ages Marital Status Work Status NFE Program o f Participation Inka 18 0 Single works at school. DEPDC Bua 18 0 Single works at school. DEPDC Sala 18 0 Single works in school cafeteria DEPDC Fran 18 0 Single works at school DEPDC Lia 18 0 Single Lives with mother, no job DNFE Bela 18 0 Single DEPDC Kindergarten Teacher DEPDC Sylvia 18 0 Single Lives with friend, works in restaurant DNFE Nan 22 0 Single Sewing factory worker DEPDC Nu 23 0 Single Sewing factory worker DEPDC Mia 24 0 Single Lives with aunt, no job DNFE Pia 24 0 Single Weaving teacher DEPDC Dela 25 0 Single DEPDC Staff Trainer DEPDC Ting 25 1 (9 year) Widowed Lives with daughter, works in bar DNFE Liam 27 2 (3, 7 year) Separated Lives with family SEPOM Bualom 28 2 (5 year old twins) Separated Lives with family SEPOM Loy 28 2 (3.5, 7 year) Married Sews for customers at home DNFE Su 29 0 Divorced Lives alone, SEPOM office staff SEPOM Tina 29 0 Single Runs small sewing & bookstore business DNFE Lulu 30 0 Separated Lives alone, works in bar DNFE Nina 30 0 Single Lives in as domestic DNFE Pra 32 1 (lyr) Married Farmer, SEPOM staff SEPOM Duan 33 4 (4-14) Separated Lives with family SEPOM Nancy 33 0 Separated Restaurant worker DNFE Terry 33 2 (5,13 year) Married Sewing factory worker DNFE Nan 33 0 Married Farmer, Lives with family SEPOM Kek 34 1 (4 year) Divorced Works in bar, Lives with son DNFE Lisa 42 1 (15 year) Married Home sewing & laundiy business DNFE Sada 45 2 (8, 13 year) Divorced Lives without children, masseuse SEPOM Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Participant data is coded and lists name, age, number of children (if any), marital and work status, and the non-formal education program chosen by participants.:Study participants came from a variety of living situations. Half the study participants were single (14), while five were separated from a husband, five were married, three were divorced and one woman was widowed. A discussion of participant demographics follows the table. Less than half of participants (ten) had children, while many of the mothers had two or more children. Seventeen o f the 28 participants were aged 18-30 while two were over 40 years old. About one third of the participants (eleven) were in the Thai government Department of Non-Formal Education program (DNFE), another third (nine) in the NGO program, Development Education Program-Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) and less than one-third (seven) in the NGO program, Self Empowerment Program of Migrant Workers (SEPOM). Eleven interviewees came from either the far northern provinces of Chiang Rai while and another 11 from the northern province (northern capital) of Chiang Mai. Three were refugees from Burma and four were hill-tribe members, all seven without Thai citizenship, some of whom did not have official immigration status. Overall, interviewees over 20 years old tended to be single heads of household and worked full time at one or more jobs. Those women with children lived with them for the most 155 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. part, but children tended to have less supervision than traditional family units due to lack of childcare support. Interviewees under 20 years of age either lived on the DEPDC campus or at home with a parent. Most o f these younger participants had either jobs or responsibilities where they lived that kept them fully occupied in addition to their studies. B) Vulnerability by Program: Non-formal education program participants interviewed for this study represented a smaller microcosm o f the total population o f women participating in the three NFE research programs. One government program, DNFE, was chosen, and two NGO programs, DEPDC and SEPOM, were chosen for this study, all in northern Thailand. Each program represented females at different points in their life cycle and relative vulnerability to exploitation. Table 4-2. Vulnerability and NFE Programs Stage of Life Low Vulnerability Middle Vulnerability High Vulnerability Teenage, never traffficked DEPDC DEPDC Adult, never trafficked DNFE DNFE Adult, trafficked SEPOM SEPOM Most interviewees at the government program, DNFE, and one NGO program, DEPDC, a campus program for children and teenagers reported no contact with traffickers, while a few at each program had turned down offers or knew other women who worked in the sex industry. 156 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Three women at DNFE worked in the entertainment industry at night, a frequent euphemism for the sex industry. Younger single participants in all programs, tended to have a higher overall number of vulnerability factors, of high and low weight. Some participants came to NFE programs having moved nearby from other towns because they were escaping difficult situations, or looking for direction in life. Other women had been unsuccessful at school and/or they lacked familial, relationship, or vocational ties to cement them to their communities. Table4-3 below indicates the number of women in each category of vulnerability. Table 4-3. Participants according to Vulnerability and NFE Program Level of Vulnerability NFE Program Participants at each level of vulnerability Total participants in each category Low Vulnerability DNFE 4 5 DEPDC 1 Middle Vulnerability DNFE 6 13 DEPDC 4 SEPOM 3 High Vulnerability DNFE 2 1 1 DEPDC 5 SEPOM 4 C) Vulnerability Framework: The idea of vulnerability emerged from the data as a pattern repeated in different intensities in the lives of all participants. Vulnerabilities in different degrees suggested linkages between the micro level of interviewee personal histories and the macro level structural factors that context both the risks attendant upon these women and the potential of NFE programs to help 157 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. deal with these problems. Micro level factors constitute of social, cultural and economic factors that cause women to be exploited and trapped into trafficking or other exploitation. Macro level structural factors comprise the loose webbing that ties together the potential of non-formal education, informal and formal support systems that cooperate to deal with the forces that marginalize and traffic women. Analysis of field research data generated recurring themes in experiences, individual characteristics, and environmental influences upon interviewees that resolved into factors denoting vulnerability. Commonalities among participants can be categorized into socio-economic status; family beliefs, perceptions of females; cultural and religious norms subordinating females; exposure to media and environmental messages reinforcing an objectified image of females. Socio-economic status centers around the common experience of poverty linked to early school drop out and continuous financial pressure. Family beliefs and perceptions surrounded schooling decisions, role of females in terms of household, garden, farm labor, and whether females were considered an economic commodity. Societal and religious norms influenced females self-image in a low status service function reinforced by Buddhist doctrine that females are unworthy and corrupt while making them responsible for family well-being. Media 158 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. messages extend the western capitalist message of consumerism combined with patriarchal norms of competition and discrimination against females resulting in unequal pay and opportunities. Messages of western standards of beauty reinforce women’s poor self-image and efforts to gain approval from males. Undercurrents from Thai society mediated these circumstances: unequal social status put women at a further disadvantage economically, psychologically and culturally. Gender, poverty and language are all salient parts in the structure of inequitable social and economic fabric that compose the conditions and circumstances of vulnerability. The vulnerability of marginalized women relates directly to their risk of trafficking or other exploitation as well as to their decision to participate in NFE. As interviewees shared their stories about the external and internal forces that influenced them, it became clear that certain events, conditions, or experiences repeated in their lives contributed to or mitigated their individual relative vulnerability to exploitation or abuse. For example, one woman described her childhood living in a farm silo because it was the only available housing for her mother’s single female-headed household. This interviewee, who continues to be at high vulnerability, was forced to drop out o f school due to family poverty. She married an abusive husband and was later recruited to Bangkok by traffickers as a teenager 159 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. under false pretenses to work in the sex industry. Afterward, her parents persuaded her to emigrate to Japan. She was coerced to sexually serve customers there in prison-like conditions from which she is still trying to recover from nine years later. Her self-esteem is dependent upon a man although she sees herself as a competent NGO representative at workshops and coalition meetings. Table 4-4 below organizes the key factors relating to the relative weight of women’s vulnerability. Lower weight factors are separated into two areas, family or personal instability. Table 4-4. Individual Vulnerability Factors Lower Weight Factors: Higher Weight Factors: Family Instability: 1. Poverty 1. Parent’s break up or second marriage 2. Education: lack of schooling 2. Living with people other than biological 3. Family: lack of family support parents or interest in education 3. Alcoholism or gambling in family 4. Low Self-Esteem 4. Domestic violence 5. Physical/Sexual Violence Personal Instability: 5. Living in post-armed conflict areas (border with Burma) 6. Internal displacement/lack of legal status (hill tribes, refugees) 7. Lack of fluency in local language (Thai) and culture Interview data yielded patterns of experiences that influenced their lives. Factors in the high weight column were those experiences that constrained interviewees the most. These factors were the difficult or impossible for women to overcome or change, particularly gendered socio-economic forces that dominated women’s consciousness. Women with high weight 160 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. characteristics were, in many cases, trafficked or exploited before they joined the non-formal education program. Lack of education limited women’s choice of work while poverty often drove them away from their home to seek income. Several participants indicated that these factors drew them to the path they took, that it was the only choice they had. Further discussion of participant motivation to study in non-formal education programs is in the following chapters. For interviewees, growing up poor meant that scarce resources were diverted to male siblings or were simply unavailable for their education. It also meant that generating income was usually top priority for their parents and themselves. Female children in Thailand are considered more responsible for their parents’ welfare than male children. Lack o f education often derived from economic constraints-the opportunity cost of their labor or income to their parents was too high. One reason for low access and/or retention was the fact that not all villages have primary or secondary schools and commuting to school was problematic for female children. Another reason is that girls from different cultural or linguistic traditions (hill-tribe, Burmese) or with parents with low educational attainment had inherent obstacles in understanding classroom language used or the assumptions at work in the classroom. At home, this meant that these girls had little support to achieve scholastic persistence or success. This lack o f family support took many forms - from negative attitudes towards any education of girls by 161 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. extended family and community to the aforementioned preference of spending limited resources on male children. Thai culture in general and Theravada Buddhist religious culture in particular considers females to be less worthy or valuable than males. As this differential was exhibited in economic, scholastic and social treatment o f females, interviewees internalized a discourse of female subordination and lower expectations resulting in low self-esteem. Interviewees who had been trafficked or abused considered themselves to be of low value and had little self-confidence. Finally, physical or sexual violence experienced as child and adult left a shadow that colored many decisions and personal beliefs. There was a recurring pattern of domestic violence in the family that was later mirrored in the violence experienced by high vulnerability interviewees in the sex industry. Many interviewees who shared such experiences appeared more timid and self-effacing than study interviewees who did not have these experiences. Timidity and low self-esteem are difficult companions on the road to empowerment. Lower weight vulnerability factors were described by interviewees as constraints, concerns, or obstacles, that, in many cases, continue to this day. Low weight factors are different from high weight in that their impact has not been immutable and may have been easier to overcome, unlike the high weight factors. For interviewees, growing up with one instead of 162 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. two parents meant that there was less income in the household. The deeper the poverty o f the family, the more pressure on children to augment family income in some way. One parent household in these cases meant that the head of household, if single, had to work fulltime and sometimes more than one job. Consequently the traditional structure of supervision of the children and family dynamics changed. If the parent acquired a new partner or re-married, research shows that the adult not biologically related to the children usually have little investment in nurturing someone else’s children. Domestic violence, sexual or physical, of children and/or spouse often resulted from this new pairings. Domestic violence and abuse of children was not restricted to re-arranged family units, as this also occurred in the intact family units. Intact marriage units were weakened by internal fissures resulting from poverty, alcoholism, gambling and/or sexual partners outside marriage. All these habits cost money, which was in short supply in poor, remote environmentally degraded or depopulated farming families or small villages suffering from border depredations, migration and/or razing. 1) Structural complexity of vulnerability: The data generated from study participants indicates that vulnerability cannot be determined completely by a woman’s social, economic, physical or geographic characteristics, or choice o f non-formal education program. The micro factors described above are only part of the 163 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. story. Vulnerability alone does not folly account for the movement into exploitative circumstances, such as sex work or trafficking, by many girls and women as is seen by the numbers of educated middle class girls and women voluntarily entering the sex sector. Data indicates that many women who have been trafficked initially enter sex work voluntarily but lose their freedom, suffer abuse, and often incur ruinous debts, which cause additional bondage. Those who have been trafficked not only experience many of the conditions of vulnerability but experience these conditions within a complex environment that features inequities founded upon gender differences and the low social capital of individuals coming from conditions of poverty, disrupted families and inability to understand the culture and language of traffickers and/or the destination country. The experiences vulnerable women had as children and adults mediate their well-being in negative ways. This environment of experience related to trafficking is made up, on a personal and internal level, of early influences and choices, the presence or absence of a sense of personal agency and existence of positive self-perception. In terms of external influences, this environment comprises the emergence and/or timing of procurement agents, the receptivity of parents or guardians or spouses to these agents, as well as other actors/influences that may act upon the process of empowerment of an individual interviewee. More recently, these 164 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. environmental conditions culminated in study participants’ decision to participate in an NFE program, despite several obstacles. Thai cultural mores of subordination contributed to women’s belief that they were less important than men and that women should sacrifice themselves for their families. Familial and employer insistence that girls obey their dictates and disincentives for females to take any role in solving their problems created learned low self-esteem. Actions by these females to change their self-concept that would go beyond their immediate responsibilities was discouraged by their families, neighbors and communities. When women who had been trafficked found themselves in confinement and forced labor situations, they had no control over any aspect o f their daily existence. Many reported feelings of helplessness, depression or apathy and were unable to take any action to change their situation, particularly when they felt themselves to be alone. Women who displayed independent behavior such as arranging time for education, participation in NFE, or other activities that did not include family or that was sanctioned by community members reported being criticized by family or neighbors. Other women in survivors’ home villages considered efforts they made to change or improve their situation as frivolous or hopeless. Gendered notions of differential value for girls and boys in Thailand lead to different life choices. The extreme level of poverty that an interviewees’ female-headed 165 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. household experienced meant tight restrictions on choices available to the interviewee, her siblings and her mother. She said that sex work was the only choice for her and her older sister to make enough money for the whole family, although her brother found work as a laborer. Another interviewee said she and her sister were the only ones responsible for her parents after her brother left to become a monk. The social, economic and political status of females in Thailand is subordinate to males and drives the genders into very different life paths. The lower status of females is derived from historical and religious sources. Fundamental tenets of Theravada Buddhism hold that women and men belong in entirely separate places. Only males can aspire to become monks or religious leaders such as abbots. Females are considered unclean and may never come into contact with religious males, but may serve them. Females are allowed to become nuns, who have lower status than, and live separately from monks. Females are encouraged to take responsibility for others, for example, to provide all child and senior care, to turn a blind eye and excuse their husband’s extra-marital relationships. One woman said that it was her fault that she became pregnant and was subsequently forced by her husband to have an abortion. She said: “I was lazy about protection”. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The combination of cultural expectations, poverty, and lower status for females places a heavy burden on female children to provide for their families where opportunities to earn sufficient income to fulfill obligations and expectations are very limited. Children in Thailand are expected to be obedient to their parents and to make spiritual ‘merit’ for their parents. Males traditionally achieve merit for their parents by a brief sojourn as an apprentice monk. Females do not have this option and have been traditionally expected to make merit by providing for their parent’s material well being. Many girls and women who left home to work send money or material goods home to their parents. This is one of the few routes in which they may achieve Buddhist ‘merit’ (positive status) within the family and community. Gender and poverty alone, however, are insufficient to explain vulnerability due to additional difficulties experienced by women from hill-tribes and towns on both sides o f the Thai-Burmese border. For these women, they are additionally vulnerable to exploitation by a level of cultural and linguistic isolation that must be taken into account. 2) Categories of Vulnerability: For the purposes of this study, the categorization of study participants is constructed on three levels of vulnerability based on factors described earlier in this chapter and illustrated in interview data. Each non-formal education research program had participants who fit into more 167 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. than one category of vulnerability. Nevertheless, each program targeted a certain profile of participants, which resulted in commonalities among program participants. Female participants described their tendency to seek out others with similar characteristics or experiences. The combination of non-formal education programs and participants seeking certain characteristics or a level of comfort in similarity resulted in groupings of participant characteristics and patterns of experiences within a program. Each NFE program had participants in at least two o f the three categories. Interviewees in the Low Vulnerability category were primarily participants in the government NFE program (DNFE). An individual with a low level of vulnerability may have one or more lower weight factors (parent’s break up or second marriage, alcoholism or gambling in family, domestic violence, living in armed conflict areas, internal displacement or lack of legal status, living with adults other than biological parents, lack of fluency in local language). These interviewees had no high weight factors and therefore possess fewer handicaps and obstacles as caused by high weight vulnerability factors than individuals in the higher vulnerability categories. They may have less difficulty with exploitation or abuse in achieving an improved quality of life (economic stability or strong self-image) than other study participants. The DNFE program had the most interviewees in this category. 168 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Interviewees in the Middle Vulnerability category were also found at all three NFE programs. An individual with a middle level of vulnerability may have one higher weight factor (poverty, lack of/reduced schooling, lack of family support, low self-esteem, (physical/sexual violence). She has one or more lower weight factors. These interviewees have more difficulties than those women with only low weight factors but consider that they are or have been able to counteract some of their handicaps or obstacles placed by higher weight vulnerability factors and had less difficulty with exploitation, abuse or difficulties in achieving an improved quality of life than women in the highest vulnerability category. All three NFE programs had interviewees in this category. The high vulnerability category was composed primarily of NGO participants who remained at the highest risk. An individual with a high level of vulnerability has at least two high weight factors (poverty, lack of/reduced schooling, lack of family support, low self-esteem, physical/sexual violence) that may be augmented by Low weight factors. Those interviewees possessing more than one of the higher weight vulnerability factors tended to have a greater experience of exploitation, abuse or difficulties in achieving an improved quality of life (economic stability or strong self-image). Two women in this category attended DNFE programs, but were isolated from other participants and their teacher due to the nature of their 169 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. work. Their schedules did not permit them to regularly attend classes. Each category of vulnerability is illustrated later in this chapter with participant profiles. Patterns in participant data indicated that even several low weight factors in combination (low vulnerability) did not negatively influence the lives of poor women as much as two or more high weight factors (high vulnerability). Table 4-5 below illustrates allocation of weight factors for each category of vulnerability. Table 4-5. Vulnerability Category Composition By Factor Weight Low Vulnerability Middle Vulnerability High Vulnerability Three or less Low weight factors Three or more Low Weight factors, or One High Weight factor More than two High Weight factors, can be added to Low Weight factors The above categories of vulnerability are not static, rather, when positive counterbalancing factors appear, such as family, community and/or group support, NFE interventions in the form of social networks, access to education, and training, participants often experienced a shift down from higher to lower level of vulnerability. Several interviewees explained that social support and educational opportunities available at NFE programs were critical counterbalancing factors that made it possible for them to change and improve aspects of their lives and/or self-perceptions. The desire for change was a particularly strong motivation for women to join NFE participants. Participants often became inspired to seek change through NFE by 170 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. encountering an NFE graduate, NFE teacher or other role model who influenced them to improve their lives and join a program. Both NGO research programs, SEPOM and DEPDC, offer psychological and emotional support as part of their educational offerings. Some interviewees ascribe positive shifts in self-perception to training and staff interventions. One very confident DEPDC alumnae and current staff member explained that she completely changed her idea of herself from being a tool to director of her life. She said that she had never realized that she could make decisions for and about herself until she was brought into DEPDC. She says she knows she is qualified for a variety of training and professional jobs if she chose to leave the NGO. Interviewees who shifted down to a lower level of vulnerability indicated that several factors were at work. Key factors were their freedom, financial ability and motivation to finish school, and/or learn a skill. O f those women who completed their vocational or general studies, several resolved to work in professions that involved helping others, necessitating the acquisition of high-level skills or knowledge. Some younger women specifically stated a goal to stay away from the sex industry - despite parental importuning - due to their increased self-esteem from NFE studies. One young woman at DEPDC started off with many high weight factors for 171 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vulnerability and overcame them. She graduated from secondary school while living at DEPDC and plans to work there as a staff member to help other vulnerable children. Factors of vulnerability clustered along NFE program lines. Women and girls with similar levels of vulnerability tended to be recruited within a program. All programs had participants who fit into several different levels of vulnerability. At DEPDC, highly vulnerable children and adolescents were identified and moved to safe campuses of the NGO. These DEPDC students started out in crisis situations and were highly vulnerable. After several years on campus and completion o f high school, many young women shifted down into the middle vulnerability category. Their internal belief system and external environment had changed significantly and allowed these participants to forecast a very different future for themselves. Other young women were highly vulnerable throughout their time at DEPDC and continued to be under pressure from poor parents or relatives to leave school and work in the sex or sweatshop sector to generate income for their families. Some of these students progressed more slowly in their studies compared to their peers. In some cases the NGO kept them longer than their peers on campus for their safety or well-being. Families and communities were significant factors influencing the relative vulnerability of interviewees. Since all interviewees were adult women 18 or older at the time of the study, 172 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. many had their own husbands and/or families and no longer lived with their parents or other relatives. For women with their own families, factors promoting or reducing her stability might include: the existence (or lack) of a husband or domestic partner, whether this partner lived with her, who contributed income to the household, whether this partner’s values supported or inhibited the well-being and education of the participant, and if she had offspring, the needs and safety of those children, and whether or not her partner fathered the children. For women living at home and/or supporting their parents, factors influencing their sense of stability was related to the presence or absence of family or supportive networks: whether these existed; whether they were functional; whether family networks were intact or stable; level of family income; whether or not participants felt they belonged in their communities and/or identified with a different community, culture/language or group. One DNFE graduate explained that it was necessary for her to re-create her family unit to exclude her violence prone husband. This reconfiguration helped her shift down her vulnerability since she felt safer and more stable once she was in control of the household and could protect her daughter, herself and their income. D) Personal Histories: The following section features profiles of individual interviewees in each category of vulnerability. These profiles represent personal illustrations of the impact of the structural forces 173 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of poverty, gender and limited educational access. Three levels of vulnerability are introduced through individual profiles and histories according to the above table. Profile 1: High Vulnerability Su’s Story: This interviewee is a participant and member of a non-formal educational program in this study. The effort to fight poverty and its consequences permeates her life through the present day. Su had to drop out of school at grade six despite the fact that she won a scholarship for middle school. Her mother raised Su and her siblings far away from the support of her home community in Northeast Thailand in order to follow her husband. Su’s older sister left home early to work in the sex trade and sends money back to her family. All the children had to do laundry and help with cooking, forage food and kindling, washing, fetch water with a bamboo pole that was very far away in the dry season. Su’s particular tasks were to help her mother to cook and harvest vegetables. They lived up on a mountain in an agricultural silo on her aunt’s property since they could not afford a home. The girls were required to help in the home and to fetch and carry up and down the mountain frequently. The boys had different tasks, such as helping in her aunt’s fields. Su said that neither her parents nor the local village believed in education for girls. Her brother was able to leave home early to 174 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. become a monk temporarily until he completed his education. He is now married. Su and her sisters had to stay at home and help her mother, who could neither afford her school clothing costs nor the lost opportunity cost of her lost wages during schooling. When she dropped out of school, her aunt received a commission to install Su as a maid to work both in the home and the shop of a wealthy local family. At the age of 11, Su’s work schedule was from 5 am to 6 pm, six days a week, for which she received 400 baht a month, about U.S. $16. (2002 value). She did not know how to clean, since she grew up in the silo so the family’s cook taught her how to clean the house. On Su’s one day off she was required to help her employer sell products in their grocery store. Her desire to both escape the penury of a life that denied her a basic education and living wage was further fueled by her need to add to her family’s income. When her father quit his overseas construction job in the Middle East, he came back to live with her mother and siblings. There were bad feelings between her family and her aunt since they farmed her aunt’s rice but received poor quality rice and food from her. Her aunt had loaned them some money as well. Su’s father bought some land for her family. Her father told Su that she should not work so hard and to quit the maid job. After Su had been home awhile, she started 175 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. working at a local shop. She said she enjoyed her job there, learning how to sing by listening and practicing to the store music. When she was working, she met the man she later married. He was twice her age. She said “I was so flattered by the attentions of this man since he had a high status job, and he was free.. .and divorced.. .and he promised me a way out of poverty”. After they were married, he was so jealous of her that he locked her in the bedroom when he left for work, not allowing her access to even a bathroom. He became increasingly physically violent. The end of the marriage occurred when she woke up on the floor of the bedroom with no memory of what happened. Her memory came back slowly in the hospital and she remembered that her husband had beaten her senseless in a rage. Su's early experience of marriage cost her dearly, and lowered her self-esteem. It took her a long time to pay for the medical because she was unable to earn money until she was appeared normal. Until then, she was unable to go out in public because physical appearance of females is a critical component of feminine value/worth in Thailand. For this reason, Su said it was not as important to investigate brain or eye damage. She said it was enough that she could function, despite patchy memory and restricted vision in one eye. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Su said she tried to forget her pain and humiliation at the hands of her husband by partying with her friends in local discos. A Bangkok brothel agent approached her and her friends several times there. The agent showed them pictures of nice houses and clothes and described ‘hostess work’ they could do to earn lots of money. Her whole group of friends agreed to go together, so the agent gave them each 5000 baht to give their families with the proviso that they did not explain what they were doing. At the last minute, all of her friends backed out and she went alone. The agent paid for Su’s plastic surgery to make her nose more western, so she had to wait until her face had healed. The first day she was ready to go to work, she was forced to go into a massage parlor where customers paid for sex. A male staff member raped her and other new girls. This continued alternated with beatings until the girls became obedient. Su says her work schedule was so tiring that after awhile she could not have fought even if she wanted to. At the age of 16 years, Su worked straight from noon to midnight or afterwards if there were clients. They had to pay 20 baht a day and housing was provided. Housing was added to their rapidly expanding debt as were the costs of clothing required by the brothel and the cost of Su’s plastic surgery. She remembers the dread with which she heard the banging on her door every morning at 11:00 am. She said she was jealous of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. one girl who was bought by a customer to be his exclusive ‘little wife’ for 300,000 baht, which cancelled her debt to the brothel. After three months, she ran away to her sister who lived in a different part o f Bangkok. She had recently retired from the sex industry. Su gave up her freedom in an attempt to rescue a friend at the brothel, which failed when the friend betrayed her. Su was kept captive at the brothel and beaten severely in front of the twenty other women and male staff held at this brothel. After she recovered, she managed to flee again, this time to a friend’s home in another part of the Thailand, the south. Her friends’ boyfriend bought them both clothes and food until he discovered his girlfriend had a younger boyfriend. He kicked both women out of his home. Su went to work in a strip club. She explained that she could not go home empty handed because her parents were simple uneducated folk. It was the duty of the daughters to help her parents and younger siblings. After she had earned a total of 3,000 Baht (U.S. $120) in three months she went home to her family and bought things for them. She refused an offer to earn more per night in another brothel. Eventually her money ran out at home, so she went back to work in the shop where she had first met her ex-husband. The agent from the Bangkok brothel tracked her there and embarrassed her by announcing in front of the entire shop that she owed Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20,000 baht (US $800) and that she had to come back and work it off. She said that the owner of the shop and the customers all chipped in to pay off the debt to the agent. Su said that the shop owner liked Su because she dated his customers after work. She remembers that a man from Bangkok really liked her and said he would pay a lot of money if she left with him. She decided to leave the shop because the owner started expecting her to sleep with customers as well as work so she returned to her family after paying back the B 20,000. When she returned home, she found that her father was heavily in debt and mortgaged their land and home. Their home was threatened and many things were repossessed because they did not have the money to pay. Her parents had been targeted by a trafficking agent and were eager for the money promised if Su went with them. Once she was en route to Japan, Sue said lost any control over her circumstances. At the age of 17, Su was again working in the entertainment industry but had no idea of how much debt she had incurred. She was told she would work in a snack bar and was surprised and distressed to be forced to serve sexually any customer that was sent to her. She described the intense pressure she was under to make a lot of money for her new bosses, to pay back her debt, and to send money back to her family. She said she Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. could not choose or change customers that were sent to her and she was not allowed to complain. She described how tired and bored she was while at the same time her fear grew because she was not allowed to talk about her experiences. Sue described her day-to-day experience in the brothel as one of utter powerlessness. Her fatigue from long days on her feet or serving customers was made worse by the coercion to serve anyone. She added: “I was very confused by many things and could not confide or consult anyone”. She said she was so bored, scared and stressed from the prohibition about talking that she trusted a Japanese gangster (yakuza) when he invited her to leave with him. When he raped her and forced her to become a prostitute for him, she lost all her self-confidence. He controlled her through fear and taking all her money away from her. The only way she was able to escape this situation was to escape, and temporarily become homeless. In the end, she returned to the brothel for 18 months in order to earn enough money to return home. Su said she was happy to see her family and they were happy to see her. She spent the money she had earned to purchase many things for them, but it did not make her feel any better and she found herself trying to escape. After nine years, she met Paula, another non-formal program member and things slowly started to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. change for her. Although Su returned from being trafficked to Japan for sex sector work over 11 years ago, she never contacted other survivors. Su felt that there was very little worthwhile dwelling on in her past and she thought that people did not want to hear her story. Once people knew what had happened to her, they often condemned her. She describes the relief she felt after listening to Paula's story which allowed her, after long last, to talk about her own experiences. Ultimately, she said that "...it helps me a lot because I know that I am not alone any m ore.. .1 am not so depressed like I was", which enabled her to talk about her experiences and help other women in similar situations. Su says that she did not realize what had really happened to her for a long time and kept trying to escape her memories and sadness. There are elements of this need to escape that seem to still haunt her today, as when she drops work and school for a boyfriend, or seeks distraction instead of confrontation with her problems. Profile 2: Middle Vulnerability: Bua’s Story: Bua originally comes from a small village in the poor county of Mae Suai in the province of Chiang Rai. She is almost finished with high school and studies in a sewing class. Prior to 181 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. this, Bua spent three years before that at another non-formal educational facility. Bua was unable to finish primary school in her home village for several reasons. She did not grow up speaking Thai so classroom language was difficult for her. Her family is very poor and could not afford to buy her school uniforms and supplies and they needed her labor. Hill-tribe families operate in a different cultural and linguistic milieu than ‘lowland’ Thais and have fewer social services than Thai villages. Bua was at high risk of trafficking since hill-tribes are particularly targeted by criminals. She grew up far away from Thai transportation routes and mainstream culture, although she was fortunate enough to have a public school not too far away from her home. Bua has spent almost no time with her family since finishing sixth grade at her first campus. Her home village does not have a secondary school so she would have had to travel long distances or live away from her family if she had completed primary school in her home village. Her father and mother are from two different hill tribes, which meant that no one in her family has full citizenship papers or rights. Bua is the third of seven kids and she is the first to enter secondary school. Her eldest sister has never been to school, Bua explained, because it was the responsibility o f the eldest child to take care of the other children. Bua was almost pulled out of school several times but fought this because she loved school and really wanted to study. Because 182 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bua does not have full Thai citizenship and would probably not have been allowed to commute to secondary school without proper identity papers since travelers are often stopped by the police. She said she often cried when she felt she would fall behind her peers and lose her chance to learn. Because her parents saw she really wanted to finish primary school, they helped her get information about the government school in a large nearby city where she could live. When she arrived at the school, she was put to work as a cleaner, with little time or support to go to classes. She had no friends at the school where she worked. A counselor from a non-formal educational (NFE) program visited to that school and met her after teachers and school staff pointed her out as being a child at risk. The NFE staff examined her case, interviewed her and offered her the chance to study in their program and finish school. Bua described her feelings about school when she lived at home: “I thought learning is fun so I would go to school even if I was sick because my mother did not believe me if I was ill. She would find chores for me to do anyway or take me to the fields.. .she just thought I was too lazy.” Her parents farmed fields of rice and com crops and maintained lychee fruit trees for the owners. Bua was sad to leave home where she had lots of friends and she could read, sing, listen to music and play with sounds. She explained that her father left her mother several years ago 183 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and her mother has a drinking problem. Bua explained that her mother does not farm anymore since they lost their land, so she worries about her mother who may not have enough money or food and is unwell. Her mother has been pressuring Bua to drop out of school to work and earn money for her. Her mother has been offered a lot of money for Bua to work in the sex industry. Bua felt scared in the past when teachers or bosses just told her what to do. She said she knew children often got hit when they did not reply quickly enough. She says it is different at the NFE program, because the teacher interacted directly with her instead of remaining at a distance. Bua now commutes to the nearby NFE center with other high school students. She is determined to finish school because she likes school and because she wants to get a job that is more challenging than cleaning or selling her body. So far she has resisted her mother’s entreaties but she feels guilty. Bua said she is similar to many other NFE students in being is the only member of her family to enter secondary school. Profile 3: Low Vulnerability: Nancy’s Story: Nancy is a student in non-formal educational program. She was the poorest o f this group and grew up on a poor farm. She came from a family of four kids in a central Thai village. 184 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. They live in her father’s village although her mother is from Bangkok. Her father’s job as a truck driver and a mechanic did not provide enough to pay for the children’s school supplies, so she had to move to her aunt’s house to finish primary school. Nancy was allowed to go to primary school if she made enough money to pay for her school supplies. Her mother taught her how to make sweet ice cones, which she sold at school. It was necessary for her to walk to the local grocery store several times a day to purchase ice and syrup to make the cones. This left her little time for her classes. She sold the confection starting as a nine year old until she was 13. Her mother trained her for one day outside school and then left her to sell cones alone. When Nancy finished sixth grade at age 13, she was sent to live with her aunt about 50 kilometers away who could support her through ninth grade at a non-formal education center. She was the only one of the children to live away from home. Nancy said “I have always been very independent, maybe starting when I left hom e...or when my mother taught me to earn my own money for school.” She only lived with her mom and dad for preschool, which seems to have strongly influenced her sense of self. Nancy said that her family’s attitude towards education was different in each generation. Her grandparents did not think that education was necessary for kids beyond fourth grade. Her parents, who only had fourth grade education, felt differently. They told Nancy and her siblings that less education means fewer career choices, so 185 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. they wanted their kids to work with their heads and not their hands. Her parents worked hard on their animal farm in Ratchaburi province in central Thailand. They had chickens, pigs and ducks and had to feed, clean, butcher and sell the meat. They make more money now than before, selling herbs. Nancy’s older sister obtained a four-year university degree and her younger brother is in a Master’s degree program. She explained that her parents did not support any of the kids anymore, so everyone pays their own costs. Nancy can read and write Thai at a basic level, what she called “average”, but cautioned “don’t talk about numbers!” when asked about numeracy. She was uncomfortable with her ability to read and write in Thai. She said she could write her name, address, and sewing measurement calculations but she was not proud of her unclear handwriting. Nancy’s self-confidence about her reading and literacy is generally low and she said she could not apply for jobs requiring strong literacy skills. She recently failed the government tourist guide exam that is mandatory for licensed guides. Nancy said she still does not rely much on others for her emotional needs and does not say much about a problem or about herself. She keeps to herself and prefers to be private, even from her boyfriend. She says “my mother raised me to be independent so I could learn on my ow n.. .1 do not blame my mistakes on others.. .by my boyfriend does not want me to be any more independent, like with sewing.” She explained that he did not want her to open up her own 186 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sewing shop or to into business. Over the duration of this study, Nancy’s lifestyle changed. Originally she was living on unemployment insurance and wanted to use her free time constructively by studying sewing. She said she needs to study more than the 300-hour course required because she said she is not good enough in sewing yet. Nancy said she went to the high school equivalency classes at night from 7:00-9:00 pm and obtained her high school degree in this way. She said she chose to study sewing because it will allow her to work on her own, in her apartment and be independent. It seems very important to her to be independent, especially financially. Her dream when she was younger was to become a teacher. She had enjoyed school and thought teachers had more stable lives and were never poor. Nancy recently applied for admission to the local teachers’ college but failed the entrance exam, so continues to work full time, while studying sewing. Her daily sewing classes have become difficult for her during my second visit, as the teacher scolds her lightly for chronically coming in late to class. Now that Nancy is no longer on unemployment insurance, she helped her friend open a restaurant and works there at night. It was difficult for her to wake up early enough in the mornings to get to class. Nancy said she knows women from her village who left with traffickers but she never heard from them again. She said she was approached by an agent before but refused to go with 187 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. them despite her amazement at the amount of money they talked about. She said she did not like the idea that she did not know what she was getting involved in and she could not get enough information about her debt or working conditions. Chapter V: Findings Description of NGO program DEPDC and government program DNFE 188 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Participants, Program Structure and Function Introduction This chapter focuses on two non-formal education programs in this study, one a government-run vocational education program for low-income women in Chiang Mai province and the other an NGO-operated general and vocational education program for at-risk youth (primarily young women and adolescents). The description of two NFE programs and their participants are combined in one chapter due to similarities in teacher approaches, curricular methods, and the ages o f interviewees. Both programs operate NFE sewing classes in a classroom setting near where many participants also participate in DNFE secondary education. NFE sewing teachers at both programs employ Thai cultural norms of seniority and mentoring to reinforce classroom learning and provide student support. The ages of interviewees at both programs overlap in many cases and many come from similar backgrounds. While both governmental and non-governmental organizations in Thailand operate adult learning programs, the nature of participants, type of curriculum and geographical reach differ a great deal. The study participants in the Department of Non-formal Education (DNFE) programs had different learning experiences and tended to be less vulnerable than participants at NGO programs. The national DNFE is well distributed throughout the Northern region of Thailand whereas much smaller NGOs serve a limited area and population. 189 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The first section of this chapter looks at the research results in the NGO Development Education Program-Daughters and Communities (DEPDC). The second section is a discussion of the study results for participants in the Thai government non-formal education program. The DNFE Mae Rim county center reports to and is located close by the DNFE provincial office near Chiang Mai city. The DNFE Mae Rim program is one of 26 county centers in the province of Chiang Mai serving low-income adults and runs vocational and literacy programs in county classrooms. The community centers gather data in nearby villages about community educational interests and needs. The data is sent to the county office to be compiled and reported to the provincial office, which sends reports to the national DNFE office in Bangkok. Like other domestic NGOs in a remote area, the Development Education Program-Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) operates within a limited geographical area and on a tight budget. DEPDC was originally founded in Mae Sai, a northern Thai city on the border with Myanmar (Burma), to prevent forced prostitution and labor o f females vulnerable to exploitation. Other NGOs in Mae Sai serve other needy populations. For example, Empower Mae Sai offers Thai literacy and English classes to current sex workers and Hill Area and Community Development Foundation trains teachers to serve as early warning mechanisms as part of a community network to identify and protect children, particularly hill-tribe, from sexual 190 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. abuse and trafficking. DEPDC has expanded to also serve vulnerable boys at three campuses by offering residential education and vocational training in Chiang Rai province. A) The NGO Program Account: Development Education Program-Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) Introduction This section concerns the non-governmental organization (NGO) program that holds non-formal education programs for children and young adult female participants. This study was conducted over the summer and winter of 2002. There are several reasons that this program was chosen for this study: First, the NGO targets highly vulnerable females who share many of the characteristics of women who have been trafficked. Second, DEPDC’s unusual residential program has boosted its educational completion rate and skills of students who enter the program from disadvantaged low income background. Third, the helpfulness and accessibility of DEPDC staff, volunteers, teachers, and students greatly facilitated the study. This section is organized into five parts. The first part (A) is a short introduction to DEPDC. This is followed by a description (B) of study participants, the experiences that made them vulnerable, and their motivation to study. The third part (C) looks at features of the DEPDC program in two parts: the history and design of the program, staffing and recruiting 191 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. policies. The fourth part (D) examines the teaching and learning practices of the program in two areas: first, the curriculum and teaching methods, and second, the role of modeling in teaching, learning and peer development. The final part (E) consists of a summary o f the program and its accomplishments from the participant’s point of view. 1) Overview: DEPDC is an important program for this study because it serves children and teenagers who are most vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Women who are forcibly trafficked from Thailand come from backgrounds very similar to those of DEPDC participants. Unlike most NGOs serving vulnerable women, DEPDC is able to act upon the idea that living and learning conditions, particularly safe housing are important parts of a solution to truncated schooling as well as negative messages about the worth o f females. DEPDC’s residential campus approach combines secure housing with educational facilities and offers a promising solution for vulnerable females living in unstable situations without financial support for schooling. Other teenage students at DEPDC with more stable living conditions live in the neighborhood with relations or friends of their family and commuted. The DEPDC mission aims to prevent child prostitution and child labor by providing alternative education to females at high risk of exploitation. A safety net for these children is an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. important part of the social network developed by DEPDC. Children and teenagers are increasingly part of forced migration from Burma and the Burmese border with Thailand due to armed hostilities, which endanger the homes, lives and livelihoods of their families. Children from poor families are also at risk. These include children from families in extreme poverty, often with debts, children of dislocated tribal communities, children from broken homes and children of drug-addicted parents. The DEPDC community and social network generates social capital, and provides long term support for students after graduation as well. 2) Participant Background DEPDC participants in this study had at least three of the five factors indicating high vulnerability: poverty, lack o f schooling or early dropout, and lack o f family support. This is not surprising since DEPDC ‘s mission is to focus on children who are at risk and put them in a safe situation that minimizes risk of abuse, trafficking, etc. All of the young women interviewed had at least two high weight factors growing up which meant that they were in danger of being trafficked. In addition, participants experienced several lower weight factors such as domestic instability and/or domestic violence, living in post-armed conflict areas, lack of legal status, being displaced from home, and living with adults other than biological parents. 193 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Despite their relative safety as residents or in attending full day programs on the DEPDC campus, students were not immune to the pressures and dangers of the outside world. Students were sometimes forced to drop out o f DEPDC due to family responsibilities. There are nineteen current sewing students aged 12-18 years old and many have improved their grasp of Thai, but have not achieved Thai literacy yet. Two of the 19 also study weaving. Most students aged 15 and above commute 2-3 kilometers, often getting a lift on a friend’s bike, to the local high school, particularly for Thai language studies. Several live nearby at an aunt, uncle or cousin’s house and walk to DEPDC for sewing and other classes as well. DEPDC recruits impoverished and marginalized children from several provinces, remote mountainous hill tribe areas as well as the area around the town of Mae Sai and refugees from Myanmar. In contrast to the DNFE government program in this study, vocational students in the DEPDC sewing class were primarily from hill tribes across and along the border with Myanmar and spoke little, if any, Thai when they arrived. The sewing teacher, Ajaan (teacher) Mae Jun explained that students in emergency situations are the highest priority for DEPDC. She said that most students there do not have identification papers and come alone across the border and are at high risk of abuse. Some students had family in the Mae Sai area and most came from Thai Yai, Lua, Akha and Lahu hill tribes. 194 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Children resident at DEPDC tend to be those without legal identification due to their status as refugees or orphans. Some students come from homes in nearby villages populated with hill tribe peoples recently forced to flee Burmese military incursions into their traditional lands. Students newly placed in DEPDC receive orientation and psychological support by staff, many of whom themselves are graduates. The NGO operates regular classes five days a week in primary, vocational, and agricultural education from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm with additional activities on the weekends and evenings from time to time. Study participant characteristics are below: Table 5-1. DEPDC Participant Characteristics Study Participants Age No. Children + Ages Marital Status Education, Work Status Vulnerability Level Inka 18 0 Single 12th grader, works in dormitory High Bua 18 0 Single 12th grader, works in dormitory. High Sala 18 0 Single 12th grader, works in school cafeteria High Fran 18 0 Single 12th grader, works with weaving teacher Medium Bela 18 0 Single DEPDC graduate, DEPDC kinder-garten teacher Medium Nan 22 0 Single DEPDC graduate, sewing factory worker Medium Nu 23 0 Single DEPDC graduate, sewing factory worker Medium Pia 24 0 Single DEPDC graduate, DEPDC weaving teacher and producer High Dela 25 0 Single DEPDC graduate, coordinates DEPDC training Medium The table above lists coded names and pertinent information about DEPDC current students and graduates who participated in this study..Many DEPDC graduates work or volunteer 195 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. on campus. Interviewees who had recently graduated from secondary school and the DEPDC program were young and unmarried. Graduates who work as staff often continued to live at the campus, some working as teachers and others as staff members, a) Early Experiences DEPDC students, particularly those in their late teens, have been approached by trafficking agents and/or family members. Students come from marginalized communities in and near the Thai border. The youngest residents on the DEPDC campus are in kindergarten and primary school and are therefore less likely to have been exploited by traffickers. Traffickers in the northern border areas tend to target secondary school age individuals. All interviewees at DEPDC studied sewing in the vocational training class and are either final year students or graduates of the program. O f the eight DEPDC interviewees, two finished sixth grade in their home villages. Inka is in high school, commuting to DEPDC sewing classes after earlier completing five years at the Patak School. The Patak School is a regular primary school on the main DEPDC campus in Mae Sai. Bua is in her fourth and last year at DEPDC, prior to which she spent two years in Doi Luang DEP center and 3 years before that at the DEPDC Patak School. Pia is not completely finished with her studies due to her legal status. She was 15 years old when she came to DEPDC 196 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and is now 24 years old. When she lived with her family in Burma, she had no chance for education. She explained that it had been difficult to start school as a teenager so she started by helping in the DEPDC school kitchen work. She learned to cook Thai vegetarian food and continued to study Thai. Her second year at DEPDC, Pia studied weaving and started general education classes. She was allowed to progress through the primary school curriculum at her own speed. Pia said she had to study seriously to achieve the ninth grade completion certificate. She is scared to interact with the high school administration and is still shy about going out in public. DEPDC staff are working with her to help her become comfortable enough to take the test for the high school completion certificate which must be taken at the local high school. Inka is also in her final year at DEPDC having completed five years on campus. She is the third of seven children and is the first to finish primary school. Her older sister had to drop out of school to help with the children and work. Her mother is 42 years old and never went to school, coming from a hill tribe with what Inka called "old fashioned beliefs", believing that there was no need for females to complete education beyond the 3rd grade. Her father studied Chinese in China when he was twenty years old, thirty years ago. She had seven siblings in her family, among whom the eldest had no education at all. Her family could not afford the cost of schooling after her stepfather died with large gambling debts. Almost all the children were pulled out of 197 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. school at that time. Inka almost dropped out of school as well but cried so much because she was afraid she would fall behind. Her family found a way to send her to a government school in Payao, a far northern Thai city where she worked in exchange for board and tuition. Unfortunately she was not able to study there. Bua is in her fourth year at DEPDC, having completed two years at a previous DEPDC campus in Doi Luang. Bua was so upset about her inability to stay in primary school that the teachers at her school contacted DEPDC and helped her to move to Mae Sai. She never knew her father who hailed from the Northeast. Her mother remarried a local man but the villagers told her it was not a legal marriage. There were three children in her original family of which she was the last although her mother had fourth child, a mute son, with her new partner. Bua is one o f the few DEPDC students with legal status since she is a full Thai citizen. Instead o f doing family chores, such as carrying water, cleaning or preparing food, she used to dream of being a police officer. Bua was scared of the local male police officers since she often saw that they were drunk. She said that there were many problems with drug peddlers and drug takers in her neighborhood. Bua wants to finish her education, become a police officer to do a better job policing her neighborhood. Sala is in her fourth year at DEPDC and in her last year of high school. She has five 198 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. siblings, most o f whom stayed with their parents in Burma except for one sister in Bangkok. Sala’s mother went through second grade in Burma and her father studied several years at the local Buddhist temple. Her parents are very poor and she had to leave to earn money and try to continue her education. She said that there was a school in her village but no jobs for graduates of Burmese education. Her neighbor in the local village suggested she talk to DEPDC about studying since she could not afford to go alone. Fran is a senior in high school whose family is poor but located close enough to campus so that she can live with them. Neither of her parents ever went to school because they were too poor. Because they were not educated, her parents thought that their kids needed education, so they came across the border to Thailand from Burma to get work. Fran was unable to finish sixth grade before coming to DEPDC. Since joining the student body on campus, Fran was able to pass the DNFE entrance exam for high school. Both Sala and Fran said they learned a lot of Thai from Thai T.V. which helped them in Thai school. Bela is a 19 year old graduate of DEPDC who came from a village near the Burmese border and moved several times. Her father completed fourth grade and her mother second grade when they were children. Her family recently moved to Chiang Mai to make sweets to sell farmers. They are doing much better than when she was younger. Her siblings had to drop out of 199 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. school for awhile but they are all back in school now. Nu, a graduate, came from a family where everyone worked. She is the third of four children. When she was a child, she had to bring water from the well, help with the cleaning, cooking and gardening. Her 50 year old father emigrated from Burma when he was seventeen years old. Her mother, also from Burma, is 48 years old and has never been to school. Neither parent can read or write and the children help them with communication. Her parents both work as agricultural laborers and depending on the season they may plant, weed or harvest tobacco, com or potato fields. They earn 80 to 100 baht a day, approximately U.S. $3.00, when they have work. When Nu was almost finished with primary school, her teacher told visiting DEPDC staff about her so she could continue in school. Although Nu was bom in Thailand, only children bom in hospital have legal status because the parents are of the ethnic group Tai Yai whose members do not have legal status, is in the name of a friend. Nan is a 22 year old graduate who comes from a small family. Her parents both finished primary school in their home town. They had to sell their land when she was young because the local economy was bad, but were able to buy a larger parcel in another province. She and her older brother were able to complete primary school in her village. Her brother works with her parents while she commuted to secondary school at a previous DEPDC center at Huay Krai. 200 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dela, another graduate, lived and studied at DEPDC for six years. When she graduated from high school, she became the staff member who coordinates training and orientation programs for students. Her family was too poor to cover children’s supplemental educational costs in Burma. She had to learn Thai as a young adult when she moved to Thailand because her family comes from a remote hill tribe that does not speak Thai. DEPDC students who did not complete secondary school tended to be those who had left the campus altogether, many returning home to earn money to help their families. At the same time, the social and culture pressures for females to offer support at home played a critical part in interviewee's decisions to continue or terminate their non-formal education studies. DEPDC students have often gone home to help their parents, to work, and to earn money for their families, some o f whom never return, b) Current Situation Current students, many without Thai identification papers or working visas as well as those under financial pressure from their families, explained the ongoing pressure to enter the sex industry. Many young women were pressured to work and told to work in the sex industry rather than earn lower wages in factories or production facilities. Graduates, regardless of age of entry to DEPDC, become increasingly at risk of trafficking as they finish their studies due to 201 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. family and financial pressures. DEPDC graduates were sometimes reluctant to consider leaving the campus due to visa problems or previous negative experiences with the authorities. Inka is a DEPDC sewing student, resident at the program for several years. A DEPDC staff member met and recruited her in Payao during their regular visits looking for children in difficult situations. She is an illegal resident in Thailand, which makes it difficult to take the high school completion exams and to work without fear of deportation. She does not agree with her mother and village neighbors that there is no need for females to have more than a primary school education. Inka’s mother has pressured her for a long time to drop out of the DEPDC program in order to work and help support the family. Since none of her family possesses Thai citizenship papers, her parents are applying for citizenship for the whole family. Sala commutes to DEPDC sewing class from her room over a restaurant. She gets up at 6 a.m. to set up and sweep the restaurant, goes to the market for food and arrives at DEPDC by noon. She studies for 4 hours and bikes back to the restaurant where she works in the restaurant if it is busy. If it is not busy, her sister works alone. Sometimes drunk customers keep them working until midnight, more often the restaurant closes at 9 p.m. Sala does not have much time for homework. Fran is up by 5:30 a.m. every morning to help her mother clean and cook rice. She has to arrive at DEPDC by 7:30 a.m. to do her duties of cleaning and mopping the sewing 202 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. room. She studies the rest o f the day and walks back to the market to help her mother sell produce. After they eat dinner at home, Fran washes the dishes and does her homework. Bua’s mother is a single parent now who is very poor. Since Bua is in her last year of high school at DEPDC, she is really tom between her mother's demands that she work in the sex trade and her desire to continue her education. Bua and her sister promised each other solemnly that they would never sell their bodies. Unfortunately, she often felt that she was going against her mother's wishes by studying. She said that “it is really hard not to go earn money for my m other.. .but she feels like she is going against her mother’s wishes and trying to make her understand about school”. When Bua went back for the national Buddhist holiday Kao Pensa recently, her mother was hinting that she had no money. For this reason, she sometimes skips meals in order to save money to send to her mother. Nan has a very busy schedule, starting at 7:30 am when she goes to market and buys food. By 8:00 am her friend picks her up on her motorbike and she works at the sewing factory until 6 pm. She has worked at the nearby Queen's Handicraft Center in Chiang Rai for several years. When she gets home she must cook, wash the laundry, and then sew piece work until she goes to sleep at 8:30 p.m. She really wants to finish high school but her family and job keep her too busy. 203 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nu could not obtain her primary school certificate from school because her parents did not have legal residency documents. She has worked at the Doi Tung royal sewing project for six years. Her schedule is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and she receives 100-160 baht a piece, depending on the quality, approximately U.S. $4.00. She can produce about two pairs of pants or one and a half shirts in that time. She said unlike her previous factory job, quality depends the acceptance o f a piece, not speed. Her parents earn 80 to 100 baht per day when they can get jobs as laborers. She cannot earn enough to live on with only the daytime job and also does home sewing piece work and earns 50-60 baht a day sometimes depending on how fancy the details are. N u’s living expenses and income, organized by month, indicate an ongoing shortfall in Table 5-2 below: Table 5-2. Living Expenses of Sewing Factory Worker Monthly Expenses Thai Baht (U.S.$) Monthly Income Thai Baht (U.S.S) Monthly shortfall supplemented by family members Payments on motorbike 2,000 (50.) Queen’s Project (factory) 2,400 (60 Food (plus parents supply) 2,400 (60.) Piece work at home Varies from 500 to 1,500 (12.5-37.5.) Housing Supplied by parents Electricity 200 (5.) Gas 400 (10.) TOTAL 5,000 (200.) Total varies from 2,900-3,900 (73-98.) 1,100-2,100 Baht per month Although Nu earns more than many laborers, domestic workers and restaurant workers, and keeps her total living expenses quite low, she earns less than she needs to live every month. This is despite the fact that she saves money by living with her parents who augment the family 204 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. income between 1,000 to 2,000 baht per month. Their income depends on the demand for their labor and still does not cover the monthly income deficit c) Motivation All interviewees are either current students or formerly studied sewing at DEPDC with Mae Jun, the DEPDC sewing teacher. Inka and Bua feel that they have a special privilege and responsibility to finish school because they are the only children in their families to enter secondary school. Inka said “ .. .society does not really support the education of females but they need more education.. .women should stand up for ourselves more and find a way to get more education.. .we should get money from doing what we like.” Inka does not want to work in the sex industry, despite family pressure, and hopes to finish her education so she can find work elsewhere. At the same time, she feels that good jobs were scarce even for those with education. Bua noticed that the DEPDC volunteers paid as much attention to the females as the boys, in contrast to here experience at public school. She is excited by the volunteer’s suggestion to her about higher education and she now wants to complete high school. Bua says that “DEPDC helped her big sister because she would certainly be in the sex trade if she did not go to school here.” Her sister motivates her to avoid sex work since she hopes to become a policewoman. Sala and Fran are both 18 years old and in their last semester at DEPDC. They are both 205 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. proud of their ability to stay in school. They want to make clothes for themselves and family members. Fran said that she thinks she can resist traffickers but she has friends whose parents forced them to be trafficked because their father was a bad person, a drunk, a gambler or greedy. She said that some people just want money. Sala said “I have friends who opened a beauty parlor.. .1 would like my own sewing shop.” She doesn’t want to work in the sex sector and wants to make her own way. Both young women said they know lots of others who built big houses for their parents from sex industry work and then came home to die of AIDS, so they never enjoyed the house. Bela’s experience at DEPDC changed her mind about what her life was for. She used to wonder if life was interesting. Since she experienced the program, she thinks her life has more value. She wants to get married and have kids but to also do other things. She now thinks that men and women are equal now and she wants to use her life in more valuable ways. Having worked as a kindergarten teacher, she is now motivated to study to be a tour guide and she studies at the DNFE college part time in Sukothai. Dela enjoyed her learning opportunities with DEPDC, such as the training of trainers and skill building sessions she has attended and works full time. She hopes to put together more workshops for DEPDC students and travel more. Nan and Nu began to work in sewing factories about one hour from the city of Mae Sai after 206 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. graduating from DEPDC. Nu is single and plans to continue living with her parents until she can save enough money to buy a small house with her future husband. Nan enjoyed learning how to sing, dance and make art while at DEPDC. She said if she had not gone to DEPDC she would have been a laborer and never learned so many things. She wants to learn classical and modem dance now that she has more confidence and would like to study more art. She hopes to marry and have a daughter who she will send to school and help her to be more independent in every way, especially financially. Pia lives and works on campus since graduating from DEPDC. She produces lovely woven pieces that generate income for DEPDC. She would like to teach weaving and hopes more students show interest. Despite completing the class work, Pia was unable to obtain a high school diploma because identity papers are required to take the 12th grade exams. Pia explained that unlike her sister, she will not try to obtain Thai identity papers or jobs outside DEPDC because she does not want to live outside campus. Her health has been poor since she was a child and she continues to be worried about what would happen to her outside of DEPDC. 3) Program Features: DEPDC contributes to the survival of at-risk females in many ways. One o f the most important contributions it makes is to give students an opportunity to live and leam in a safe place. 207 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEPDC provides a creative NFE model that integrates traditional public school education with child labor and human rights curriculum. Informal discussions with DEPDC staff, teachers, graduates and volunteers about the students during the initial phase of research made it clear that everyone is quite committed to protecting vulnerable children. Specifically, DEPDC’s objective is to improve awareness and application of basic human rights, such as secure housing, nutritious food and education for at-risk children. They believe that children who have safe places to live, enough food to eat and who are allowed to attend school are less likely to be sold to or caught by trafficking agents and smugglers. DEPDC is located very close to Mae Sai city, a transit point for traffickers. The city is on the border with Burma and has a large underground and porous borders and many local children are stolen here. Many other children are passed through Mae Sai to buyers in many countries, a) Design DEPDC was originally founded as the Daughters Education Program (DEP) in 1989 by Dr. Sompop Jantraka with the support of the local government Department of Public Welfare (DPW) social workers. Originally Dr. Sompop identified nineteen young women and children at risk of exploitation, abuse and/or trafficking. These students were settled together with teachers in a separate residential campus. This campus is located in Mae Sai county, Chiang Rai 208 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Province and is the main location for DEPDC. In 1998, DEP expanded its mission to accept boys and grew to a total of three campuses in different parts of the northern region. It was renamed the Development Education Program for Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) to represent both populations. Increases in donations and annual funding allowed DEPDC to expand to three centers in two provinces and to begin to serve boys. In 2002, however, decreases in funding caused programs to contract back to one main campus in Mae Sai. DEPDC has taken advantage o f their growing pool of graduates to enhance staffing. Many volunteers serve as program teachers and program graduates have become administrative and teaching staff. Graduates who are staff influence pupils in their daily lives by managing dormitories, teaching in the classrooms, leading workshops and acting as positive role models and confidants. Often a significant investment of staff attention and time in new students is necessary before the student feels safe enough to concentrate upon their studies and learning. Staff initially evaluate the emotional, mental, and physical condition of students as they arrive on campus or begin commuting to study in the program. Students unable to communicate in Thai are asked to help with simple things, like meals, while they study Thai. There are so many different hill tribes and Burmese speakers represented in the student body that there are rarely language problems. If students have severe 209 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. problems, there is an emergency hut where medical and social service professionals can visit and treat them. Campus routines and expectations are taught and enforced by older students who mentor younger and new students. Recruitment o f needy pupils comes from the integration of communities, schools and government agencies into a network for student recruitment and protection. DEPDC operates a primary, vocational and agricultural educational program on campus. Secondary school students commute to the local DNFE center for high school equivalency studies. Upon subsequent visits to DEPDC, former interviewees were eager to talk to me, both informally and in a meeting context. DEPDC participants provided an unusual contrast to participants at other NFE programs in this study. Most NFE programs in Thailand served adult participants who independently commuted to classes or meetings. Adult participants could not always attend their classes or meetings due to family and/or work responsibilities. Since NFE teachers at these programs had adapted to teaching adults outside the formal school system, and were unable to maintain the group continuity or progress in learning that is possible with a resident population unencumbered with outside responsibilities. DEPDC resident students, on the other hand, had no such distractions since primary school and vocational classes were on campus near their residences. 210 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. b) Integrated Service Network DEPDC has established a network of community "eyes and ears" consisting of teachers, school staff members, village leaders, government officials, and concerned parents who identify children at risk and notify DEPDC. DEPDC staff members developed this network with regular visits and consultations in poor areas or with in places with unstable populations. Network members include local schools, government agencies and community members and poor parents with young children. Staff in these network institutions identify children at risk o f dropping out of school or being trafficked and contact DEPDC. Teachers in the DEPDC neighborhoods were encouraged to work with parents and other local leaders to identify and involve DEPDC to help children at risk. Those parents who are faced with making the decision whether the children go to school or go to work more often have members of the DEPDC network to advise them and to support their children. DEPDC works closely with local community leaders and various governmental social service agencies to identify and serve at-risk children in several counties along the far northern border with Burma. (See Figure 1). As a result of this integrated observation, identification, and communication, the network o f teachers, community leaders and government workers actively assist children at risk of exploitation and illiteracy. The network has expanded its’ information 211 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gathering to other locales in the province of Chiang Rai as well as neighboring provinces Chiang Mai and Lampang. The Thai Ministry o f Education initiated a project with DEPDC to develop and integrate anti-child labor curriculum into the primary school curriculum. This will contain many of the modules and activities described in the staff management of orientation training section. Special promotional activities are currently being undertaken by the Ministry in four provinces where there is a high incidence of child labor and school dropouts. Figure 5-1. DEPDC Network C h ild S a fe ty N e t School-Teacher identifies problem kids Community-identify at-risk children, support costs. to teachers about children with problems DEPDC- talks DEPDC has evolved its' pedagogical approach from sending children at risk out to study at the local government primary or secondary school to creating a more holistic approach to the many facets of human development. Children are closely monitored and supported during the first months of arrival and staff regularly hold assertiveness and human rights training in which 212 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. children who have lived on campus awhile lead parts of training sessions. This support does not end with graduation from the program. Staff maintain contact with graduates after they leave and teachers, particularly the sewing teacher helps her students with job placements in the Queen’s Handicraft Center, local factories and shops, c) Staff DEPDC staff interviews indicated that several DEPDC kindergarten teachers, some primary school teachers, and several administration staff in administration are DEPDC graduates. This is a contrast to the early years of the NGO when volunteers and paid staff from local schools were necessary to run the program. Children in the current program benefit from interaction with older peers who are products of similar environments and who have gone through the DEPDC program. DEPDC graduates who are teachers and staff have survived experiences that the students have faced and must be equally qualified as teachers and staff in formal schools and other NGOs. Teachers in the primary school on campus are required to pass the same certification required o f teachers in the formal primary school system. As described in the participant background section, DEPDC students come from high vulnerability situations, which cause classroom and campus dynamics to be more intensive, demanding attention from teaching and administrative staff to student feelings. As students arrive at DEPDC with a variety of 213 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. problems, it is necessary and helpful for staff to monitor children’s behavior, which they can readily do since the campus allows them to stay in contact outside regular classroom hours. Ajaan (teacher) Mae Jun, has taught at DEPDC for nine years. She regularly has lunch with her students who mostly come from hill tribes and sometimes helps them with their homework. She explained that most of her students did not have legal residential documents and many did not speak Thai fluently. Although Mae Jun lives 60 kilometers away where her husband teaches in the formal school system, she comes early Monday morning and stays until Friday morning, sleeping in a rented room in the nearby village. She teaches sewing from 8:30 to 10:30 am and stays all day. The classes go for 12 months continuously but break for holidays and vacations. I observed her students seeking her out for private conversations and she freely gives extra tuition in sewing or solving personal problems after class. Mae Jun also has close relationships with the other staff, both Thai and foreign. The weaving teacher, Pia, is a DEPDC graduate who studied under Mae Jun who visited the sewing class frequently to work on joint sewing-weaving projects. Pia is a very quiet and talented young woman who produces beautiful textiles that are sewn into finished products which are sold to raise funds for DEPDC. Pia said that sewing skills are more in demand now because Thailand exports more finished products. Pia and Mae Jun have teamed up for mutual benefit. 214 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mae Jun’s students earn a little money making Pia’s material into beautiful curtains, bags, aprons, and purses which are also for sale for DEPDC. Bela teaches kindergarten and also graduated from DEPDC after five years in the program. Bela received a scholarship to live and study on campus after a staff member visited her village. When she was a student, she said she much preferred learning sewing on campus than studying in the local high school. “Sewing was more interesting and fun than the classes because the classes were big and she did not always understand the teacher... .In the (DEPDC) sewing class, students allowed to make own decisions what to do”. She said she is a volunteer, not a staff member as she is not paid a salary. She receives benefits and travel opportunities and lives on campus with students in a dormitory. The highlight of Bela’s life to date was a trip to Australia to a conference on child labor abuse. Bela said she learned that Thai kids are luckier than Ugandan kids “but there is much to do for children in Thailand”. She likes teaching the younger students, but finds it difficult to create curriculum and feels isolated from her contemporaries outside of campus since she has little free time. Training for kindergarten and primary school teachers is not consistent. Bela explained that she observed another kindergarten teacher and had some workshops with NGO staff, but she did not really feel comfortable about her lack of preparation 215 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dela is also a graduate of DEPDC and she has a very responsible position in the NGO administration. She said she has trained several graduates in office skills, which helped them get well paying jobs. Dela coordinates orientation for new students and occasional trainings in critical knowledge and resistance for the entire student population. She interacts playfully with students when she walks through the DEPDC campus and appears to be very close to Dr. Sompop, the DEPDC founder. Dr. Sompop has a very strong drive to protect children which has been dangerous for him on occasion. His personal experiences as a poor and hungry child who came into contact with a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher who motivated him to finish school and eventually found DEPDC. Sompop described several instances where he confronted traffickers to save children. A charismatic individual, Sompop’s personal history and odyssey of succoring the weak has considerable attraction for the media and international donors. His strengths have helped to build a successful NGO that is a model for child protection in many ways. His personal visits to families and the police to teach them about child exploitation has reduced the incidences of police beating children and formed the foundation of an expansive social network that recruits and supports many children. The uncertain economy and donor funding limitations perhaps have combined with an increasingly unwieldy operation to limit DEPDC’s effectiveness. Sompop 216 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. must frequently be away from campus and his presence seems to be missed, especially when decisions are to be made. When he is there, the environment seems charged with energy and events and people move a bit quicker and more positively. A generous man, he made time for meals and interviews even when quite busy. Emma and Tim are two foreign volunteers who provide valuable unpaid services to the NGO. These include interacting with foreigners who do not speak Thai, performing research and funding coordination, producing program evaluation and coordinating complex events. As unpaid, generous and highly skilled staff, they anchor the program in terms of day to day management in addition to professional channels of communication between the program and the outside world. Both Emma and Tim appear to be very fond of the children and staff and exhibit an easy camaraderie and concern with children’s well-being on matters large and small. For all of my interviews with students, they and the staff made sure I had a bilingual person nearby to help with clarity and to ascertain whether the interview was a comfortable experience for the students. Emma went far in making this study a possibility by arranging meetings with the teachers, students and graduates at several locations because she said she hopes that data from this study will come back to help DEPDC. 4) Teaching and Learning 217 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEPDC has been very effective in organizing activities to provide life, academic and skills, emotional awareness and improve the quality of life of young women at risk of entering prostitution and forced labor conditions. Students who graduate from high school with DEPDC training have gone on to college or employment. The staff reports that none of the DEPDC graduates who completed the program have been lured into illegal work. Students reported that many of their friends not at DEPDC entered the sex trade, however, and served to dissuade them from taking the same step. DEPDC combines formal and non-formal education and basic skills training together with parental and community outreach to reshape children’s living and learning environments. This section discusses DEPDC curriculum and classroom approach, the integrated recruiting and placement network, peer role modeling and its role in critical consciousness, locations of power as well as some weaknesses of the program. The residential nature of the program allows extra-curricular teacher/staff contact with student as well as mentoring between older and younger students. Staff also are trained to take advantage of critical consciousness-raising opportunities through scheduled nonformal education sessions as well as informal interactions with students during daily activities. Students who complete primary school have support to attend the local secondary school through high school completion. 218 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a) Curriculum and Methods: DEPDC’s educational curriculum is built upon a long term track emphasizing completion of both primary and secondary school but balancing academic skill development with practical skills, such as daily training and chores in agricultural skills, vocational training in sewing or weaving and the opportunity to take English classes with native speakers. Their philosophy is to balance knowledge acquisition with physical development, emotional support and fun. DEPDC developed training curriculum and materials about self-awareness, assertiveness, child labor and human rights. Students acquire knowledge through formal classroom teaching that is integrated with critical knowledge, through non-formal training designed to challenge stereotypes of domination and through informal education that takes place during meals, chats around campus and in the dormitories with older peers (piis) who mentor and counsel younger students (nongs). Peer to peer mentoring is an important use of a fundamental cultural characteristic (pii-nong) to assist child development. In many cases, pii have a great deal of authority over nongs and communication tends to be one way, from pii to nong. Piis traditionally take responsibility for the younger nongs as well. DEPDC turns the one-way communication around by making piis part of the team responsible for the nong’s learning. By encouraging piis to act as learning facilitators and training them to elicit from nongs, 219 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. both age groups benefit. Piis benefit by having some responsibility and control over their environment and further by embedding the critical knowledge they have already acquired. Performing conscientization education upon their younger peers allows piis to enact a deconstruction of traditional lines of authority and reconstruct them in a more balanced way. Nongs benefit from the extra attention and information delivered in a more accessible by slightly older peers. Nongs also learn effective ways to inspire others from observing piis work with them and other students. Staff link the peer mentoring with critical knowledge and the importance of becoming self-reliant and aware. As nongs are made aware of not only new knowledge but new ways to exchange and reinforce such knowledge with action, they become prepared to do a good job mentoring future nongs (when they become piis themselves). Students of all ages are given opportunities to learn about the real world and help to facilitate sessions for each other and new students. Older students Sala and Bua explained that they were very proud of their ability to manage some of the orientation training with Dela. They felt that they were contributing to the success of orientation and said that they wanted to learn more about training. Teams are created from a mix of Thai, hill tribe, Burmese students of different ages who work closely with staff and graduates to develop, administer and evaluate a variety of learning programs. The curriculum builds and reinforces student’s self-esteem, team 220 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. building, and integrates this with knowledge of discrimination and inequities experienced by females and minorities in Thailand. DEPDC staff, who are also mostly graduates of the program, conduct orientations for groups o f new children and regular children’s activities with the staff of the new DEPDC Children’s Protection Rights Project. Dela is the Children’s Activities staff and coordinator and was sent for Gender Roles Training with the Family Planning Association of Thailand. She and other graduates were also sent to the CEDAW training in English and the Council on Youth and Children Training of Trainers in Thai a few years ago. She said DEPDC used to do orientation throughout the year, but no longer does so since they are at full capacity. The few children who are in crisis stay in the Child Protection Center but many go home after the crisis is over, so orientation is not always necessary. The orientation occurs outdoors with older students and staff manning stations. Stations conveying knowledge, games and other activities for new students are arranged at different points along a field. Knowledge stations present information on the causes of poverty, gender roles, what is trafficking, how children and women are abused, and how to protect yourself from a trafficking agent. Activity stations include skill building such as stories, role-plays, knot tying, games, theater, face painting, and an obstacle course. 221 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In the orientation and special workshops, knowledge is integrated with a physical activity. Dela said “if they just talk, the students will not realize truly without doing... everyday objects (in the training) are seen and students learn”. The gender roles station has a clear agenda: participants are given toys and tools, such as dolls, cars, farming tools and a hammer. They are asked to separate each according to which gender uses them. When they discuss why they organized the tools or toys that way, the goal is for students to realize that there is not only one gender (male) that does or makes things. As students shift their self-image, a sense of personal agency is invoked. Students are encouraged to understand the relevance and importance of the tools and work that women do also. The day ends with a ceremony and a group photo. Students experienced with previous orientations help the staff conduct subsequent trainings to reinforce their ability to make decisions, take action and practice leading. Dela explained that staff follow-up on orientation learning through post training questionnaire, focus group interviews and visits to homes of students. The data is compiled in monthly reports of weekly activity to supporters. She said students generally share their new information with friends and their future children will certainly benefit. Since the new information and skills take time to be absorbed they try to do related activities often. For small kids, they take a day trip and insert reinforcement sessions by graduates into the primary school 222 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. curriculum. For teenagers, they select the most mature for weekend retreats on campus and evening meetings. Those participants take on the role of mentors to share their new knowledge. In the sewing class, the day starts with students rotating cleaning tasks. Many Thai activities take place on the floor where people are seated on mats and pillows. The sewing classroom floor is cleaned so that teaching and pattern drawing and cutting can take place on the floor. Ajaan Mae Jun begins each new concept or module by showing students a diagram on the classroom wall. She sits on the floor with them and demonstrates the design or technique. She continues to sit near students as they group together to attempt to make the same thing. Mae Jun explained that she deliberately asks faster and more experienced students to mentor slower or less experienced ones. She introduces new material about twice a month once students are familiar with the sewing equipment and tools. They must first be able to sew on buttons, hand stitch, make buttonholes and practice pedaling the sewing machine. Mae Jun said that although the children are highly vulnerable, they each have different learning styles “some leam from the board and diagrams and some by doing...some not interested so she goes to their house and invites them to observe and visit the class and eventually they all want to study”. She says it is important to keep them in class and she prefers a gentle approach to enforcing DEPDC’s requirement that students complete both the general and vocational 223 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. education programs. She learned from student comments in class that some of them have been invited and encouraged to join the sex industry. Students are also affected by pressure from peers outside DEPDC to earn fast money to buy jewelry, clothes, and homes. M ae Jun said the m ost effective obstacle to traffickers is D E PD C ’s strategy w hich is to keep fem ales in school and educate them about AID S, particularly because they becom e unm arriageable if they are infected. Burm ese students are particularly fearful since m any have seen infected girls com e hom e to die isolated in a separate hut in their village w hich is burned after they die. A s their increased self-confidence is recognized by staff, students have greater opportunities to stretch their abilities outside class in non-form al (outside conferences, w orkshops, w orking in the N G O office) and inform al (conversations w ith staff, teachers, Dr. Som pop, presentations by visitors, group m eals) learning opportunities. In order to understand the nature o f learning dynam ics in operation at D EPD C, several principles proposed by H art necessary to the developm ent o f critical consciousness are useful to consider (Foley, 1999). The principles are that the: Learning group must be representative of the marginalized group Experiences of members must be relatively similar 224 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • Members must have the motivation and time to reflect critically on their subjective experiences • Members must gain a theoretical distance from personal experience’ DEPDC's characteristics are described in comparison with these principles in Table 5-3 below. A discussion of DEPDC's performance in regard to each principle continues after the table. Table 5-3. Principles for Critical Consciousness Development Hart’s Principles DEPDC Characteristics • Learning group must be representative of the marginalized group • All students rescued from dangerous situations • Experiences o f members must be relatively similar • All students come from poor families that could not or would not allow them to go to school • Members must have the motivation and time to reflect critically on their subjective experiences • Since most students live on campus, they are motivated by each other and graduates. The curriculum has time set aside for training and reflection. • Members must gain a theoretical distance from personal experience’ • Youth, campus physical separation from community, and lack o f marital experience (interviewees aged 18-24) weakened their ability to attain theoretical distance. Source: Foley, 1999 DEPDC has refined its student recruitment abilities so that its network identifies children who are at risk of exploitation. All students grew up in poor families, often with one parent. Participants were forced to drop out of school before they could enter secondary school and many do not have legal residency or documents that would allow them to work or move legally in Thailand. Most parents worked as laborers or farmers and their children would be forced to 225 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. work in the same area or more perilous work without education. Students continue to be in danger of trafficking due to financial pressures upon their families and their sense of filial obligation. Due to the nature of the residential campus, students who live on or near school are constantly exposed to informal and nonformal learning opportunities. The founder and staff, many of whom are graduates of the program, take advantage of proximity and frequent contacts to reinforce critical knowledge and the benefits of education to promote lifestyle choices. The lack of maturity and life experience on the part of DEPDC interviewees coupled with pressure on them to go to full time jobs immediately after graduation limited their ability and free time to clearly establish a theoretical distance from their personal experience. At the same time, of all study participants, DEPDC participants were probably the best trained to achieve this stage of critical consciousness at some later point, having acquired the knowledge at school and participated in displays and activities promoting child protection locally and nationally, b) Modeling Mae Jun incorporates peer teaching and tutoring by relying on a the basic Thai concept of relative status called pii-nong. Thai culture confers higher status upon those who are older, called pii. Someone younger than you is called nong. In the classroom, this means more responsibility for the older students, pii. Mae Jun said that experienced students gain self 226 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. confidence by mentoring younger and newer students. Sometimes piis tutor nongs outside of class as well. Younger students, nong, are expected to respect older students and give them attention. As nongs leam from more advanced students they also leam to mentor and eventually themselves mentor nongs later. The older students gain experience in their subject while taking a leadership role among their peers. This peer learning structure takes many forms. Graduates who teach or work on campus are expected to take advantage of non-formal training as well as informal encounters to teach the students how to be strong, value themselves and resist exploitation. Dela is a graduate in charge of organizing outdoor learning stations in large and small scale workshops, and outdoor events on campus as well as inviting older students to outside events. In the dormitory, Bela and other graduates are responsible for training older students, called pii, to mentor the younger students, called nong as part of DEPDC’s social network building process. Mealtimes provide other opportunities for piis to mentor and monitor nongs informally. I observed students in extended conversation with graduates who were also staff during the course o f this study. Dela, and Bela explained that some students are under pressure from their parents to quit school and enter sex work while others have financial or personal problems. Students seem very comfortable and trusting with their older peers. 227 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5) Program Summary DEPDC’s experience and reports have made it clear that the lack o f education and abject poverty among rural and tribal communities, especially among younger impoverished females in the North, makes them into easy targets for traffickers. Through the intervention of DEPDC and other social service organizations, many youngsters are prevented from being forced, sold, persuaded or tricked into exploitative circumstances. As a consequence o f networking action by the NGO with teachers, parents, schools, and communities, children in school who are at high risk are being offered meaningful and relevant education and protection. In addition to achieving secondary school completion and awareness of the forces that marginalized them, DEPDC has influenced the mindset and opportunities for its students and graduates as well as inspired local and national organizations to consider its’ model. Table 5-4 on the next page summarizes participant learning outcomes according to Stromquist’s model of empowerment. Students and graduates have changed a great deal over their extensive time in the program. Some interviewees lived and studied at several DEPDC campuses, depending upon where they were from. Current students were in their final year of high school and all program graduates save one completed high school and were gainfully employed. Students explained that they have become more confident about expressing their 228 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. opinion and trying new things. Graduates express appreciation for having greater job choices than their parents or siblings. Some students make public presentations about child abuse and help lead workshops in the subject. The discussion continues after the table. Table 5-4. DEPDC Participant Outcomes Activity Cognitive Outcomes Psychological Outcomes Economic Outcomes Political Outcomes Education Achieved final year of secondary school; learning sewing Increased self confidence in speaking up and negotiating with family Increased job choices Speaking up in classes and tutoring peers in class underscores leadership Additional Learning Learned causes o f subordination, leam how to help orient new students, mentor younger students Increased self-esteem from attention from older mentors, by mentoring younger students, shift self perception from assisting with student training acquisition, acceptance by peers Collective production of sewing products, agricultural produce. Self expression in workshops, using critical thinking skills in planning workshops. Meetings outside NGO Acquire knowledge about reasons for subordination o f women, lack o f social capital. Leam how to organize presentations, information sessions, attend workshops of activists Shift blame for lack o f education and social capital away from self Learn about NGO operations& fund-raising. Experience in public speaking in outside workshops, work against child abuse; become agent of change in family and community. Bua and Inka are two DEPDC resident students who are very close to completing the government requirements for a high school degree. They have been under particularly hard pressure to leave school and work in the sex industry due to the poverty of their parents. Significantly, they have both resisted this pressure to date despite their misgivings about their role 229 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. as dutiful daughters. Their progress at DEPDC has motivated them to complete secondary school and use their sewing skills to ply a trade instead of their bodies. Traffickers have approached several young women from DEPDC when visiting their families or outside the campus. Interviewees commented on the impact of living with positive role models and learning about alternative ways to live and work as having reinforced their determination to use their brains (rather than their bodies) for work. Sala and Fran are very good friends who both said that they not only support each other, they also motivate each other to finish high school and look for work using their sewing skills. Sala said she is proud of herself because she has made an entire outfit herself. Fran said she is proud because she is making clothes not only for herself but also for a staff members’ child. As older and experienced students, they are also proud to help the nongs in their class. They explained that students help the teacher by explaining the task a little differently. Since they are the 2 eldest in the class, they understand that the younger students are not quite as quick. They go step by step and do the task together with slower students. They said that they have a stronger sense of self (mai acheev) with their vocational skills. It is clear that graduates of the program have attained greater self-confidence than current students. Except for Pia, all graduates seem sure of themselves, their skills and that they have 230 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. choices in life. Pia said she does not expect to ever leave the campus, even for fun. She is partly happy to stay at DEPDC and partly is scared of the police. She says she understands there are definite problems with human rights. She does not want to marry a Thai man like her sister or to apply for legal documents in case she is deported. Bela is attending college part time while working at DEPDC and motivating some older students to do the same. Nan says “I really changed after I was encouraged to go to DEPDC presentations and talk about child exploitation.. .1 got to make displays and tell people about DEPDC.” She went from being extremely shy with no experience of performance to singing and dancing in public at festivities. Her increased self-confidence translated into a different vision of her future. Nan explained that “I can apply for lots of kinds of jobs now because I could finish school...I got experience with presentations also.” Nu said “I have more value than I used to think.. .before DEPDC I did not have a choice.. .1 am happy because I do not have to work as a laborer.. .now I earn more than either of my parents.” Her friends from sewing class are still very close, providing the nucleus of a social network that will continue to influence her. Dela is extremely self-confident and an organized administrator o f the NGO. She leads some of the most complex activities on campus and manages several older students and graduates, giving them a strong and positive role model. Young women in her village come to Nan to ask her for advice. Nan says 231 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “I am proud to help girls with their schoolwork and I tell them to get more training or education.” DEPDC has impacted outside agencies, academia and development organizations in its efforts to build coalitions to change the causes of child abuse. With ILO support, key actors were mobilized as part of the second phase of IPEC's regional effort to eliminate child labor in Northern Thailand. DEPDC staff explained that merely providing vulnerable females with educational opportunities will not solve the problem unless the curriculum is relevant to their needs and provides them with appropriate skills in the labor market. The Ministry of Education's project for young women at risk (Sema Pattana Cheevit Project) used the DEPDC model to obtain support to conduct a needs appraisal and educational interest appraisal o f these students in order to re-design the educational module at secondary school level. DEPDC was provided with technical support and connected to local government, local academic institutions and coordination was facilitated between these actors at the provincial level. Over the years the beneficiaries of these ILO-IPEC efforts, particularly from DEPDC, have been trained to become defenders of their own rights. Groups of graduates travel throughout villages with puppet shows, drama performances and exhibitions, which disseminate information against child trafficking, prostitution and other exploitative forms of child labor. This approach has been helpful with communities, parents and children who are now 232 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. informed about dangers and risks, as well as alternatives to exploitative child labor. DEPDC acts as a catalyst to help mobilize the community to fight against prostitution and to search for better opportunities for their children. Teachers and schools, particularly primary school teachers and school authorities were also mobilized to function as campaign centers. Teachers have participated in training which helps them to identify young people at high risk of trafficking and to conduct face-to-face campaigns with parents and children in order to encourage them to explore options. The campaigns are designed to educate parents about long term benefits of children’s education and to help poor parents find alternative sources of income instead of relying on their children’s pay. Those at high risk have been given places to continue their secondary level education on the DEPDC campus or at boarding schools so that they may continue their vocational training. A working group was set up, including representatives of provincial academic institutions, schools, provincial labor and welfare offices and NGOs, including DEPDC. The working group meets on a regular basis to review progress, to examine the obstacles and devise strategies to overcome these. A study on child labor, child trafficking, and children in prostitution (at the provincial level) has been conducted. At Chiang Mai University, the Thai Women o f Tomorrow project developed a technical resource center on children in prostitution and coordinates the 233 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. development o f the Provincial Plan of Action Against Child Labor with input from NGO members such as the DEPDC founder and staff members that visit the university. ILO reports that government agencies, NGOs and the communities are being mobilized in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces to systematically monitor potential victims and to design and implement the appropriate interventions as part of this Provincial Plan of Action (2003). A large number o f young women in these areas have benefited from such action programs over the last five years, many placed at DEPDC. ILO expects of this plan by DEPDC and other partners to create more effective and sustainable action in the long term. DEPDC staff and network affiliates continue to travel to villages in several provinces and the capital to educate communities and social services about the variety of dangers faced by poor children from marginalized families and communities. The NGO’s pioneering effort in residential child education fills a critical gap in the social and educational infrastructure by educating and socializing young people in a safe place where they find acceptance among older and younger peers and staff and opportunities to grow personally as well as intellectually. DEPDC operates as an educational and social vehicle for young women and boys that takes them beyond secondary school completion to understand and wrestle with the nature of oppression encircling them and their families. DEPDC is an active 234 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. participant in the effort to deconstruct and destroy the obstacles to critical knowledge and action for change by marginalized populations. The Thai Government Program B) Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE), Mae Rim county center Introduction: The DNFE county center in Mae Rim County, Chiang Mai province was chosen for this study for several reasons: First, the national scale of DNFE programs offered a different pedagogical approach and greater geographical coverage than NGO NFE programs. Second, the Mae Rim program in Chiang Mai province included invaluable cooperation from administrative staff, teachers, and students. Third, the availability of vocational classes with female students who shared many o f the characteristics of vulnerable impoverished women who had been trafficked. This section is organized into five parts. The first part (1) is a short overview of DNFE. This is followed by a description (2) of study participants, the experiences that made them vulnerable, and their motivation to study. The third part (3) looks at several features of the DNFE program: the program history, design, staffing and recruiting policies. The fourth part (4) examines the teaching and learning practices of the program: the curriculum, teaching methods, 235 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and the role of modeling in teaching, learning and peer development. The final part (4) consists of a program summary. 1) Overview: DNFE is an important choice for this study because the Thai government provides inexpensive learning opportunities for low-income citizens nationwide. The sheer amount of available non-formal vocational, primary and secondary education for adults previously unable to stay in the formal school system means that a variety of learning opportunities are available for marginalized women. The location of DNFE courses in communities throughout the country also means that poor women may choose to pursue missed education and/or to improve their skills with fewer transportation problems or time away from work or domestic duties. The differences between DNFE and NGO approaches to teacher recruitment, teacher training, classroom management, attitudes towards students, curriculum topics and classroom control techniques also play a role in the adult learner’s evolution. The DNFE mission is to span the gap between Thai adults with little or no education and the literacy and vocational skills demanded in the Thai workplace. This is accomplished by providing affordable educational offerings in locations and at times that are accessible to working adults. This national program started in 1979 with assistance and expertise provided by the U.S. 236 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Agency for International Development (USAID). The DNFE was previously titled the Department of Adult Education and changed its name when the Thai Ministry of Education created two separate departments, the DNFE and the Department of Vocational Education. Recent government educational reforms expanded the DNFE mission to focus on marginalized citizens, such as women and hill-tribe populations. 2) Participant Background The DNFE participants fit primarily into the low vulnerability category with several participants fitting into the middle vulnerability category as well. Middle vulnerability is determined by the presence of three or more low weight factors or one high weight factor, such as poverty or early drop out from school. Low vulnerability occurs with several low weight factors, such as living with adults other than parents, displacement from home, or lack of legal status. This is in contrast to DNFE participants who worked in the sex industry, who fit into the high vulnerability categories. These adult interviewees working in the sex industry were supported by an NGO, in situations that are potentially less stable, and have been abused or exploited. By contrast, most DNFE participants were either living with their parents or were married and lived with their husbands and children. There were two exceptions: Nancy lived alone or sometimes with her boyfriend and Nina lived with her employer, who provided her with legal 237 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. status. All interviewees returned to DNFE programs as adults to continue their education. Only one interviewee, Mia, completed high school in the formal system with her age cohort. Table 5-5 below summarizes characteristics of study participants. Table 5-5. DNFE Participant Characteristics Name Age Children Marital Status Education, Employment Vulner ability Lisa 42 1(15 year) Married DNFE graduate. Completed 10th grade. Runs own home sewing, laundry business. Low Terry 33 2 (5,13 year) Married DNFE graduate. Completed 6th grade. Works in sewing factory Low Tina 29 0 Single DNFE Graduate. Recently completed 11th grade in DNFE. Runs own sewing business & bookstore Low Loy 28 2 (3.5, 7 years) Married DNFE Graduate. Completed 9th grade, does piece work at home Low Nancy 33 0 Separated Current sewing student .Completed 12th grade recently at DNFE. Restaurant worker. Medium Kara 34 1 (4 year) Divorced Current sewing student Completed 6th grade, Works in bar, Lives with son High Nina 30 0 Single Current sewing student Completed 4th grade in Burma, Works as domestic, lives with employer Medium Lulu 30 0 Separated Current sewing student. No schooling. Lives alone, works in bar Medium Ting 25 1 (9 year) Widowed Current sewing student. Completed 6th grade, lives with daughter, works in bar High Mia 24 0 Single Current sewing student. Recently completed 12th grade DNFE, also 1 year college,. Lives with aunt, poor health, no job. Medium Sylvia 18 0 Single Current sewing student. Recently completed 12th grade DNFE. Lives with friend o f sewing Teacher Medium Lia 18 0 Single Current sewing student. Completed 9th grade Lives with mother, no job Medium All names are codes used to protect the confidentiality of participants. The first four participants listed are graduates of the DNFE sewing program while the remainder of coded names describe current students. Interviewee ages ranged from 22 to 42 years old. Lia and Sylvia were 18 years old. DNFE interviewees consider themselves graduates if they have 238 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. completed at least 100 hours in class and able to earn money from sewing. Usually these individuals have completed much more than one hundred classroom hours but have not been able to receive credit for more due to their erratic attendance and/or production. Few self-termed graduates have completed the official graduation requirements of the three hundred hour DNFE vocational curriculum, a) History Until the early 1990s, education through the sixth-grade only was mandatory in Thailand for all children within the jurisdiction of the public school system. However, for children from poor families -- especially in remote rural villages — completion of 6th grade was normally unattainable due to lack of schools, opportunity cost of child labor, costs of supplemental school expenses and the distances that were too difficult for children to navigate. Knodel et al. (1990); and Young (1994) demonstrated a negative relationship between family size and education in Thai rural and national samples. Knodel’s study suggests that gendered attitudes favoring education of sons over daughters persist, particularly in rural areas and among parents who had themselves completed little formal schooling (1994). For those interviewees able to complete sixth grade, few had the resources to continue on to secondary school as a child. Either their parents needed their labor at home or required income from their employment, or the prevailing 239 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. social norms in their hometowns did not encourage female children to commute long distance to secondary school. Females were pressured to support the family. The cost to families for children attending free primary school usually included: bus fare, tuition fees, textbooks, two uniforms (one to wear, one to wash), toys, shirts, shoes. Transportation fares recently increased due to rise in cost o f gas. In one village this costs one family 1000 baht (annual increase in transport costs averages 100 baht). Many interviewees worked in their homes or villages after finishing primary school. Some women were encouraged by parents or significant others to learn sewing or other vocational skills while others left school to get married or to get a job. Many found that marriage or urban employment was a vehicle that allowed them to leave behind the economic and social hardships of agrarian life in the villages. Interviewees described their difficulties in getting to school as children due to physical or social dislocation since they often had to move away from their families and friends. For those who could stay at home, long daily commutes, less time for domestic chores and alienation from poorer, less educated peers and neighbors took a toll. Mia and Nina are current students and Loy is a sewing program graduate. All three had to choose between living at home or going to school. By sixth grade, all DNFE interviewees except Mia had dropped out of school. Dropping out of school did not always mean that girls 240 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. could stay at home, however. Most participants felt compelled to leave home in order to support themselves or their families, particularly the poorest. Sylvia’s parents discouraged her as a child from studying sewing so she could work. O f the 12 DNFE interviewees, Nancy was one of the poorest. She was forced to sell ice syrup at primary school to pay for her school costs. When she finished sixth grade, she had to go live with her aunt to continue in school. Nancy can read and write Thai at a basic level, what she called "average". Although she dreams o f being a teacher, she failed the Teachers' College exam and continues to work to stay independent. Her goal is to become proficient enough to make her living from sewing. Her parents completed fourth grade but wanted their children "to work with their heads not with their hands". Her parents, therefore, "supported their children's educational aspirations and gave them free choice to study". Both her parent's aspirations and her siblings' educational attainments were unusual among the families of interviewees. Mia, an advanced sewing student, dreams of becoming a tour guide if she can improve their English language skills. Mia is the only interviewee whose family could afford to pay for her to go straight through public high school. Mia's aunt enabled her to also attend college, and study pharmacy, but she eventually had to drop out for health reasons. Mia had to leave home to attend high school since her parents had to support a large family and could not pay for her 241 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. schooling. Although they could not support her financially, they had no problem with her educational choices. She had to live with her aunt who was single in another city and who could afford to pay her educational costs. Neither of Nina’s parents ever went to school. Both were poor rice farmers who needed her to work on the farm as a child. She was able to complete fourth grade before dropping out of school. Nina said it was very hard to make money farming in Burma and her siblings also fled the harsh conditions. They helped her with the funds to pay her way across the border. Lia, a current student was raised alone by her mother. She strongly believes that her daughter should continue her education. She was able to complete ninth grade despite her father's death when she was age seven. Her mother is in a partnership with her older sister who has an apartment business. Ting is one o f three interviewees that worked in the sex industry. She completed sixth grade as a child. Her father left her village when she was very small. Her mother encouraged all the children to complete primary school and they traveled thirty kilometers each way every day. After leaving home in her early teens, Ting took DNFE classes after work. At age 13, she went to live with cousins and worked at a jewelry factory in Bangkok. She later moved to Chiang Mai to start studying at DNFE and go a job full time packing goods in an electronics 242 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. company. Ting’s husband died when her daughter, who is now nine years old, was two. Kara is from a small village in the province farthest north in Thailand. Her father completed second grade and her mother has never been to school. She is the sixth of seven children. Kara was able to finish sixth grade at the local primary school and then dropped out to help her parents grow rice, mung beans, and take care of their buffalo. Kara had to start learning how to take care of the buffalo when she was eight years old. She would get up at 5:00 am and work with her father before she went to school. She fetched water every day and stayed with the buffalo all day Saturday and Sunday when there was no school. When she was 23 years old, she left the village to work as a waitress at a resort with her brother. She explained that her parents are no longer farmers and sold most of their land because it was too expensive to pay for the chemicals and supplies needed. Lisa, a graduate, completed the tenth grade in the local public school in her village outside of Mae Rim and then dropped out of school. Lisa's grandparents had the "traditional idea" that it was not necessary for females to study beyond the fourth grade, so she had to struggle to get beyond that. Lisa's father completed third grade in the village temple school (only boys could study there) and her mother completed fourth grade in the village public school. Lisa explained 243 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that she had to help with the children's school costs by selling small things in the village shop or at home. When she was age 16, Lisa went to live with her mother's friend to study sewing for one year which she was unhappy about. When asked why she was unhappy, she explained she did not like sewing when she was younger but that her father had decided that she should study sewing. Lisa stated that because she is female, sewing was a natural choice for her. When asked what she would have done if she had been a male, she said she would have become a policeman since her father wanted one of his kids to do this. Her brother is now a lawyer and she says her father is happy about it. Lisa got married at age 18 to leave home. Her husband took her to his hometown in a different region of the country. Loy's mother and father finished fourth grade when they were children. She is a graduate of the sewing program. Loy’s parents could not afford to support the educational costs of her and her siblings. The cost of their school uniforms and supplies were too expensive, so Loy dropped out of school during fourth grade. Her family moved from place to place when their crop and agricultural employer failed in Mae Tang (near the city of Chiang Rai. Her younger brother later finished ninth grade and now works full time with their widowed mother in Chiang 244 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dao (northern Chiang Mai province) at a tea plantation. Loy frequently became ill while living with her parents near the tea plantation. Terry, a graduate, finished sixth grade in her home village near the Burmese border. Her teacher wanted her to go farther in school but she needed to work with her family and help with farming and domestic chores. Terry's parents still live in a poor province in the far North of Thailand and do not speak the central Thai dialect. Neither has had any formal education. The older villagers thought that women did not need education since they were to become housewives. She had six siblings when she was younger, but three have since died. Tina, another graduate, had no chance to further her studies as a child because her family was too poor. She had to drop out of school during sixth grade to work in a factory and help the family. After a factory disaster that left many employees dead or crippled, she returned to the farm to help. Her sister got a scholarship to study through ninth grade and her brother’s graduate studies are paid by his military employer. She paid for classes through grade nine at DNFE through her factory work. She later worked at a liquor store to pay for the rest of her high school at DNFE. After that she continued to work in the store and studied beauty business. She was able to use these skills when she moved back to Bangkok and was hired by a brothel to put make-up on the women there. Although she liked the tips at the brothel, she did not like being 245 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. around people with HIV/AIDS, aggressive police and customers. She went back to work at a factory after that. She said she would rather work as a waitress all night than earn 5,000 baht from a brothel. b) Current Situation As adults, study participants experienced the consequences of childhood vulnerabilities. Females are pressured by their communities and society to take care o f their parents and families but they typically drop out of school earlier than boys and earn less than men for similar jobs. Females have fewer job choices, due in part to low educational attainment, are fired before male workers and make up most of the country’s poor (UNDP, 1999). Females are considered less valuable than boys by the ruling religious network, which allows significantly greater privileges and status to males than females. At the same time, women are primary caretakers of children and parents. Students come from a variety of living situations: Nina was a refugee from Myanmar who lives and works as a domestic in the home of her Thai employer. Lia, Tina, Sylvia and Mia lived with a parent, relation or other adult. Lisa, Loy and Terry had husbands and several children with whom they lived. Nancy and Lulu lived with boyfriends or friends and worked full time. Kara and Ting lived alone with their children in studio apartments. Wives often reported that the 246 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. husband’s contribution to household income or labor was erratic or not forthcoming. Parental, childcare and domestic responsibilities, or for those women living alone, the struggle to survive independently, constricted the free time of most DNFE Mae Rim interviewees. Interviewees either continued working with their parent(s), or left home to live with a partner or husband; to live with a distant family member who was able to support their continued studies;, or to earn more money in a larger town. These responsibilities focused their energies away from themselves in the direction of generating income, as well as providing direct or indirect child or parent care. These responsibilities emerged from a combination of influences from Thai culture and Theravada Buddhism which delineate gendered access to household and social resources beginning in childhood. Simultaneously women’s ability is limited to care of their responsibilities in ways that would positively impact their own lives. As a consequence, interviewees explained that because their time and money was limited, personal interests or needs did not come first. Interviewees said they felt compelled to choose more immediately useful vocational studies when funds and time became available for them. Women’s roles as the primary support giver at home played a critical part in the interviewees’ decision to continue or terminate their non-formal education studies. Likewise, 247 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. many o f the DNFE interviewees, both in and out of the sex industry, have partners/husbands who disagree with their decision to study and who try to prevent them from studying or working outside the home. Jealous husbands or pimps, especially of younger women in the DNFE also limited the choices of what they studied and how they used their newly acquired skills. Other challenges to interviewees’ ability to study non-formal education were related to the women's perceived position in society or their bargaining power vis-a-vis their employers. Nina is a refugee from Burma whose mother had passed away, but her father was still living. Nina’s legal status depended upon her employer. Nina and Sylvia needed to obtain the permission and/or support of employers or teachers to attend NFE programs. Sylvia’s family was unable to help her with her living expenses or costs of study. This effectively conditioned these women’s attendance upon the employers’ desires or needs. Lia’s mother washes the laundry for apartment customers and earns enough to support both of them and pay for sewing lessons. Lia said she helps with the washing but not the ironing as she bums herself. She has a brother who helps a little. Her brother is married and lives in another city with his wife and daughter. Nancy used to work on documentation for car insurance and before that as a babysitter. She recently started working in a restaurant full time as a partner of the owner who is a friend. 248 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Her older sister recently obtained a college degree; her older brother completed an Associate's degree in mechanics and her younger brother was currently studying for a Master's degree. Nancy wakes up at 5 am every day from her habit growing up on a farm. She tries to get to the sewing class by 9:00 am but usually comes about an hour late because of the late night work in the restaurant. Lisa and Terry delayed completion of their NFE studies due to family problems or responsibilities, resulting in their attending classes late or dropping out altogether for a time. Loy also dreams of becoming a tour guide if she can improve their English language skills but says she is unlikely to have the time now. When she married, she moved to Mae Rim when her husband found work there. Lia says she has no real interest in anything, so her mother pushed her to come to the DNFE program and to study sewing again. Her mother is a friend o f the DNFE sewing teacher and wants Lia to have a skill or degree for her future career. Originally Loy wanted to study in the beauty salon, but her husband wanted her at home and did not want customers coming to their house. They compromised on sewing since she could help with the family’s clothes and she could occasionally take orders from a shop. Loy is also in grade 10 in the general education program on weekends while studying sewing during 249 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. weekdays. It has been hard for her to come regularly and she had had to delay graduation because she has not completed all the coursework. Kara, Ting, and Lulu, who worked in the sex industry, had emigrated away from their families and home villages, had little access to cultural and social networks that might have helped them with their responsibilities. Their late and somewhat clandestine work schedules prevented them from building substitute family or social networks where they currently resided. In addition, they appeared quite constrained about what they could say about both working conditions and about the NGO that monitored them. Kara and Ting both appeared fearful of describing anything about their lives except neutral details of their schedules, their children or study needs. Lulu was slightly more forthcoming. It was difficult, however, to understand whether these women were more constrained by a trafficking situation at work or NGO staff control over their behavior. In either case, they were clearly quite vulnerable. They all had to pay off heavy debts, as well as family and childcare responsibilities. All worked long hours, seven days a week. This was a group of women with very little time to themselves outside of work and the NGO activities. Several women ended up in the sewing class because they reported that their husbands/partners decided that sewing was the vocational skill with the least public interaction. 250 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sewing could be done at home and would reduce the women's needs to go out publicly. These jealous partners did not allow their wives to invite sewing customers to their homes while other women were only allowed to use their sewing skills for their immediate families. Interviewees working in the sex industry explained that they had to be very cautious that nothing be seen to encroach upon their work hours and performance. One DNFE sewing graduate, Lisa, says that her vulnerability as a young bride forced to move meant that her early sewing skills were weak. She was treated as a farm laborer by her husband’s family. Since her husband was working primarily as a laborer in the Middle East during this time, she reported directly to his parents. She said that she did not feel free enough to move outside her in-laws home until her had returned from overseas. Since she, her husband and daughter all moved back to the Mae Rim area, he lives several miles away and does not provide household support regularly. She lives very close to her parents in her former village. Sylvia found a mentor/teacher who helped her leave her poor village. She works as a domestic aide and studies part-time. She has often been approached by traffickers but refused since her goal is to complete her education. Lia decided to drop out of public school because she was not interested or motivated to study. She used to study sewing at another school but left because she did not like the way teachers asked students to memorize their lectures and were 251 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. unavailable for questions. Lia seems to drift with her mother’s or teacher’s agendas and has no interest in continuing high school studies and says her mother wants her to focus on sewing and earning a living, d) Dreams and Motivation: Some DNFE participants remarked that their economic stability was dependent upon their husband's income, but they were close to their parents and siblings if they had problems. A frequently mentioned reason to study sewing was that they believed that a woman's income alone was not enough to support the family if the husband lost his job, as the number o f unemployed Thais surged by 1.3 million in the 1997 economic collapse. Thailand’s gross domestic product declined by 9.4 percent in 1998. The poor took the brunt of unemployment and felling wages (Laird, 2000). DNFE interviewees were prey to other forms of vulnerability. The low cost of DNFE courses was important for all the participants. Knowledge of specific NFE programs, the relevance of their offerings to their needs, the proximity of classes to their homes and the fact that women had the free time to participate, such as help with childcare, were also cited as important reasons for interviewee NFE participation. Several participants joined the sewing program because they had been introduced to the teacher. 252 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Income generation was a motivation for study shared by all study participants in the DNFE sewing course. Loy and Teriy considered their income to be supplemental to their husband's income. Tina worked for 3 years in a sewing factory assembly line to save the money to open her shop. Now she pays 1,300 baht a month in shop rental. Sylvia had waited a long time to study sewing and thought she could support herself independently through sewing. Kara and Terry said studied sewing because they feared that they would lose their homes or stability in the absence of the main wage earner. Other participants expressed a desire for more economic independence. One sewing program graduate, Lisa, described her feelings of helplessness after marrying upon her relocation to her husband's hometown hundreds of miles away from her family. She and her child were completely dependent upon his family for survival. She was not allowed to work or to study outside the home until she persuaded him to move back to her hometown. Interviewees who had children appeared to be especially vulnerable to shifts in economic and social stability because they lived week to week on their husband’s income and had no savings for emergencies. Nancy was very independent, stating that she did not want to be dependent upon anyone and that sewing skills will help her achieve that end. Nancy was introduced to the DNFE sewing 253 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. program by one of the few male sewing program students in the program. Her male friend has since graduated and works in interior design and makes good money according to the teacher, Wanpen. Nancy chose to study sewing because this skill would enable her to work independently. She explained that it is very important to her not to depend on or report to anyone if she can help it. The low cost for DNFE courses is also an important factor in women’s participation. Ajaan (Wanpen , who teaches sewing, said that students pay 1 baht for 1 hour of class (approximately U.S. $.05). She explained that none of the students are well off and they plan to make clothes for their family and make money. Nancy is self-supporting and said the low cost was important to her. She sometimes earns extra income sewing projects for the teacher. Lisa said that the course was relatively cheap and that she really wants to earn her own money upon completion. Married women reported that the flexibility of the teacher and their free time were important parts of their decision to study at DNFE. Participants with school age children were able to take the time for weekday studies while school was in session. Those women with none or older children said they had more freedom than their fellow students. Sylvia and Mia reported that they sometimes studied in the DNFE general education program to complete 254 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. secondary school on the weekends in addition to their sewing studies. Tina said she had the time to study and work full time at different jobs. Terry attended grades 7 through 9 in the DNFE general education program but said she did not think she was smart enough to go further. She decided to study sewing at DNFE because it could be done in a freelance and independent way. She finished the certificate requirement of 300 hours in May 2002 and graduated in September 2002 . Loy started the DNFE program at night after getting married in Chiang Mai. She explained that it took a lot o f negotiation with her husband, both about what vocational skill she studied as well as what she would do with the skill. She said that her husband is jealous and does not want her to associate with strangers, especially men when he is away at work. Loy plans to finish high school as well, saying “ ...if something happens to my husband I have to earn money some way. After my first child was bom I really missed working. I had to stay home most of the time.” She said that she could not have an interesting job unless she had more education. Interviewees mentioned that they learned about the NFE program in several ways: The DNFE courses are often promoted by staff, teachers, program graduates who are friends of students or neighbors of students in their communities as well as during presentations a the 255 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. community learning centers. In many villages, the DNFE centers have information boards about courses or sometimes host village meetings. Local leaders also promote the courses and gather data related to local needs for the DNFE. Nina, one of the few non-Thais in the course, found out about the sewing program because her employer is a teacher who knew Wanpen, the DNFE sewing teacher. Lulu started DNFE primary school studies in her village, but preferred the DNFE teachers in the city of Chiang Mai. In some cases, relationships pointed the way for women who were unable or unwilling to pursue other alternatives to join the sewing class. Lia said her mother knows Wanpen and both of them persuaded her to try sewing classes. She said she has no real ambition and has learned to like the DNFE class because she feels more comfortable, enjoying the teaching approach and the other students. Lisa, a graduate, said that her father had persuaded her earlier to study sewing after she left high school. At that time, she did not like it because it was boring to her and she was not interested in working in the teacher’s shop. However, Lisa said “I decided to study sewing when I became an adult because I had changed.. .1 was now interested in it for myself, not for my parents” . Mia had earlier thought about enrolling in the DNFE university in Sukhothai, a northern city, which accepts DNFE high school graduates but decided that a vocational education program would be more practical and less stressful for her health. Mia was forced to quit her job and full 256 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. time study due to a heart condition. While living with her aunt, she learned about the DNFE sewing program. She attends from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays. She says that this course fits well with the regimen prescribed by her doctor. She started the DNFE sewing program in March, 2002. At the time of the study interviews, Mia said that she had completed a total of 250 hours, which is close to the total requirements for the 300-hour vocational certificate program. In comparison with more mainstream students, interviewees Kara, Lulu, and Ting who worked in the sex industry, managed to attend DNFE courses despite severe constraints. These constraints governed their free time and what they said for several reasons. Kara and Ting were single mothers with little assistance with childcare, but explained that they really wanted to learn some skills so they could get other jobs in the future. The late entertainment or sex industry work hours meant they worked until late at night. Ting described how tired she was in the morning after getting to bed late, waking up to fix her child breakfast, sending her daughter to school, doing her housecleaning and laundry which usually meant she arrived in class late. Kara’s schedule was similar to Ting’s while Lulu lived with another single girlfriend., Despite the fact they need to go to work right after class and must accomplish their household tasks in the morning, all 3 women explained that they were happy to have a chance to take Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. secondary school classes. Ting said it was very important for her to know that Kara and Lulu were in the class since her life and schedule was quite different from her classmates and all of their attendance was irregular. 3) Program Features DNFE’s vocational education program is organized into three parts: stationary vocational training, mobile vocational training and interest group programs (Office of the National Education Commission, 1997). This study looked at a stationary vocational training program in order to gain participant insights over an extended educational experience. The government NFE program benefits from a long history of community based experience, which is slowly expanding throughout the country, a) History and Design: The DNFE's nationwide network of non-formal education programs provides general education equivalency courses from primary through high school completion as well as vocational education and training programs leading to certificates. According to the Chiang Mai provincial DNFE office, there are 3,075 students in the provincial general education program, 300 or more in the vocational education program and additional students in the distance education and weekend classes. The DNFE vocational program, particularly the sewing course, contributes to 258 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. women's survival in many ways. It offers flexible, low cost vocational training in a convenient location that works with their busy schedules and results in a marketable skill in high demand. There are a wide variety of adult educational programs managed by DNFE leading to the high school equivalency certificate, as well as vocational training certificates. The Mae Rim center was located within commuting distance from several villages and the large city of Chiang Mai. Sylvia, a younger student who sat in the back of the large sewing classroom, explained that after a two terms, she could already design and sell her own (simple) fashions. I met the sewing teacher, Ajaan Wanpen the next day. She shared her experiences of teaching 15 years for DNFE during several subsequent interviews and discussions. As she had graduated from DNFE with a high school certificate and later a sewing certificate, she has strong empathy for her students, b) Staffing The Mae Rim county director said that they hired 5 people to be kru assa (adjunct teachers) with a two year contract. Most teachers, however, are hired on a renewable 6-month contract. In the main city center of Chiang Mai City there are twenty-two centers. Each county has centers in or near most of the large towns. The DNFE county staff coordinator explained DNFE teacher training by saying that new teachers attend workshops where they learn teaching 259 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. techniques. They also work with experienced teachers during their first year of teaching. He said that there have not been any new teachers for a while since the eleven current teachers are already experienced. New teachers must pass a demonstration requirement (test), and produce a reference letter from their village headman puyaiban that are experts in whatever vocational subject they plan to teach. In response to a question about student and teacher monitoring and evaluation, the DNFE staff coordinator answered that he attends the class daily if there is a problem. If a student can ultimately finish the teacher's assignment, then spotty student attendance and tardiness are tolerated. Teachers are evaluated quarterly and share/discuss their problems in regular meetings If there is a student complaint, a special meeting between staff members and teachers is called, or if they notice a problem such as few students coming to class from attendance sheets or observation, staff will check what is wrong. When I met the sewing teacher Wanpen, she told us that she was a long-time DNFE employee (for 20 years), but not on a "permanent" basis. Wanpen has been in the Mae Rim county government center teaching for the past five years. For 15 years before that, she was an instructor in different DNFE village centers. She seemed to prefer working at the county program instead of villages and was eager to talk about her students and her teaching ideas. As we 260 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. visited the class over several weeks, she welcomed us to come and observe casually. She later encouraged interviews with students outside the class, which benefited us, the students and the teacher herself because she could teach without distraction. The students being interviewed could speak more freely away from their colleagues and we could find a mutually agreeable place with beverages and writing space. Nancy, a student near graduation, said that at first it was difficult for her to get used to the teacher's classroom technique since she was used to traditional Thai teachers ordering students to do things. Wanpen, by contrast, let the students do their assignments first after her demonstration of a sewing technique. She did not answer student questions until they had actually tried the assignment. She said that she had had to change her thinking about how teaching should happen after working with adults in the DNFE community centers. Lia, a younger student who had recently started the course, said that it was difficult for her to go ahead and try after a demonstration but that now she understood the basic steps since she tried them herself many times. Lia, Nancy, and Mia, another student, explained that they needed to experiment and fail and succeed before they really understood why the steps were taught that way. They said the teacher’s patience and repeated demonstrations made a big difference. 261 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4) Teaching and Learning a) Curriculum and Pedagogy My observations of non-formal education at the DNFE Mae Rim program were of the vocational sewing course. Ajaan Wanpen taught all DNFE Mae Rim sewing courses. Her experience with DNFE in a variety of locations had honed her approach to multi-level classes with students with a wide range o f ages and experiences. She explained that the sewing courses have adapted to the changing interests of students while other DNFE vocational courses such as motorcycle repair electrician skills and driver education have been eliminated because of reduced demand, the teacher left or there was not enough budget to offer all courses simultaneously. Sewing skills remain in high demand due to the growth in the tourist demand for Thai produced silk and cotton clothing and products. In contrast to DNFE general education courses where teachers from the formal educational system usually moonlighted in weekend courses, vocational teachers tended to be specialists in their field. Although Wanpen did not have a long-term employment contract, her six-month contract has been regularly renewed and she expects demand for sewing to continue. Wanpen is very engaged in her students’ learning and is allowed a relatively free hand in her classroom. For instance, she designs the curriculum, provides the materials and makes the most of the antiquated 262 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sewing machines and materials provided by DNFE. She has been able to augment the insufficient supplies of material and sewing tools by obtaining occasional donations to the class such as materials and sewing supplies from NGOs and local charities while students that can afford it are asked to provide their own and extra material to sew with. DNFE’s vocational pedagogy prescribes certain content to be covered and the length of time normally allocated for each topic. DNFE official documents explain NFE in ways more closely allied with formal classroom learning than the participatory, more flexible, non-formal education program described by Fordham based on Simkin’s 1976 educational framework (1993). In the classroom, however, the individual teacher has a great deal of flexibility in implementing DNFE guidelines. The variety in student experience, maturity and previous exposure to formal education make this necessary. Students unused at all to formal classroom instruction with very little disposable income are mixed in class together with women who have completed 6th grade and other women who have completed high school. Subgroups of students within a class tend to align according to social capital similarities. In one of the first semi-structured interview groups, it appeared that Mia, whose wealthy aunt had enabled her to complete public high school and enter junior college was uncomfortable with Nancy, whose family’s extreme poverty caused her to drop out of primary school early. It was 263 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. instructive to see the impact of concrete differences in formal educational opportunities, which extended to lack of comprehension and inattention to each other’s stories. Mia had a high opinion of the value of her time and insisted that she be allowed to answer questions alone first since she wanted to go somewhere else. This was the only time this happened in the entire study. Wanpen explained that the variety of needs and abilities in her classroom made it critical to get to know her student’s personal situations and personalities. She said this made it possible for her to understand how best to motivate her students and keep them in the class learning. The teacher’s presence influenced the classroom dynamics, since she and other vocational teachers were called away for meetings at least once a week. When she was out o f the classroom, students tended to work on hemming and stitching, which piled up over the term. During the research period, she was called away from class for entire days at a time. When Wanpen was back in the classroom, students moved more quickly and attempted more difficult skills such as pattern cutting and fitting. When asked about the curriculum, Mia and Tina said they start with simple items, such as pajamas and skirts. Wanpen said after students have mastered the basic skills, students can try whatever they want to make. 264 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Over the past year Nancy has enjoyed the teaching, saying the teacher is excellent “she takes very good care of the students and reviews what she did and said the day before unlike in other classes where if you miss the class you miss the learning. The teacher regularly checks and you can't get this much care in an expensive school.” When asked if the students had input into the curriculum, if students were weak in an area, would Wanpen change the lesson to review past lessons, Nancy replied that Wanpen is always ready to do this. She will review lessons with the whole class or while she roves around the class and students can call her over for help. The DNFE classroom reality is somewhere between official DNFE documents and Fordham’s more flexible NFE model. At one end of the NFE spectrum, Fordham emphasizes NFE flexibility, localness and responsiveness and states that NFE "organization and curriculum planning should...be undertaken by the learners themselves: that it should be 'bottom up’"(1993). At the other end of the spectrum, DNFE officially approaches learners with a highly constructed alternative educational program that delivers content in a one-way traditional pedagogical process, whether vocational or general education, that assumes little knowledge on the part o f the learner. Mr. Sucharit, the Mae Rim County vocational program coordinator, replied to my question concerning whether vocational classes contribute to student critical consciousness and empowerment: “Do we mean other than improving their vocational skills?” I asked if there are 265 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. any goals to support students’ self-confidence, participation in society, and to teach them about the external conditions that lead to poverty. Mr. Sucharit said that: DNFE tries to accomplish social skills through extra activities with teachers and student participants. They learn to get along, share, do service....DNFE supports them (sometimes)to lunch together...The vocational program does not empower students as such, but gives them support while they improve their economic situation...The general education program (high school equivalency program) supports students (female and male) to learn general knowledge and perhaps that empowers students. There is no real difference between general and vocational education since the teachers are often shared equally. One example (of enfranchisement) is that some hill tribe students may study for free course and may be sponsored by DNFE. DNFE vocational training is set up and operates much like a formal education program, particularly the general education program that allows students to make up secondary school. Except for program timing and course requests, the DNFE does not rely on clientele for delivery or control. DNFE provincial staff did describe a grass roots system of needs identification in which villagers meet to tell the village DNFE representative what skills they are interested in. Then, the DNFE representative reports this to the county office, which is supposed to report this to the provincial office. The provincial office explained, however, that the national office often decides courses and budget allocations for the year in advance, sometimes before the provincial offices send in 266 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. local requests. This has meant at least a year lag time before requests are met. DNFE staff explained that not all requests can be met, due to budget restrictions. DNFE operates from a national decision making system, which has resulted in an institutionalized and standardized approach, in contrast to other NFE program’s use of local input. It is interesting to note that an assessment of adult educational needs is conducted in villages and towns by a DNFE staff member or by local authorities, such as village chiefs who represent the government locally. These locally generated requests are considered together with national directives from the Ministry o f Education and other government planning agencies, which, however, make budgeting and final course decisions. The DNFE county course coordinator said that there is a standardized Ministry vocational curriculum that has been adapted to the actual local situation. The structure of the vocational education classes is about 20% theory and 80% practical application. DNFE focuses on the practical, applied component of learning based on what local citizens have requested. The DNFE originally designed the vocational program to attain a break-even point with thirty students. The staff coordinator explained that they soon realized that if they waited for 30 people to sign up for each 300 hour program segment, they would not be able to start, because students did not come in all at the same time. Once DNFE had divided up the 300-hour program 267 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. into 50-hour segments, they were able to start with as few as 15 students. They have continued to made adaptations, which make the class more practical. Each 50-hour segment must be consistently attended by students. However, in practice adults with outside responsibilities often come late to class. This has been accepted if students demonstrate functional competence at the end of each fifty-hour segment. Students must pass a demonstration or exam at the end of each fifty hours and receive a certificate of completion at each level. After completing a total of three hundred hours they receive a special certificate that entitles them to open their own sewing shop, work in a sewing business or continue on to study in a formal school if they desire to specialize in an area. The sterility of this approach is modified by teachers like Wanpen, who takes time to get to know each of her students and their particular situation and needs. Her close relationship with each student, the roompii-roomnong peer support structure and her individualized approach make the sewing classroom more interactive and engaging. It is helpful to examine the process of learning dynamics at this DNFE program through the lens provided by Hart’s principles regarding the development of critical consciousness (Foley, 1999). The principles are that: the learning group must be representative of the marginalized group, the experiences of members must be relatively similar, members must have the motivation 268 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and time to reflect critically on their subjective experiences, and that members must gain a theoretical distance from their personal experience. DNFE's characteristics are compared to Hart’s principles in Table 5-6 on the next page. A discussion of DNFE's characteristics as compared to each principle of critical consciousness follows the table. There is a clear difference between DNFE characteristics and NGO characteristics for most principles. Table 5-6. Principles for Critical Consciousness Development Hart’s Principles DNFE Characteristics • Learning group must be representative o f the marginalized group • All students are poor. • Experiences o f members must be relatively similar • All students grew up in poor families and were either unable to enter or to complete secondary school as children. • Members must have the motivation and time to reflect critically on their subjective experiences • They are occupied with day to day survival and responsibilities and rarely have time for reflection. This is not a part o f the curriculum • Members must gain a theoretical distance from personal experience’ • Most students live with their parents or their husbands and children in a variety o f locations and receive no training or support in this area Source: Foley, 1999 DNFE recruits students who have much in common, in line with Hart’s principles. First, the learning group is representative of the large number of marginalized women in rural northern Thailand. All current sewing students and graduates interviewed for this study are females who grew up in poor families, many headed by one parent or a relative. There was one male student who dropped out last year. None of the members was able to say in secondary school beyond ninth grade. Many were never able to enter secondary school as children and their chief exposure to vocational training was farming or housework. All interviewees are concerned 269 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. about lack of household money. The student-student interaction in the classroom is on the level of equality in terms of informal conversation and attention from the teacher. Differences arise in the implementation of vocational training. The teacher uses and encourages a key Thai cultural value valuing seniority namedpii-nong by making older learners responsible for younger learners. This value is tilted slightly away from seniority of age in the sewing class and is based instead upon seniority of knowledge. More experienced and/or skilled students are expected to mentor those women who need assistance and informally replace the teacher when she is called away. As more knowledgeable women gain experience from shared responsibility for mentoring and teaching, they gain confidence in their abilities and their status within the class. Sylvia and Nancy, two current students, said that they were proud of their increasing ability to produce useful and salable garments. Nuan and Tan mentioned that the teacher’s reliance on students to supplement teaching helped them to understand from a peer when they needed help and their self-confidence increased when they mentored new students when they became more experienced. They said that their DNFE learning experience motivated them to encourage other females to acquire useful skills and attend training. To some extent, women learning in DNFE classes realizes the fundamental assumption in Hart’s principles, that critical 270 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. consciousness is more than the knowledge that we are shaped by various forces. Sewing program graduates, particularly Nuan, Teep and Tan explained that it is very important for women to stand up for themselves, to earn their own money and gain a stronger position in their household decision-making. Teep and Nuan have children and said it is very important for both males and females to get as much education as they can. Teep went on to say that she wants her boys to become proficient in household skills so their wives will not carry the entire burden. These sentiments cannot be directly attributed to the DNFE class, but the strong and lasting friendships and support network that evolved from this program is credited by graduates provide a mirror of themselves through the eyes of their peers that inspires them to continue to strive to improve their lives. Both current students and graduates share the belief that the only way to truly improve their lives is to work at better paying jobs and to try to have more control over their schedules and income. There is a parallel between their acquisition of new skills, increased self-confidence and some change in their concept of themselves and society. The process in which women’s self-definition changes and emerges to a more independent, productive income-generating self has some resonance with shifts in the locus of household control or ambitions for greater educational attainment by their children, especially daughters. Nancy learned about the value of 271 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. work and paying her own way when very young but her self-deprecation obviously changed over the year of the study. In her initial interview, she was extremely timid about her sewing abilities and life plans. A year later, she marketed her sewing skills and took what she called a bold step to invest her money and labor into a restaurant partnership. As advanced students and graduates grow into their new knowledge and skills, there is a discomfort and disconnect with pre-existing external definitions o f themselves and their worth. In spite of the incentive to greater awareness and change provided by the irritation engendered by the friction of old and new realities rubbing against each other causing friction from mixed messages inside and outside the classroom and their social network, the encouragement to grow, become aware or change behavior is weak. The formal nature of the classroom environment, the teacher’s obligation to leave for frequent meetings and events, the lack of student-student interaction outside the classroom, and the many responsibilities waiting for students before and after class, are factors that join to form a chain of disincentives towards further personal evolution. DNFE participants are all poor, but unlike SEPOM program members, their poverty has not led them to the extreme vulnerability of trafficking or abuse, except for domestic violence. Their personal experience of inequality was confined to knowledge of reduced educational and 272 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vocational options for females. Foley makes it clear that consciousness raising starts with personal experiences to shape their own theoretical distance. With neither focused instruction or encouragement to such ends, DNFE participants are unlikely to have the opportunity to achieve theoretical distance which would allow them to link gender to inequities they experienced. Interviewees also describe the competition for their time, attention and energy between their families and jobs. Although there is little disagreement about what women are studying, participants often come to class late or miss the day entirely. Nina, Terry, Nancy, and Sylvia all work full time and explained that their jobs and families were higher priorities than studying. Sylvia expressed her concern about talking about her DNFE studies: "My boss does not understand why I come. I don't talk about sewing or my classm ates." Nina said: " My employer may not allow me to come in the future. Since she supports my visa and I live with them, I do what she wants." Kara and Lulu are the most precariously balanced on the fence of opportunity facing trafficking on one side and independent employment on the other. Working in the entertainment sector means they are quite vulnerable to exploitative forces but studying sewing could mean future employment safety. Despite the potential for camaraderie and support 273 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in the class, their night jobs marginalize them even further from the class since they cannot come regularly or on time most days. The fact that women are usually able to get away from their daily obligations allows them to bond with each other and learn from each other. Even the routine o f classes, selecting designs, material, measuring and cutting cloth, fitting patterns and engaging in conversations with each other and the teacher promotes a new dimension of personality that few interviewees experienced before. The reinforcement o f their identities as individuals engaged in learning a skill that they will do themselves is part of a subtle ongoing transformation in their self-perception. They are affirmed by their membership in a constructive group of women and reinforced by the physical presence of other learners in an environment independent o f their families. The youngest participant, Lia, had the weakest sense of self and ideas for the future. Her mother may have sensed her opportunities to learn, and change, from others, as she comes each day to collect her daughter right at the end of class time. The informal role o f the classroom network and casual interactions are more important forces in women’s liberation inasmuch as women’s time away from forces that act to support their marginalization. All interviewees face strong resistance to any behavior changes that threaten the status quo. Their evolution is made more precarious by their lack of awareness of their changes and growth and 274 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. retreats from new found but unconscious self-esteem and confidence are easier to do than articulate unsupported reasons for their change. In common with women from all three programs in this study, interviewees experienced marginalization starting as children. With minimal access to education and little reinforcement by family members who themselves lacked die tools to build social and cultural capital, participants remain vulnerable to trafficking or other abuses. The lack of access to such tools prevented these women from acquiring the habits of thought and behavior that could open up a greater choice of jobs opportunities. Unfortunately, despite their lack of the positive rewards of formal education, interviewees remain vulnerable to the larger societal reproduction o f attitudes reinforcing the domination o f gender and status inequities that serve to imprison them on the margins of society desiring but not reaching health, stability and safety (Walker and Barton in Foley, 1996). b) Role Models: Students reported that they liked the individualized approach the teacher took with each student. This process illuminates the role of teacher as role model for the adult students. First Wanpen ensured that they get to know each other and her. Second, she approaches students 275 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. informally to build trust. Third, she customized her approach as much as possible. Nancy, an advanced student in the vocational sewing program, said that: My teacher has a different approach to each student. She first learns about the students personally, their backgrounds and what kind of person they are. She talks informally with the students and bit-by-bit builds their trust. Then the teacher changes (customizes) her approach to each student to make up for any neglect or problems they may have had. Wanpen said she keeps students in the class as much as possible so they stay engaged and keep learning. Nancy said that the teacher knows that she likes to avoid class so she keeps giving her assignments and Nancy is responsible enough to finish the assignment. The students seemed very comfortable with the teacher, joking with her and unhesitatingly calling on her with questions and problems. The atmosphere seemed casual and relaxed as students came and went and the teacher herself went to meetings while the students kept working. As with many DNFE vocational education programs, students are committed to varying degrees. Some are learning to help sew clothing for their families, while others hope to make money from this skill. Students volunteered that they liked the teacher very much in interviews or casual conversation outside and away from the class. Their attitude towards learning the skill appeared to be primarily economically oriented, wanting to generate income but some also stated they could be more independent of husbands and families with this skill. 276 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sylvia, a newer student, said that the teacher keeps students in the class as much as possible since some would like to leave early or skip class. For herself, Sylvia explained that: . the teacher knows that (Sylvia) likes to avoid class so she (the teacher) checks on her and asks her about her assignments so she cannot forget. She said that she likes to make everything, especially pants. Nancy gave an example of the teacher's strategy in regard to Lia, the youngest and least mature DNFE student. Nancy said Wanpen sees that Lia has some family problems since her father died. Wanpen knows Lia’s mother is too strict, so the she approaches Lia in a way that will motivate her to stay in the sewing course. Nancy said she thought that the teacher's strategy is to notice what the students are doing and to give them assignments in the same area that the student is working in. For example, if Nancy is working on a shirt, she noticed that Wanpen says why not try this or that with the shirt, which serves 2 purposes; first it keeps the student from leaving and second it improves the final product which was not yet good quality. Terry said she did not have a positive attitude towards DNFE originally because some DNFE students who eventually dropped out were bullies to her. She did not want to come until a friend encouraged her to come back and observe the current class atmosphere. Terry said that after she rejoined, she tried to make a friendlier atmosphere. She enjoyed learning as a 277 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. roomnong and now, as roompii, Terry said “I was really confident in my skills after I helped another (new) student master seams.. Nancy mentioned that she has not made many friends at DNFE, just a few. One friend studies nearby in the beauty salon course. The roompii and roomnong system she instituted were part of Wanpen’s answer to the challenges of frequent teacher absences and a multilevel class. Thai culture values seniority and in the classroom, older students are called pii, an honorific term expressing greater age (whether months or years) and implying responsibility of the piis for the nongs who are the younger learners. Roompiis functioned as older, experienced class tutors in the case (as frequently happened) that the teacher was called out for meetings, funerals or other administrative matters. This was part o f a welcoming and informal class atmosphere in which older and experienced students readily help younger and less experienced students who were called roomnongs in the classroom. Nancy said that although it took her some time before she was comfortable in the class, she took advantage of the roompiis several times. Wanpen described her employment of the roompii— roomnong system as an important part of peer support and confidence building. She explained the senior-junior mentoring system is part of her strategy to help reinforce the learning of both groups and lessen their dependence on her. Lia, on the other hand, said she did not know the older students well enough to ask their 278 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. help and waited until the teacher came back before asking questions or assistance. Wanpen said that students would graduate before long and would not be able to call on her regularly for help at their jobs and encourages students like Lia to get to know others and trust them. Roomnongs are expected to help piis to take care of the room, materials and to listen carefully to their tutors, giving them respect. Wanpen remained available to all her students long after they graduated. For example several former students visit and even sit in on sewing classes despite officially graduating several years ago. Sewing course graduates also served as an important part of Wanpen’s social network that helped her place graduates in jobs and recruit new students. Nancy found out about the DNFE program when she was introduced to Wanpen by a male friend who recently graduated from the sewing program. She looked up to him as a good example of someone who is open to learning and trying something new. Terry is one of the graduates she placed in a sewing factory near Mae Rim. Tina was originally placed by Wanpen in a factory closer to Bangkok, but she said she learned enough after a year to open her own combination sewing shop/bookstore. Although Nancy has not yet graduated, Wanpen’s assists current students to generate income as well. Through her network, she provides part time sewing work for Nancy and other current students. 279 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5) Program Summary Overall, the DNFE NFE program provides a variety of avenues for marginalized low-income students to participate, learn new skills and ideas. Many program graduates, as well as current students, have been able to change their situation for the better. DNFE’s vocational training approach provides important opportunities for economic empowerment, according to Stromquist’s model (1993). Table 5-7 below summarizes findings of participant learning according to Stromquist’s model of empowerment. Table 5-7. DNFE Participant Outcomes Activity Cognitive Outcomes Psychological Outcomes Economic Outcomes Political Outcomes Educa tion Learn sewing skills. Several also enrolled in secondary school program Increased self confidence with own income New skills directly tied to ability to generate income, opportunities for financial independence Personal identity enhanced through new affiliation outside family and community Employ ment Learn more about family budget, working conditions Increased confidence in ability to manage projects, obtain customers Employment contributes to awareness o f personal agency and family well-being Economic contribution increases personal independence Partici pation in student network Learn about job and income generation ideas from others. Increased self-esteem through ability to mentor others, belonging to group. More job options if fired, income security. Take in private customers additional to job New self perception enlarges identity and potential to help others Beyond meeting the NFE goals of achieving individual skill competence in sewing, DNFE provides a venue for women to create an identity separate from home and makes it possible for several generations of sewing students to network with each other in an environment more conducive to their independence. 280 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Lisa explained that sewing skills have helped her establish her independence from her abusive husband. She set up a home business in her village and said “I changed after class... now I have my own bank account... my husband does not know about this.” She said “ .. .now I have enough of my own money so I can divorce my husband.. .if he beats me or cheats me more.” She went on to say “I think differently than my parents do.. .my daughter will finish high school.. .maybe she wants to college.. .1 will make sure she can.” Some graduates of the DNFE sewing program have set up their own businesses or a cooperative. These independent business owners have experienced a significant shift in marital and family power relations. It appears that DNFE participants benefit socially and culturally by providing a steady income stream to fulfill their parental and family responsibilities while bolstering their self-esteem by the acquisition of skills that allow them to make and control income, a scarce resource that has high status. Terry was already married when she returned to DNFE night school and realized that she needed more than her 9th grade credentials. Terry’s childcare, family and work responsibilities prevented her from considering high school completion, but she is proud of her sewing certificate. She said that “I have a full time job in this sewing factory near my hom e.. .and I sew for private customers too.. .The factory should pay more for each item.” Although Terry thinks the pay should be better, she said she’s making more money than she could otherwise. As graduates and 281 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. students gain new skills, and particularly as they earn money from those skills, their self-confidence and self-image is positively influenced. Lia, at 18 the youngest in the DNFE Mae Rim sewing class, completed ninth grade in public school and joined the sewing class in the summer of 2002. Since the students used numbers a lot in the sewing class, Lia said “I learned to get help from the more experienced students, especially in measuring and cutting patterns.. .that is hard for me.” Nancy, an older fellow student, hopes that “Lia will get inspired by the way the teacher encourages us to think for ourselves and how we learn from each other.... and start to think for herself.” Nina grew up in Burma in a Shan (Tai Yai) hill tribe village. She said “I am fluent in Burmese as well as in Tai Yai (Shan tribal language) because I come from Shan state in Burm a.. .but it is hard for me to learn the Thai language, especially writing.. .so studying sewing is good for me.” She wanted to study sewing because she already knew a little from her former neighbors in Burma who taught her how to sew before she left for Thailand. She is motivated to learn Thai on her own while studying sewing. She studied English in Burma and understood many things I said to her but was unable (or uncomfortable) to speak in English. Nina indicated that she is dependent upon her employers for food, shelter and wages. She said that “I am not 282 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sure if they will allow me to keep studying, but I really want to finish the course...my parents would be pleased if they knew how far along I am.” DNFE, through the sewing classroom dynamics and relationships, makes it possible for a students to build relationships that do more than help them fulfill economic needs. Students learn new ideas and ways of being in a neutral territory outside their homes and away from family dynamics and roles. When women bond over sewing lessons and continue with relationships that provide emotional and vocational support over the long term, other changes in personal identity are possible. Students try out different ideas as they try new patterns and stitches. The teacher’s use of the mentoring system, the pii-nong system, based upon student to student contact to reinforce and support learning, serves as a key part of foundation of the student network. The teacher herself acts as a positive role model as she cares for each student beyond a strictly professional level, encouraging them to get beyond personal troubles and constraints to complete the course and have more control over their lives by generating income. The pii-nong system furthers the construction of role models as ways to learn by encouraging younger or less experienced students to look to older or more experienced students for assistance. Mentors take care of their mentees beyond the sewing classroom as relationships develop. When mentors graduate, they keep in touch with mentees, like Terry has with Nancy. Nancy feels very close to 283 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Terry and takes her advice on many things. Students learn to work closely with other women they might otherwise have never met. Terry told a joke about her first time to talk to Nancy “She made the worst pajama bottom I ever saw and I never let her forget it...we worked together a lot and really enjoyed each other.” Nancy said that Terry “ .. .was an excellent student and taught me a lot.” Beyond the words, it was evident that Nancy looked up to Terry and listened carefully to her opinions about work, about family, about the role of women. After the interview with Terry, Nancy opened more about her opinions about women and work “I think Terry was right.. .that girls and boys should equally share household responsibilities.. .have equal chance at education... it is not fair that women have less chance than men to do things.” They share knowledge and tips about sewing but relationships begin as well and deepen into personal sharing and problem solving that evolves over the months in class and years after graduation to strong friendships and a continuing sense of identity removed from day to day family responsibilities. Membership in the student network means affiliation with other women striving to improve their lives, their economic situation and increase their independence from fate and errant husbands. After separating from her husband and moving her family back to Chiang Mai, Lisa decided to obtain sewing skills to earn her own living. She said “I am proud that I could finish 284 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the sewing certificate so now I can make money at my hom e.. .1 do sewing and I do laundry for many people in my village.” The teacher and graduate students also provide a job placement information service that introduces students to jobs since employers have learned that the sewing teacher is the best source of employees when they are hiring. Graduates also learn of openings at their jobs and let the teacher or current students know, strengthening the continuity of this informal network. Considering the fact that DNFE operates vocational and general education classes nationwide, the impact of this new learning, economic independence and affiliation among students is not negligible and could be mined for greater personal and community transformation. 285 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter VI: Findings Description of the NGO program SEPOM: Participants, Structure and Function Introduction This chapter focuses on the NGO program, SEPOM, which holds non-formal education programs for adult female participants. The Self-Empowerment Program of Migrant Women, (SEPOM) in Chiang Rai was chosen for this study for several reasons. First, the NGO targeted a particularly vulnerable population: women who had been trafficked once or more times into forced labor in Japan. Second, the openness and willingness of staff and members to support this research project were invaluable. Third, the goal of the NGO is to connect its NFE efforts as part of a network with other NGOs domestically and internationally to improve migrant women's working conditions and human rights. The first section (A) of this chapter is an overview of the NGO and the working context in Thailand. The second section (B) looks at participants in detail. The third section (C) provides contextual information on SEPOM’s history, program design and staff, particularly their core group members, and participant recruitment. This is followed by a discussion (D) of major curricular and environmental features of the program. The final section ( E ) examines the overall program in relation to participant perspectives. 286 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A) Overview Most NFE programs for poor, semi-literate adults in Thailand focus on literacy, vocational skill building and/or agricultural development in formal classroom settings. Few NGOs in Thailand (with the exception of the Foundation For Women (FFW) and the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women) target survivors of trafficking specifically. SEPOM is one of the few NFE programs to provide critical thinking skills and deliver psychological support combined with income generation opportunities. NGOs have been under siege politically and economically in Thailand and do not have adequate resources for the large numbers of poor and marginalized, particularly a fairly invisible population, survivors of trafficking. These constraints are an important part of the environment within which SEPOM fashioned their scope of work. SEPOM is almost unique among non-formal education (NFE) programs considered for this study in that its mission is to actively identify and reintegrate female survivors of trafficking and their children into Thai society. Women who have been trafficked are among the most vulnerable population for further exploitation and repeated trafficking. This chapter highlights the unusual composition and operation of this small NGO where survivors themselves, according to the program goals, can “build bridges to the broken hearts of other women by sharing" trafficking 287 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. experiences (SEPOM Scope, p. 2, 2001). SEPOM members come from backgrounds very similar to those of participants in the other non-governmental organization program in this study, DEPDC. Like DEPDC, SEPOM responds to the need of women in crisis for safe and stable living conditions by providing space in the NGO headquarters which itself is a house. B) Participant Background: SEPOM members who participated in this study had at least three of the five high weight factors indicating high vulnerability. The most frequently occurring factors are: poverty, lack of schooling or early school dropout, lack of family support, low self-esteem, physical and/or sexual violence. The definition of high vulnerability for a study participant was two or more high weight factors. Data gathered from study participants indicated that factors categorized as high weight were the most difficult to change or escape. In addition, all trafficked interviewees experienced these factors in their childhood and as adults. Study participants also experienced several lower weight factors in their childhood, such as parent’s break-up, parent’s second marriage, family alcoholism, family gambling, domestic violence, living in post-armed conflict areas, lack of legal status, being displaced from home, and living with adults other than biological parents. This section begins with a look at vulnerability factors impacting study participants in their childhood and then their current situation. This 288 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. section ends with a description of interviewee motivations and obstacles for NFE participation. Information collected from participant interviews challenged my notion that women who had survived trafficking were no longer at risk having acquired a great deal of money. Girls and women who started out with high weight factors of vulnerability, actually continued to find it difficult to change their problems and situations. Women who had worked in the sex industry were burdened with the disapproval of their families, society and clients and found it difficult to shift their self-perceptions to positive ones. In addition, these women usually had not acquired skills in earning sufficient income in legal ways so their options were limited. Paula, the founder of SEPOM and members Nan and Sada explained that they had been trafficked more than once, starting as young as 14 years old. Girls’ and women's hold on financial security and their ability to define themselves in something other than economic terms, which were highly valued by their families and employers, outside of the context of prostitution was tenuous. The enormous amounts of money to be made by a prostitute were a continuing disincentive towards lower earning jobs. U.S. $3,000 buys a new house for parents, which gives them high status in the village. Women who had been trafficked were promised $3,000 for one month's work in Japan (Caouette & Saito, p. 34, 1999), while sex workers in Germany reported taking three months to earn this amount (Skrobanek et al., 289 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1997). Pressure from family debts, needs or demands of significant others and/or the high status enjoyed by those with wealth compounded the lure that compelled parents to sell female children and for girls and women to agree to contracts with traffickers. SEPOM exclusively focuses on this high vulnerability population in contrast to other NFE programs in this study. Chapter 4 of this dissertation describes the concept and framework of vulnerability and places participants in groupings of vulnerability according to NFE program and stage of life (see Table 4-3, Chapter 4). As vulnerability in adults often stems from formative childhood experiences, participant characteristics are described at different stages of their lives. The next section starts with their childhood experiences. This is followed by a description of the current circumstances affecting participants and the final section looks at participant hopes and dreams related to their NFE experiences. Figure 6-1. Participant Childhood Vulnerability Low Vulnerability Nan, Lia Paula, Su, Sada, Nu, Jay Middle Vulnerability High Vulnerability 290 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1) Early Experiences: SEPOM members started life with many o f the high weight factors, placing them in the high vulnerability category. Some of their early experiences with vulnerability are described below. High weight factors were most influential in pushing girls away from home and pulling them into trafficking networks. Poverty was a driving force for all interviewees that pushed girls out of school, put them to work at home or pulled them to leave home and earn money elsewhere. Table 6-1 indicates SEPOM participant characteristics: Table 6-1. Participant Characteristics: Liam 27 2 (3, 7 year) Separated Lives with family Bualom (Lom) 28 2 (5 year old twins) Separated Lives with family Su (Sai) 29 0 Divorced Lives alone, SEPOM office staff Paula (Pranee) 32 1 (lyr) Married Farmer, SEPOM staff Duan 33 4 (4-14) Separated Lives with family Nan 33 0 Married Farmer, Lives with family Sada 45 2 (8, 13 year) Divorced Lives without children, alcoholic, masseuse One member was raised in a grain silo on the property of relatives. The relatives forced her family to work on the farm without pay in order to receive housing and poor quality food. Due to the family's poverty, the oldest daughter dropped out of school, leaving to work in the sex industry so that she could send them money. Su’s aunt exploited her to obtain a commission by placing her as an underpaid domestic and shop staff with a wealthy family. Paula’s family was too poor to afford shoes for the children when she and her siblings attended primary school. Her 291 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. parents were both working full time and unable to supervise the children. Paula decided to secretly leave home at age 13, soon after her brother drowned, while everyone else was working. The lack of family support for many interviewees’ education acted as a disincentive towards completion of schooling. The parents of Su, Paula and Sada did not believe that girls needed much education. Lia, Nu, and Jay’s parents needed them to help at the farm and pulled them out o f school. Nan's parents also thought that girls did not need to study because they should stay home, cook and clean. None of the parents of SEPOM interviewees had more than a fourth grade education. Paula’s stepfather beat her and her mother and Su’s teenage marriage ended in her being beaten to point o f permanent eye and tooth damage. Physical abuse took its toll on girls’ sense of agency and their ability to move about freely. None o f the SEPOM interviewees entered secondary school as children. O f the seven SEPOM interviewees, only three finished primary school. Paula completed sixth grade in her village public school but her family had no money for uniforms, supplies, or shoes. Nan and one of her sisters were the only ones to finish sixth grade in her family. When Su completed primary school, she was first in her class academically and won a scholarship for lower secondary school. She was unable to attend, however, since her parents could not afford the cost o f school supplies 292 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. even with the scholarship. Jay, Nu, Sada and Lia completed the fourth grade in the local primary school, and then dropped out to work to help their families. The early experience of poverty, little formal schooling or exposure to critical thinking, combined with the experience of working hard from childhood onwards; the low status of women culturally and religiously; frequent media images of wealth, luxury, consumer goods; images of subordinate women whose bodies were portrayed as objects in and of themselves all reinforced the pull of trafficking agents promising wealth and comfort to impoverished families and vulnerable girls. Su relates her embarrassment at wearing patched and frayed clothes to school where other children had new clothes and shoes. Nan said she was taught early on that the job of girls is to provide for their parents and that they were not as important as boys. Lia and Nu regretted being unable to continue in school. Low weight factors were additional negative influences upon participants’ sense of self and their ability to make informed choices as teenagers and children. Several women grew up in a single parent headed household. Su's father left when she was quite young to live with another woman in another region of Thailand. Paula's father died when she was a young girl and her mother later remarried. Paula was very unhappy with her stepfather beating her mother and the reduced time her mother had for her children after her remarriage. Girls often had to leave home 293 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to earn money: Su who went to live as a domestic in another family’s house and Paula and Sada, who went south to work in the sex sector. Sada and Paula’s fathers drank a lot and took the family earnings to pay for alcohol. Their mothers had to hide whatever money they and the children earned in order to eat. 2) Current Situation: After their return to Thailand, trafficked women are prey to many of the same circumstances and pressures they experienced as children. Once it becomes known that they served as prostitutes, voluntarily or not, social isolation and rejection can be fierce. Study participants described their bewilderment at the contrast between their initial welcome home when they brought money and their treatment once the money was gone. Lia and Nu were obedient to their parents, who encouraged them to go to Japan with the trafficking agent. None of the SEPOM participants felt that they had the right to ask any questions of the trafficking agent, and believed their promises of wealth, beautiful clothes and housing in Japan. Their vulnerability has not diminished after earning large amounts of money through forced labor. After returning from Japan, survivors of trafficking continue to experience marginalizing realities that negatively impact their self-esteem and ability to gather information or to change their situations for the better. Although spending large amounts of money temporarily changed women’s status in their homes and villages, the money was quickly gone, 294 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. through spending or fraud. Those women who were able to direct funds towards more substantial purchases such as land, buildings, seed, fowl or livestock found that they were unable to earn enough money while home for day-to-day living expenses in the amounts necessary. Interviewees spent everything they had earned upon their families or partners. Once the money from forced sex work was gone, these women again fell under tremendous pressure to generate more income. Several SEPOM interviewees have been trafficked more than once. Su said she could not live with her parents any more, even though she went to Japan on their wishes. Her parents and the villagers treat her as a child since she is not married. They refuse to listen to her newfound ability to talk about her trafficking experience, she said, since they do not want to hear anything bad about their decision to send her to Japan. Nan said that the Thai boyfriend she had before she went to Japan was "old fashioned and did not want her to work or study", so she stopped going to school. Although she no longer sees him, she has not returned to school. Lia and Nu described their enforced isolation in their parent’s homes after being forcibly separated from their Japanese husbands. They said they were considered dirty and a possible corrupting influence upon young people in the village and said that the acceptance of SEPOM members was a relief. Sada said her and her children's daily experience in her villages was extremely negative once her money was gone. She said her social standing and financial 295 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. clout disappeared, and that neighbors regularly harassed her children for being half-Japanese. People also avoided her because she is an alcoholic. Her children now live with a staff member since she cannot provide safe housing or regular meals for them. Women with children who have been trafficked have more difficulties than single women since childcare needs make it very difficult for mothers to return to school. The parents of these women are not interested in helping out a daughter who no longer has money and the children suffer from racism when the mother can afford childcare outside the family. SEPOM’s assistance with childcare, especially on weekends, made it possible for members to attend DNFE secondary school classes. High weight factors such as low self-esteem, lack of schooling and lack of family support are counterbalanced by enhanced self-confidence gained through NGO membership, non-formal education and vocational skill training that takes place within a nurturing and positive network of other women. SEPOM’s close-knit atmosphere encouraging trust, critical thinking and trying new skills helped several members to shift their vulnerability to a lower level. Concrete gains are explored in the critical consciousness and empowerment sections of this chapter. In Figure 2 on the next page, causal factors behind women’s vulnerability are categorized by individual or home actions or decisions, followed by influences at community, institutional, national and international levels. 296 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 6.2. Causal map o f primary conditions surrounding vulnerable participants 1 < C 1 INDIVIDUAL/HOME LEVEL HIGH VULNERABILITY FACTORS COMMUNITY LEVEL VULNERABILITY SUB-INSTITUTIONAL & INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS LEVEL LEVEL NATIONAL LEVEL INTERNATIONAL LEVEL 3) Motivation: This section first discusses motivations of SEPOM participants in this study to participate in SEPOM, and then describes the nature of obstacles and deterrents affecting interviewees' participation in SEPOM. The experiences of women with high vulnerability characteristics include exposure to wealth, privilege and power, usually wielded by customers and employers. Observation, media exposure, second hand experience and positive and the fate of other trafficked women motivated and inspired many of SEPOM members to seek ways to improve 297 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their knowledge and lifestyle. The reasons that SEPOM members participate in activities are threefold: emotional, psychological, and economic. Paula and Su explained that the opportunity for fellowship with women who do not judge them harshly or negatively because of their experience in the domestic sex or factory trades is extremely important. Lia and Nu described their comfort and enjoyment in sharing meals and fellowship with kindred souls. Nu said “ .. .since we have children, we were desperate to find a place where we and our children with Japanese fathers could come safely...we can never meet others in a friendly place before.. .people see our children and know they are not Thai.. .we are so happy not to hear bad things here.” The positive emotional impact of group affiliation and acceptance is powerful. Members with children were very grateful that SEPOM welcomed children and provided activities for them. Children’s presence at member activities warmed the atmosphere as they ran around, expressed their needs and kept busy. Duan mentioned that “SEPOM feels a lot like my village.. .there is always something to do.. .because my children are happy, I am happy.” As members gained self confidence in group acceptance, they began to try new things. Su said “ .. .Paula's telling her story about Japan (trafficking) was a shock, good shock to m e.. .1 was scared to say anything about Japan for nine years.” Su now shares her narrative with many 298 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. audiences, like Paula, in order to promote knowledge about women’ s subordination and the dangers of trafficking. She and Paula explained to members and potential recruits about the connection between sharing stories and helping others. They do not talk about an additional psychological benefit derived from self expression as an important part of the process of psychological healing. Member’s self-esteem is very fragile and causes SEPOM recruiters and core group members to approach recruits and members gently. Women are motivated to join SEPOM because they have met peers who have also suffered similar experiences and come out of despondency in which they consider themselves worthless, often lose hope and interest in new things. Su was able to break her nine years of self-imposed silence about her experiences after she met Paula. Members found out that they belong somewhere and with other people, finding affiliation in sorrow and history and comfort in present acceptance. Lia said “I look forward every weekend to come and talk and hear about other women like m e.. .my family does not want to hear about Japan. Women are drawn to the experience of being accepted by others like themselves and to hearing their stories. The SEPOM stipend for volunteers helped them with transportation and child costs. Although it is a small NGO and operates on a limited budget, the founders understand that economic security is a critical part of the well being of members. Molly explained that many 299 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. women could not attend the weekend sessions if they did not receive the stipend. Su is one of a few SEPOM members without children and said it is easier for her to participate than other members since she only has to provide for herself and sometimes her parents, but not for children. Lia said that “ .. .1 never thought I could do art before and I love batik.” She and Su want to try to make and sell more crafts and artistic products to make money for themselves. She said “ .. .the organic gardening trip was very helpful.. .1 think this can work better with some partners.” Nan went on to say: “My boyfriend now is Thai, and unlike my other boyfriends, he has no problem with my study or time with SEPOM.” Lia and Su wanted to make and sell more of their batik cards since they enjoyed it and made money. Sada explained: “I am very grateful for SEPOM’s help to survive.. .1 have a chance to start again.. .my plan is to open up my own massage clinic...from the savings bank.” All members met core group members and staff members through the village-to-village recruiting process. The face-to-face interaction was critical to solidifying their interest in meeting others like them, in changing their routine and trying new experiences. Once members had participated in a weekly meeting, meal and/or batik session, many decided to continue to participate and became more influenced by core group member role models who offered new knowledge, ways to think and values that challenged their rejection by villagers. 300 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Field research also unearthed several factors relating to vulnerability that operated in concert to delay or negatively influence participant decisions to participate in NFE. These factors were: 1) domestic responsibilities, 2) time constraints, 3) religious influences, 4) subordinating social and cultural norms, and 5) desire to escape poverty. These are the areas of concern most often cited by study participants as obstacles to their decision to participate in SEPOM. These factors also combine to limit the available time of trafficked women and serve as an obstacle to participation in outside activities. First, domestic partners, husbands, parents and family members and responsibilities have been mentioned as the strongest influences on women's behavior. Interventions from domestic partners, husbands, and families dissuaded survivors of trafficking from participating in SEPOM activities or other events outside their homes and villages. SEPOM staff indicated that domestic partners of core group members, particularly women partnered with Japanese men, tended to reduce, delay or even cease the participation of some members. Some partners (Thai husbands) have engaged in physical violence or intimidation. Other ways that women have been prevented from participating have been in the nature of distractions, such as trips to Bangkok. Some family members dissuaded participation with accusations that SEPOM members neglected children or families. Thai women who were married or mothers usually had complete 301 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. responsibility for children, housework, food shopping and preparation, laundry and the needs of the husband as well as the husband's family if they lived nearby in addition to the woman's work or job and other domestic labor. SEPOM members come to the NGO with extremely low self-esteem and sense of self worth and their consequent dependence on male partners and family members for acceptance, has given their personal networks enormous power over their actions. As many members remained unmarried after their return, they described intense family pressures to get married in order to regain a measure of social acceptability. Others described failed marriages to Thai and Japanese partners. One core group member's early experience of marriage at age 15 initially gave her social status and resulted in bride money for her parents but almost cost her life. Such experiences added to the feelings of loss of control that inhibited members from breaking away from negative psychological beliefs. Secondly, time limitations and constraints loom large when women feel beset by various pressures. Despite SEPOM's weekend schedule designed not to interfere with weekday jobs, it is difficult for some women to find the free time to participate in their activities. Most study participants, particularly those over 20 years old, had either parental or childcare responsibilities that constrained their studies and participation in non-income generating or household labor to some degree. These responsibilities usually took the form of financial support for parents or both 302 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. childcare and financial support for children, or, in Paula's case, both. The Thai norm that women are primary caretakers of children and the family constrains women's control over their time. Thais consider females responsible for domestic labor and gardening both as children and adults. Interviewees described between 10 to 30 percent of their regular day included household labor such as cleaning, cooking, and laundry chores in addition to working full time in various occupations. Families, communities and society at large exert pressure on women to dedicate their energies first and foremost to their families. If a woman puts her personal well being ahead of others, she may face ostracism or other negative social pressure. For members without children, their relative gain in free time is offset by their lack of education and social capital. Poor women with little education do not possess the tools to obtain employment that pays well enough to support their parents, and often their husbands. These women must work many hours at low-income jobs in order generate a living wage. Thirdly, religious influences in Thailand are an integral part of the complex social and cultural construction of female oppression. Poverty meant that many girls followed older sisters into migration and sometimes into the sex industry because there were few choices available to poor rural girls with little education. Any brothers, on the other hand, went to study at the local Buddhist temple or apprenticed to a mechanic, service worker or worked at a factory. 303 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Interviewees described the inferior social status of females within the temple and contrasted this to the status of males. Theravada Buddhism holds women and men in entirely separate regard, forbidding women to pollute monks by any sort of contact. Male children have a relatively lighter social burden, since they are allowed to achieve merit for their parents through a short sojourn at a temple. Boys are able to obtain free primary and in many cases, secondary, education at Thai temples with residential privileges. Female children can only achieve positive religious standing by providing well for their families and giving generously to their local temple. Su said “ .. .girls cannot study at the temples and we cannot be m onks.. .my brother joined the temple very young to study because he could not go to school at hom e.. .he does not help my family now.” Females may become nuns, a lower status temple order taking care of the needs of monks. Fourthly, in addition to the pressure of multiple responsibilities, cultural norms perpetuate women's subordinate position in Thai society. Cultural assumptions that women are secondary and therefore less important wage earner for families created an employment culture where women are last hired and first fired, particularly in the recent years of high unemployment after the Asian economic crisis. Interviewees reported their lack of choice in jobs after they lost factory or restaurant jobs or their families lost their land and their agricultural labor was no longer needed. Thai culture also places females in subordinate positions of responsibility within their 304 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. families. Several SEPOM members reported that they were expected to continue to contribute to their parents' household even after they had provided enormous sums o f money from forced labor. These funds were obtained after many months or years of work necessary to pay for their debt bondage. Many survivors returned from trafficking to find that the huge sums they had sent their families were spent with little to show for it. Many SEPOM members attended alternative high school programs in the evening or weekend but reported that they were unable to attend class or complete homework consistently due to childcare, work or other pressures. Women learned as girls that fewer choices were available to them, starting with the contrast in treatment of girls versus boys. In their families, boys were more likely than girls to start and complete education due to the higher priority that males have every available opportunity. Interviewees explained that boys had higher priority than girls for scarce funds required for educational and clothing costs in poor families. Although complete data on high school completion for SEPOM members is not available, the fact is that none of the NGO members had completed primary school before being trafficked. With primary school education or less, alternative employment choices for rural girls and women were very limited. Jobs that could compete with trafficking promises were unavailable or required high levels of skills, social sophistication and/or education. 305 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fifthly, the desire to escape poverty is a driving force in the lives of most interviewees. Su, a core group member, said she never expected to be able to finish high school since her parents had been too poor to provide support for both their son and their daughters to study. Nan explained that she always felt it was imperative for her to find a way to stop being a financial burden upon her parents and to take up her responsibility to give them money. As a consequence, generating income continued to be a priority for most that eclipses personal desires to participate in support networks or even skill building activities. Cultural norms and family responsibilities intersected with economic realities to constrain women's participation in NFE as well. Su and Nan explained that since they did not have family responsibilities, they were freer to pursue continuing education, but they often postponed continuing their education if there was any conflict with jobs or income opportunities, despite their expressed desire for the long-term rewards of education. Nan and her family have a farm, which often keeps her from going to school for the intensive weekend secondary school classes. Neither Nan nor Su wanted to reduce the money they brought home to their families. This postponement often resulted from their reluctance to try to persuade their families to accept the lower standard of living and reduced income that would have been necessitated by time off for school. Lia, also a core group member, has tried other vocations. She went to 306 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. study and work on an agricultural teaching farm after dropping out of primary school due to family poverty. She did not like it because the teacher forced them to work with hot manure. As an adult, her efforts to study at the alternative high school near her home has not gone well because the teacher expects rewards from students for good grades. Lia was treated badly by this teacher since she will not give him presents. Nan said that her relative freedom (no childcare responsibilities) is an important reason why she is able to pursue her desire to finish high school, but this freedom is hedged by “ .. .pressure from my family and neighbors and friends to find a partner so I can be safe.” Despite difficult and dangerous conditions experienced as trafficking victims and early childhood deprivations, none of the participants mentioned health problems or concerns, including HIV-AIDS. C) Program Features: SEPOM's mission and structure evolved from needs identified in a 1997 International Organization for Migration study conducted in several countries sending large numbers of females into trafficked labor, including Thailand. The NGO derived its fundamental objectives from a 1997 IOM study, To Japan And Back: Thai Women recount their experiences. The study findings indicated that survivors of trafficking have significant psychological and emotional problems as a result of their experiences during trafficked and difficulties in reintegrating with 307 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their home communities. The IOM study concluded that attention to psychological well-being is a critical factor in rehabilitation and empowerment. 1) History and Design: A Thai woman who has been trafficked twice to Japan founded SEPOM. She, along with several other Thai women, were held for several years in a Japanese prison after killing the woman who had held them captive in degrading and life threatening conditions with no access to their identity papers or earnings. Through the intervention of Japanese NGO workers, a priest, and lawyers, she found a way to deal with extreme depression while imprisoned, enabling her to qualify for an earlier parole and to return to Thailand. Her Japanese mentors put her in touch with a Japanese social worker, Molly, who worked with trafficking victims in Thailand. Molly had participated in an International Organization for Migration (IOM) study of the difficulties experienced by these individuals. She and Molly founded the NGO and dedicated it to providing services similar to those that had helped her to become stronger from her ordeal. Paula describes unique characteristics of SEPOM in the following quote: This project is different from any other project in that it's run by members of the target group (trafficked women) itself, using our experiences to help others. This has been going well, but we still had some problems. For example, when I started to work with Pi Molly, I was 2-3 months pregnant, but still went out to collect information with her. We went by motorbike, in the rain and heat. When I was 5 months pregnant, I began bleeding, 308 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. probably from being out on the motorbike too much. My husband complained every day. He didn't want me to go out to work. He was worried about me. But, luckily, when I went to the doctor he said my condition was fine so I kept working till I gave birth. My daughter was bom on Mother's Day. I can't work full-time because I have to look after her myself. Molly established channels of communication with Japanese donors and organizations that agreed to publicize the NGO's efforts and to sell their products and give the proceeds to SEPOM. SEPOM's founders had previous experience with NGOs in Japan and Thailand. The NGO location in Chiang Rai city, the capital of the northernmost Thai province of Chiang Rai, is significant because the largest number of Thai women trafficked into sex work come from the northern region of Thailand (Skrobanek, 1997). The physical site of learning at the NGO itself is an important tool in the NGO goals. SEPOM is headquartered in a house with a yard that constructs part of an environmental message designed to positively influence member comfort levels. Staff and members with problems also reside in the house. Core group members are alert to opportunities to make new members comfortable at weekly meetings and meals. Su, Paula, Molly and Laura closely interacted with one women or another at these times, often encouraging them to speak about their experiences after sharing their own. Learning is informally tucked in with meals and other group activities, thereby enacting both a redefinition of the act o f learning and shifting the locus of power away from state 309 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sanctioned sources. SEPOM embodies a Foucaultian idea that power can be employed and exercised through circulation in a net-like organization (1980). Far from being a commodity, members learn that power cannot be localized in a site since they see power vested in the process of learning and sharing o f the group. Members and their needs take primacy over the organization and the site. SEPOM focuses on creating a supportive environment that addresses a survivor's need for psychological healing, the rehabilitation of human dignity, and building initiative to tackle problems leading to trafficking from local communities in several steps over a period of time (IOM, 1997). The NGO was established in 2001 with two primary goals: (1) to identify and contact survivors of trafficking in seven counties of one northern Thai province (Chiang Rai) while (2) developing a prototype group of survivors to become the first "core self-help group" and a small number o f experienced staff members as well (SEPOM, p. 3, Scope of Work). The core group was intended to be the nucleus of many future core groups. Core group members receive training to organize additional groups and to cooperate with like-minded organizations. A micro-credit group (savings bank) was established in 2002 to promote economic independence of members through an investment and loan program. Members generate income for the NGO through batik T-shirt, and batik greeting card creations. The NGO has a small shop Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in the front o f the house where it sells member made products and hill-tribe women's cooperative woven products to interested supporters. Economic support towards individual member independence fulfills part of the NGO's goal of tackling community isolation of female members still at risk. 1) Staffing: SEPOM originated as a grassroots effort to work specifically with Thai women who had been trafficked, particularly to Japan. Laura, the full time Thai staff member, described SEPOM "as an information center that explains to these women where to go and talks with them about their problems." At their best, Paula and Su, who are both survivors and NGO staff members, said that they "provide emotional support in our friends group". The NGO has a regular program of activities developed by and for a core self-help group of these survivors (members) who are returned trafficked women. Many activities include member's children. The goal of these activities is to end social, psychological, and economic isolation of participating women within their communities and to facilitate healing of a survivor's trauma over a period of time through a variety of means. The weekly member meetings, usually held on the weekend to avoid conflicts with women's jobs, feature fellowship, opportunities for communication and relationship building through shared meals, presentations, and batik making. 311 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SEPOM offers educational support, psychological and vocational training, and legal and economic counseling from time to time. Members participate in the development and implementation of programs offering legal rights information, such as citizenship for their children, prosecution against traffickers, and assistance with employment, housing and legal status problems. Members make presentations on their trafficking experiences or the NGO operations to local and national workshops on women, violence and trafficking. These active members also receive some financial support from the NGO for continued education through public school or vocational skill training. SEPOM members share many high weight factors of vulnerability that placed them in trafficking situations. Their shared experience is further heightened by experiences of trafficking they have in common such as suffering from circumstances of intimidation, debt bondage, emotional abuse, rape, and imprisonment in sub-human conditions. SEPOM offers a variety of complementary opportunities: a program where female survivors mix with others with like experiences, where they are not negatively judged, where they can increase their social capital through a unique network that links them to other survivors, and where they build upon shared experiences to learn NGO management and outreach. They also have the opportunity to link with other NGOs. SEPOM members may join in cooperative efforts between SEPOM and 312 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. other NGOs to change the social discourse about Thai women and to promote a positive future for returned women. The network is activated through educational and psychological activities that assist individual rehabilitation and enhance reintegration into Thai society. Core group members have received counseling training to provide more effective support to new members as they share their stories of trafficking, abuse and attempts at reintegration. SEPOM has begun to track personal changes in self-esteem such as increased participation in NGO decision making and seeking ways to achieve economic independence. Members are working on ways to track psychological and economic changes in each other in order to measure their effectiveness and focus on the most useful services. Molly and Paula used the IOM study profile of trafficked women as a guide for identifying the needs and issues of potential members. Thai females who have been trafficked into the sex sector were the highest vulnerability group according to the IOM study, since they have experienced debilitating physical and psychological abuse that make it difficult for them to live in their home communities. Some survivors return to Thailand with children and must face not only demands from their parents and families, but the need to provide for their children as well as themselves. Their children, half Japanese and half Thai, are considered stateless because the Thai government has 313 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. been reluctant to issue passports to children whose fathers are not Thai. Few of these children's Japanese fathers are willing to acknowledge or support children out of wedlock, particularly with non-Japanese mothers who have also been sex workers. The Japanese government initially took no action for these children, considering that the mother's occupation rendered their statements untrustworthy. SEPOM takes special pains to identify and help these women and their children and welcomes the children into a variety of activities alone or with their mothers and other members. SEPOM's network of recruitment in northern Thailand is comprised of survivors of trafficking. Trained survivors are the direct contact with potential members and volunteers from Thailand and Japan provide additional support. Molly said that SEPOM located its operations in northern Thailand for several reasons: first of all, she is from northern Chiang Rai herself and her family responsibilities limit her ability to travel. Second, a potential network o f survivors, volunteers and staff had been identified within less than a day's travel from her home and from Molly's home. Third, since most Thai women trafficked to Japan for the sex industry are from northern Thailand, it made sense for them to start where the demand (and theoretically, the risk), was greatest. The original plan was to identify and recruit members in two northern provinces with the help of others, but they found that this was too large an area to cover. They decided to 314 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. restrict the area covered in recruiting after they lost their local partner in another northern province originally considered as part of the recruiting area. Paula and Molly decided to scale back their initial geographic target to cover only part of the province o f Chiang Rai. They chose seven ampur (counties) not too far from their homes, which would be visited by the core group members after Paula, Molly and Laura trained them. These recruiters work with a few staff members who are paid from income derived from donations and the handicraft sales. SEPOM's core group of survivors and volunteers are the center of the network of recruitment and support. Anyone who visits villages for recruitment is always accompanied by at least one core group member who has personally been trafficked. Paula described recruitment generally as a three-step process: First, we ask the village chief (puyai-baan )who among the villagers went to Japan. Then, the (SEPOM) volunteer meets with these women one-on-one to gather information and make friends. Molly or I (also) gather information through the focus groups...this is most often. The recruitment training received by new core group members is informal and practical. It focuses on learning through observation since the core group is small. The details of the recruiting process are typically as follows: Two women travel in pairs, usually by motorbike, to targeted villages. They visit the village headman, teacher, and other contacts to spread the word to trafficking survivors that they want to meet them. The initial meeting between core group and 315 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. prospective members takes place in the woman's home village. New recruiters observe the recruiting process. Leaders may be the gamnan (headman), members of the district village council, elders, or other individuals with influence. Village leaders first learn about SEPOM and hear about SEPOM's relationships with other village leaders. Village leaders then introduce recruiters to trafficking survivors to assure the family of the survivor that she should be allowed to talk to the recruiter since many women who worked in the sex trade are isolated in their home communities. The recruitment process contributes to SEPOM's response to the phenomenon of exclusion of former sex workers by their communities and sometimes by their families. Social relationships deteriorated for women who had left the village, particularly if they were known to come from the sex sector. SEPOM makes every effort to build networks with local communities and other organizations. The recruitment process is an attempt to build a kind of network with local leaders in an attempt to obtain their support for returned sex workers and their children. Laura said that: The relationships get strong because we check in with the telephone socially and to see how they are doing. We make home visits and it is easier if they have kids, we can talk about childcare. We can help with family problems (we have an emergency, safe house, for example) and we have small stipends to give to those women who can help at SEPOM. 316 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Women like Lia, Nu and Sada, who have been trafficked and come back with children who are half Thai, half Japanese and do not fit into the closely-knit tribal village groups of northern Thailand. Nan, who does not have children, places the most importance on sharing the trafficking experience to build solidarity. Su said she recruits "women who like her have been to Japan “since being inspired by "meeting Paula in 2001, when SEPOM was a few months old". After introductions are made, core group members explain about SEPOM and gradually begin telling their personal stories of trafficking. They link their personal experiences with the goals of SEPOM which contexts the recruiting effort and makes the idea of participation more interesting, non-threatening and accessible for each survivor. Once a relationship is established and prospective members have become comfortable with the core group recruiters, they (and any children) are invited to join the regular SEPOM weekend activity. This is usually a meal and batik making. Sometimes transportation or strategic assistance such as child care is provided if this is an obstacle to participation. Core group members informally recruited ten women who came regularly to SEPOM meetings and activities by the fall of 2000. This group of women went through stages in which trust and comfort with core group members and each others slowly developed. Initially, they were not sure they should admit to being trafficked and were not ready to open up too much, but 317 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. they kept participating. Su said she met Paula and Molly through a mutual contact in another NGO: "I had been back from Japan nine years and never talked about it. When Paula and I shared our experiences of being trafficked in Japan, I started to feel good and relax a little., .for the first time." By 2003, the total number of members had grown to 40, comprising women who come more or less regularly. SEPOM staff and members visited every village in the seven counties targeted by SEPOM. The plan of visiting all villages and towns in a targeted county has not yet been met. However, once one county is covered, recruiting teams move on to another county. The long-term goal is to eventually complete a database of trafficked women for the entire province of Chiang Rai. The dedication of the founders, staff, and core members have made it possible for a small number of people with very limited resources to make significant progress towards their goals. Local and national awareness of the plight of trafficked women was significantly enhanced through direct and indirect partnerships. Survivors of trafficking and their children in the province of Chiang Rai had learned new knowledge and skills. Nan, Lia, Sada, Jay and Nu learned about SEPOM from Paula or Molly visiting their villages. Increasing numbers of women learned about the existence of SEPOM, about support from women like themselves and 318 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. about the existence o f greater opportunities than they had heretofore known. D) Teaching & Learning: In this section, three main features of SEPOM's curriculum and methods are described: (1) establishment of a low-key environment in which physical and behavioral cues are similar to member’s village environments; (2) use of personal narrative as a learning tool; and (3) use of modeling and other activities to raise critical consciousness of members. These features embody SEPOM's educational and psychological outreach to marginalized females. Alone and in combination, these features work towards empowerment in several ways, which is discussed in the next section. As will be shown, the NGO interweaves a broad critical vision of learning and educational practice (McLaren, 2000; Giroux, 1992) that contributes to social justice. Their NFE practice is based upon pedagogical presuppositions that personal agency, individual action for change, is achievable in a marginalized population. In this way, NFE becomes an agent of empowerment. 1) The Program Environment: The NGO staff and core group members have taken pains to create a homelike informal environment to accomplish their goals. Establishing the psychological and emotional comfort of new members has been the most important first step in a subtle weaving of atmosphere that sets 319 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SEPOM apart from other NGOs. SEPOM offices look like a large house on a street with many other houses and small businesses just outside the small urban center of Chiang Rai. Everything about the house, the equipment, the staff and the program are low key, low technology, and arranged physically and psychically for a maximum of comfort. The focal point o f the first floor, where most interactions take place is a large, well-used kitchen table in a room that serves as dining room, cooking room and meeting room. Some staff members live in another room with their extended families. As discussions and meetings were conducted, the young child and grandmother would move in and out of the room, contributing to a less formal and more family-like atmosphere. When the children of other members and their mothers are around, the tone shifts, reminding one of the complex human relationships of a Thai village. If the movements of the individuals who resided or met at SEPOM were mapped, the paths walked and their movements would crisscross, overlap, and intersect as women worked and interacted together, planning, doing childcare, cooking, crisis solving, shopping, writing memos, and information gathering. This overlapping and concurrent multiplicity o f activities reflected the creativity o f the NGO and the constraints placed upon it. The NGO was able to creatively incorporate the daily functions of a household into its educational operation, thereby creating a 320 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. comfortable environment for women who came from small villages with similar patterns of living. At the same time, NGO operations were curtailed by the meager human and financial resources, which led to the necessity of functioning in limited locations with few staff and core group members. For many members, having returned to a village in Chiang Rai province, the SEPOM house with several simultaneous activities creates a pattern similar the overlapping activities and relationships in their homes and villages. Interviewees explained that the similarities were comfortable and welcoming. Participants explained that they could understand how to be part of the NGO since they could translate their roles from their home villages to a productive role in some o f the activities at SEPOM. Childcare activities, in particular, were a great homogenizing force. All visitors interacted with the babies and children who came with their mothers and caretakers. Conversation about babies and childcare functioned as an icebreaker and relationship builder, opening up channels of communication about other, more difficult subjects. SEPOM always included a meal or snacks with their activities that allowed women to participate in food making, serving and simply eating together. Another similarity between SEPOM's program and women's homes was the necessity of helping in some way with meals. Everyone understood what was needed and found something 321 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. useful to do and in the process, interacted in familiar and comfortable ways with other women. There was little pressure to socialize and participants reported that they enjoyed simply being able to share domestic labor and eating meals with other women who had been through similar experiences. Similar to the way that a school may embody the reproduction of culture at the state level, this NGO reproduces the informal learning that occurs at home, deliberately disassociating it from institutionalized social hierarchies that subordinate women. Some members commented how comfortable they were in assisting with food preparation since they felt it was something they could do well and they came to feel that they belonged at the NGO. Several women said that they were proud to share food from their gardens, farms, or the store when they could afford it. Eating together, sharing childcare, and learning about other forms of support provided by SEPOM created, at least temporarily, a bubble of acceptance and normalcy unavailable to many survivors of trafficking in their everyday lives. Some women indicated that their discovery of SEPOM and participation in its' activities signaled a new phase for them. The new space provided by the NGO with new intimate relationships with kindred women nurtured a new kind o f group identity that empowered many participants to voice their experiences. Molly explained that SEPOM members trust each other because of the personal follow-up. Su said that members have goodwill and this positive feeling Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. helps women change. This space contributed to a new perspective for women to re-read their hardships or to begin a new journey to re-discover their own self-worth. Nan said that she has "more (value) kunkai because she met... these good people...it is really good to do all the things". Women linked their time in the NGO with a sense o f healing and greater self-acceptance, perhaps heralding one kind of healing from their trafficking experience. The weekend group meals and batik activities have functioned as a useful, non-threatening, and non-judgmental venue for survivors to get to know each other and the core group. In order to build upon the non-confrontational nature of SEPOM's group membership and facilitate women's learning, other activities besides meal preparation and child-care were integrated into weekly sessions. Batik making offered both a creative outlet and an opportunity for SEPOM to generate independent income. The necessity of paying attention to the many steps necessary to making a batik product took each member out of her self- consciousness or personal problems. The messiness of the hot wax batik process makes bonds between would-be artists since it drips easily upon clothes, batik cloth, and bums skin. The process o f making batik designs begins with nailing or clipping cotton cloth on stretchers, then drawing designs upon the cloth. The next step is to use a metal tool to outline the design upon the cloth with hot wax. When the 323 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. wax is dry, members paint colors upon the design. Each step is managed through gentle coaching by core group members or staff. Beginners can learn through observing and trying with the help of more experienced batik makers. All the women, especially mothers, enjoyed watching and supporting the artistic interests of their children. The survivor's children often become the most skillful artists and certainly generate a great deal of joy in their innocent pleasure. Relationships that were first established during meal preparation and cleaning, when communal efforts promoted mundane communication, grew during batik preparation. Having a tangible product o f their artistic expression was a positive experience for members, many of whom had never created anything like this before. Women sometimes talked about their previous experiences at these times. Another kind of healing occurred, while children were napping or engaged with a separate activity, when core group members narrated their stories of trafficking with women who have had similar experiences. As trust was established with core group members, survivors often began to talk about their own trafficking and other troubles. 2) Narrative as curriculum Learning occurs along and within carefully constructed activities. These activities range from the most casual encounter between members to meetings with agendas. They also range 324 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from casual conversations between core group members and new members while cooking and eating meals together, making batik, going on field trips to other NGOs, and visiting and making presentations to more recently structured workshops where members tell their life stories. Particular points or information to be disseminated work through informal modes and media, such as discussions and word of mouth; these are guided. The NGO staffing is also structured to enhance the agency of members, particularly when they serve as staff members. They intend to phase out non-survivor staff; in the near future survivors will exclusively comprise the SEPOM staff. Nan and Su shared the rationale that women who have been trafficked, especially into sex work, can really respond to other women who have had the same experience. They pointed out that only women who have managed to fight the cycle of self-hatred and physical violence can deeply empathize with the trauma and establish the level of trust necessary to take a chance on joining NFE activities. Since survivors already work as staff in recruiting, managing the NGO and presenting their stories, they are becoming more and more aware of themselves as actors instead of as bodies to be acted upon. Members' personal histories become constructed narratives following widely shared principles: narratives incorporate a series of events and real desires and tend to deviate from what is considered legitimate (Bruner, 1997). Narrative accounts 325 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. become part of non-formal education as cognitive learning occurs through stories that make processes clear to the listener and speaker. Similar to Bruner’s (1996) metaphor that scientific theories are story like, narratives rely on metaphors and interpretive framework to illuminate the process of construction of knowledge, which is critical to understanding the construction of gendered knowledge and subordination. Women's narratives are constructed around a series of events that led to the trafficking of the teller. Her actual needs, attitudes, and values are conveyed through explanation of her actions and feelings. Listeners are free to interact with the narrator and construe a variety of meanings from the tale. The end of the story does not portray the teller as a chastened woman, contrary to formal educational material depicting women in traditional subordinate roles, rather the narrator shows the listener her re-creation in terms of greater personal agency, acting on her own behalf and helping others at SEPOM. These narratives instead validate the woman as an actor, whose thoughts and decisions about trafficking were contingent upon and constrained by the social and economic realities that beset them. Narratives as a critical NFE tool here function as the first step in challenging the notion that meaning only exists in structures outside the individual and the consequent denigration o f women's histories, and their existence, heretofore primarily outside institutions and functions necessitating cultural and social capital. The culture 326 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of the community is thereby brought into the learning program, particularly information about larger, oppressive social patterns that facilitate learners to think critically (Anderson & Irvine, 1993). Paula's abbreviated narrative follows: My name is (Paula). I come from (Chiang Rai), and I am one of the target group of (SEPOM). I will talk about how SEPOM came about. I will quickly tell you a little about the background. But if you asked me to tell you the details of what happened to me when I went to work in Japan, I don't think three cassettes will be enough to record my story. When I first went to Japan, I felt I had to go, that I was poor and needed money. I did not live at home for a long time since my mother had a new husband. I had no information or knowledge of anything. The agent did everything for me because I did not read. I did not know about any problems. For example, I was afraid to give myself up to the police (in Japan) because I thought I'd be put in jail [for not having a passport]. But it's not like that (I learned later). I didn't go to Japan only once. I will tell you about the first time I went. I went illegally, through Malaysia, using a Malaysian person's passport. The passport photo was replaced by mine before I went to Japan. To come back to Thailand, I had to buy another passport for B 100,000, about 50 Yen (at that time the Yen was weak). All we had to do was change the photo and we could get home. However, the second time, we couldn't do it anymore because they now use computers to check, and you can't fool the computer. All the data at Immigration went into the computer. We couldn't deceive them. You can't go there illegally now. So, the second time I went legally, using my real passport. (So) in 1992,1 went to work in Japan. I was persuaded by an agent to go to Bangkok. He took me to get a passport and organized all the documents I'd need. He paid all the costs, including all travel costs. It was agreed I was indebted to him for (350,000 Yen). I had to work until I'd paid it all off. He had someone take us to Japan. When we arrived, someone was there to pick us up and take us to the various mama sans, bar and snack bar owners. I was taken to a place in Chiba in another province. I had the bad luck to end up with a Singaporean mamasan. She had been in Japan since she was 20 years old. She was then 44 years old. She'd saved a lot of money and was involved with the Yakuza. She started a brothel and bought girls, but she was really cruel. She forced the girls to do many things, such as take off their clothes and have their photos taken. If the 327 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. girls escaped, the Yakuza would be sent to find them. We were kept inside and not allowed to go out. There was 24-hour closed circuit surveillance [at the snack bar]. We were only allowed one meal a day. We had to work days and nights, with no days off. Even if we were menstruating or were sick, we had to work. We had to get up early to tend the vegetable garden and do other chores. She would hit us. If she was unsatisfied with a girl, she would sell her, even if her debt was almost paid off. If we were sold again, we had a new debt to work off. If she was unsatisfied, she would tax us for things, gradually increasing our debt. My 350,000 debt became 380,000... We couldn't contact anyone because she had taken our passports and contact addresses. Until one day, there was just me and four others working there. We had been forced and abused every day until we couldn't take it anymore. We couldn't escape. Our lives were getting worse every day; we were going to die. Some of us thought of killing ourselves. We couldn't take it anymore, so we stabbed the mamasan and ran away. We Thai women were in a difficult situation. There were so many Thai women there. Some were murdered. But even when we knew it was a fellow Thai (being abused), we were too scared to go and see, to go and help. This is not a made up story. I saw all this myself for many years. In the end, though, we were all caught. I suffered so much. I cried till I couldn't cry anymore. I thought I'd never see my friends and family again. I had no one to turn to for advice. I was in darkness. I was like a crazy person; my mind was blurred. I was interrogated (by the police) from 8am to 10pm every day for 20 days. I was so stressed I couldn't eat or sleep. I didn't have the energy to walk into the interrogation room; I had to crawl in. The police brought the doctor in to see me every day. Luckily for me, this case became big news, and was in the newspapers and on TV. A(n NGO) group heard about me and started coming to visit regularly. They said if I needed any help, just ask; they were there to give me encouragement and they contacted a lawyer for me. Every week, they came and brought shirts, food and necessities. They brought me books on dharma (Buddhist ethical living) to read and helped me learn that I had little choice in my life until then. Also, (they brought me) books to teach myself how to read and write Japanese. I can read and write a bit but not so well because I had no one to teach me. When I was first arrested, I thought that if I got more than ten years I'd kill myself. But since (the Japanese NGO) started coming to visit regularly, I was encouraged to fight on. I told the lawyer the whole story. S/he tried to help as much as s/he could. I appeared in court 11 times. It took a bit over a year, to finally be handed the sentence of 328 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ten years. Since I confessed to everything, it was decreased to six years. But in the end, I was only in jail for almost four years. At the end of 1997,1 was sent back to Thailand, and I ordained as a nun for seven days at a temple in Chiang Rai. .. .1 discussed with Pi Molly that we'd start (SEPOM) slowly, and collect data from various villages from the target group of women who used to work in Japan. There are many cases, with many problems. For example, their half-Japanese children don't have citizenship, acceptance from their community, financial problems, low education, and unemployment. There are even more problems that need to be studied. We'll help each other to solve them, and try to prevent them from happening again. If anyone has a question on what I did or what I experienced, why this happened to me, you can ask me about it. Thank you. The emphasis on personally constructed narratives as a focus of informal learning evokes the feminist perspective that learning which occurs when an individual controls or shares control of the learning process is an important part of empowerment. SEPOM leaders constructed narratives that went beyond their personal history to become instruments that help them make their own meaning (Bmner, 1996). Paula uses part of her story to make the point that survivors can do more together, with organizational help, than alone: Since coming back, I have still been in regular contact with the Japanese NGO because I was so grateful for their help. Even if I die, I will never forget them. It's like they pulled me out of Hell; out o f darkness into light. They gave me a new life. It was as if I was reborn, thanks to their support. I think that when we get help from someone and they don't expect anything in return, especially as they aren't family or old friends...well, they still helped me. When I have the chance, I should do things for others, too. The Japanese NGO also wanted me to occupy myself. Pi Molly started coming to visit me regularly, and we discussed what I should do. So, that's how SEPOM began. It was influenced by the Japanese NGO. 329 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Narrative is used as an embodiment of culture, permitting participants to understand the present, the past and the possible future in a uniquely human way. Similar to Bruner's (1996) call for education that goes beyond achieving individual competence, SEPOM seeks to equip women with the tools for cultural competence. Cultural competence at the NGO begins with trusting relationships where women can learn about, participate in and ultimately transform the culture on which their lives and livelihoods depend. SEPOM uses a Freirean approach that sets up peers as facilitators who decide NGO agenda and planning, taking control of their lives and learning in ways heretofore unavailable to them. The NGO focuses on providing critical knowledge about their situation and the larger impact of societal and economic inequities upon their lives and their self-perceptions of learners. Members operate at a relaxed pace on site, most arriving early to help with meals and setting up meetings. Others stay later to help clean up or talk informally. Members are expected to attend as many meetings as possible, but there is no pressure to actively speak up. Women freely choose whether to observe or join in. As women construct their own pathway in the NGO, they become more active. Active members, particularly core group, receive training in small workshops and practice by working with other members who have been traumatized and are encouraged to tell their stories. 330 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SEPOM asks core group members to consider whether they are ready to help others while helping themselves. The NGO core group also named themselves a "self-help" group. This group is the heart of the NGO mission, composed of women who survived trafficking in sex work. As a small group whose members receive training and support, they have built mutual trust and openness that has allowed the NGO to deal with social, financial and administrative constraints. The trust between core group members has engendered a strong mutual respect and appreciation for how each member models constructive solutions to the traumas, social isolation, and financial problems they have all faced. This core group methodically links survivors, as they are identified, via small group educational and vocational activities to promote "inter-group communications, relationship building", self-esteem and income generation while learning to "critically evaluate habitual discrimination against women and materialism" that promote commercial sexual transactions and sale of human beings (SEPOM Scope, 2001, p. 4-5). Core group members link narratives with their own shift in self-esteem and independent activity. Su explained that she changed the way she felt about herself after she heard Paula’s narrative. She said this led to her feeling self-confident enough to construct her own narrative, which now inspires new members to join and begin the same process. Women also learn from listening to Paula and Su’s narratives that it is possible for them to construct narratives from their personal 331 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. histories in a way that raises the critical consciousness of others. Molly and Laura explained that the first priority is to the members and their needs. They are in regular contact by telephone and visits during the week and become close friends as well as learning partners. Positive emotional bonds allow them to nurture an organizational culture of open communication, trust, and cooperation where they learn from the narratives constructed by core group members. Core group members reported the power of hearing the narratives of others told in a way that put a woman's individual experience within the context of the larger social realities of poverty and criminal trafficking. Paula explained that survivors must depend on each other in order to take care of themselves. She described the tight emotional bonds she has with Molly and core group members. Su said that she thinks SEPOM is really committed to each members’ individual support by housing Sada and finding housing for her children since she was unable to take care of them. Su said members look out for each other when they have family, health or financial problems as well. Narrative as a learning tool and as a means of self-expression offers a viable alternative to the written and verbally stylized formal educational culture, a culture that is largely unavailable to rural poor trafficked women and girls. Narrative becomes a vehicle that the speaker uses for making meaning through oral language. Oral communication using informal language is 332 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. comfortable for listeners and speakers alike, operating in a mode similar to that used at home and with personal social networks comprised mostly of semi-or illiterate individuals. Most NGO members do not go beyond sixth grade in primary school and subsequently lose much formal educational knowledge and skills through non-use in daily life. Members rely upon oral and informal modes o f communication. They respond positively to narratives since they are more attached to daily life and personal experiences that convey feelings, attachments, beliefs, and hardships. Narratives allow these women to enter into realms previously unavailable to illiterates-they could easily make connections with or echo each other’s experiences. The discomfort reported by interviewees with little education when listening to or speaking to highly educated speakers such as lawyers, physicians and government officials alienates these women from helpful opportunities. SEPOM staff explained that many members want help to understand legal procedures for divorce from or marriage to Japanese nationals and/or assistance in navigating the bureaucracy to obtain citizenship for their children with Japanese fathers. Individuals without legal status are in danger of being deported or harassed. Without identification papers, schools and employers generally do not allow such people access. Members reported a lack of comprehension of their rights as individuals despite the fact that both they and professional Thais share a common language, Thai. There are several reasons for this 333 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. discomfort, relating to the site of conversation, the oral delivery style, the content of this delivery, the pronunciation, accent, and perceived social capital. Since formal education is an acknowledged vehicle for the development of social and political capital, the gap in individual capital also influences the level of comprehension in such an interaction. Norms, values, and behaviors are learned in school along with written language and mathematical skills that were unavailable to women with little or no formal schooling. Participants commented that in many cases they grew up with or in close proximity to several generations of their family who had little interest in schooling and did not consider education important, especially for girls. Interviewees described the tight family relationships that helped poorer members to survive, but family members could not help them with school homework. Parents with little or no schooling were unable or unwilling to assist students increase their social capital. They explained that their parents were uncomfortable communicating with school staff and did not behave in the same way that the teachers and parents of wealthier classmates did. The cues or knowledge necessary for social and vocational upward mobility were not available to these women growing up. As Stromquist (2002) states, there is an important difference in the way messages are delivered between those who are highly educated and those who are not: a significant feature of 334 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dialogue is that the cognitive load for speaker and listener tends to be quite low and acceptance is high if both share backgrounds and systems of communication. By partnering women core group members with new members, their shared backgrounds and reliance on oral forms of communication minimize the cognitive load for both speaker and listener. Core group member Nan described her initial meeting with Su and Molly in her village. Nan said she could tell that Su grew up the same way she did and she was touched by Su's story. She said she had never thought about the fact that she had to drop out of school, that her family was very poor. Nan said she just thought that was the way things were. She says she is motivated now to share her story with others and talk about the idea that poor women should have more choices. The use of narrative by peers allows self-disclosure in a meaningful, non-threatening manner and enhances the participation of a community of learners. Narrative and informal language convey important messages of known modes of communication, just as the physical context of SEPOM conveys messages of home, village and familiar spaces that allow members to function in ways that they know, and which are similar to those at their homes. The lingua franca of Thailand is central Thai, which is learned in school for those who grew up outside of Bangkok. These factors have been handicaps to SEPOM members from rural northern areas with little formal schooling or retention of academic 335 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. knowledge. Women need to learn central Thai reading and writing and the cues and context of formal communication in order to be competitive for better paying employment which would allow them to influence society. 3) Modeling and critical consciousness: Paula and Molly guide core group members in understanding that they did not deserve to be imprisoned or beaten or to have their earnings taken from them. As borders delineating domination are disrupted and opened, learners may move more freely. Women who have been enslaved are tightly bound by the internalized borders of domination that are implanted in their unconscious. They have been instructed, despite minimal exposure to formal schooling, that they belong in the subordinate extreme o f the bipolar opposition under which they are oppressed. They may not transgress the border to the other extreme that separates them from what they believe to be the site of power. They learned that therefore they may not struggle for control over their lives. SEPOM re-conceptualizes pedagogy as teaching that assists learners to rupture the borders between the bipolar opposition that arranges the relations of domination (Giroux). Particularly in Thai culture, girls and women learn the message that their relationship with production and power is a subordinate one. Women from poor rural villages with little education have been socially, culturally and economically imprisoned in a sense. Social and 336 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. cultural norms have made the borders of domination very clear to poor women and what the penalties were for crossing them. SEPOM constitutes an important space for women’s critical learning since this learning requires time and opportunities to discuss and reflect. Nan said her family, household and farming responsibilities made it difficult for her to have friends over or to read anything. Members engage with oppositional discourses as an important component of their critical learning. Women discuss and reflect upon the context within which they are marginalized as part of their participation in NGO planning and decisions. As members grasp that they have choices and are worthwhile, they report changes in their behavior. The behavior and self-esteem is circumscribed by childhood experiences, many of which exacerbated their vulnerability. Most SEPOM members had experienced physical or sexual abuse as children or teenagers. Trafficking has added emotional and psychological trauma to their physical scars. Jay, Sada and Paula commented several times about their desire to prevent such abuse from happening to their children. They explained that this is an important part of their determination to speak in public about their experiences and to recruit new SEPOM members. Paula, Nan and Su described how different their relationships with current partners or husbands are now. Paula’s money from sex work enabled her family to buy land and build a 337 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. house and meeting sala, a structure which is in much demand by the village and the local government office where her husband works. It was clear during interview visits to Paula’s home that she is in charge of the house, land, garden and childcare. Paula mentioned “ .. .before my relationships with men were so bad.. .now I am happy now ...1 make money and I make decisions too.” Nan said “I gained more confidence in my own ideas and my plans after I divorced my Thai and my Japanese husband.. .1 realize I was not happy with them .. .after I get a lot of money I felt free so I can leave them.” Her family was one of the few that did not isolate daughters who survived trafficking in sex work. Nan gives her family a lot of credit for her positive feelings and their encouragement to find a partner that she loves. She said “I like my family and like to be with them .. .now I am partner with my sister and her husband on our farm .. .1 make a lot o f decisions.” Nan is even planning to expand the family business into furniture distribution, something she said she would never have dreamed of before SEPOM. Su explained that she had never felt strong enough to live alone before and she really enjoyed building her house after she returned from Japan with enough money for herself and her family. Su is happy to be able to help her mother, who also lives alone and is not well. SEPOM members have many things in common beyond limited education and social access or rural backgrounds: they were forced to respond to extremely stressful environments and situations. In 338 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. growing up as females in Thailand they had multiple audiences to please: parents, siblings, authority figures in schools, Buddhist monks, and other members of their community. It seems that they rarely, if ever, have had the luxury of thinking about who they are or how to please themselves. Su described the sense of relief she had after hearing Paula speak about her experience of being trafficked. She said she had been quiet about her trafficking experience for nine years, becoming increasingly depressed until she met Paula. Paula's survival strategy in jail in Japan was particularly interesting to members as it took many forms. One of her strategies was based on a strategy familiar to many Thai women: trying to please prison authorities by appearing as the ideal inmate. Foucault's description of incarceration in prison and the larger sense of incarceration of the body by society is apt here because women who have been trafficked have been confined physically as well as emotionally by traffickers. Women’s bodies are a battleground across which battles for power and control are fought and where women’s self-esteem and stability are the loser. The circumstances of enforced slavery and forced labor in various trades, re-created prison for those bodies caught up in capitalistic exploitation. Sada had an emotional breakdown after talking about her thirteen years in Japan. She tried to stop drinking, but has been unable to. Laura and Molly explained that alcohol was the only way she could keep going while she was confined in 339 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Japan. They said it will take time for her to learn to live without alcohol. For women to make transformative choices or to try skills and activities outside their prescribed domain is to function as men in the sense that they rupture binary borders that delineate gender roles and underlie domination. SEPOM's intent is to facilitate learners' journeys across these borders but the process of transgression and the reinvention of power are approached gently. Lia and Nu's primary concern is their children, their well-being, and gaining citizenship status. They find a great deal of comfort from joining SEPOM activities and want to learn more. Their desire to learn sometimes conflicts with pressure from their parents and communities for them to find a husband and make money. Some learners may not make the journey at all or only partway, for it is the individual woman who determines whether such learning is appropriate and comfortable. Sada moves freely in and out of SEPOM activities on the first floor since she lives in a room on the second floor where she feels safe. Her presence is a reminder of the heavy emotional and psychological costs engendered by loss of freedom of movement and sexual choice. Each member is cared for according to her interests and needs by the other members. The core group uses discourse as a transformative act by respecting the positionality of each participant. Core group members begin the learning process by acknowledging the markers of difference that devalued and 340 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. marginalized them. When learners are able to context their experience within societal oppression, they have achieved an important stage in the development of critical consciousness (Carlson and Apple, 1998). SEPOM's non-threatening, informal approach encourages learning and the process of critical consciousness-raising to occur as individual women narrate their experiences alongside listeners who have experienced similar traumas. Paula modeled the process of critical consciousness in various stages. When recruiting, core group members would observe her start conversation with other trafficked women by telling them that she had been through a traumatic trafficking experience. Active participants in the learning have been trained to contextualize shared stories within the framework of women's oppression. Paula, and later Su, Jay and Nan followed up their initial conversation with information about the strategies of traffickers, to prey upon poor, illiterate and troubled girls and families. Recruiters made links, in subsequent conversations, between the limited childhood opportunities they all experienced and the actions that led them to traffickers when they were in need. Informal learning dynamics are very important for the process of personal transformation. Peer-to-peer conversations took place over meals, in the village, and finally in groups at the SEPOM house. The house itself encourages group encounters as it offers the comfort of familiar Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. surroundings. Hart elucidates several principles underlying the intentional development of critical consciousness in women's groups are useful in understanding the nature of the informal emancipatory learning dynamics at work in SEPOM (Foley, 1999). SEPOM's characteristics are described in comparison with Hart’s principles in Table 6-2 on the next page. A discussion of the NGO according to each principle follows this table. Table 6-2. Hart’s Principles for Critical Consciousness Development Principles SEPOM Characteristics • Learning group must be representative o f the marginalized group • All o f current members were trafficked to Japan. • Experiences o f members must be relatively similar. • Two staff have not been trafficked. Other staff are members. • Members must have the motivation and time to reflect critically on their subjective experiences • All members are motivated to come regularly and learn. • Time is a problem, especially for mothers or women with demanding partners. • Members must gain a theoretical distance from personal experiences. • Core group members Paula, Su, and Jay demonstrate motivation and some understanding of women’s oppression and trafficking. • Nu, Lia, Nan, and Sada are most concerned with vocational skills, group support and child/family demands. Source: Foley, 1999 The principles are that: the learning group must be representative of the marginalized group, members must have the motivation and time to reflect critically on their subjective experiences and members must distance from personal experience. SEPOM's member composition and recruitment policy are a key strength in line with Hart’s principles. First, the learning group is representative of the marginalized group of formerly trafficked sex workers. 342 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. All members are females who grew up in poor families, many headed by one parent or a relative. None o f the members entered secondary school or had vocational skills training beyond farming or housework. All women lost control of their passports, income, and freedom of movement when they were trafficked overseas. They were all threatened that they were in danger of being imprisoned or deported by the Japanese police if they contacted anyone outside the brothel. They have established a structure of equality based on their previous experiences where members decide the NGO agenda and plans. As the core group of women gain experience from shared responsibility for programming, organization, outreach and development, they gain confidence in their worth as individuals and in the group. Nan and Jay explained that they felt proud of themselves when their contribution to NGO planning and skill building led to concrete outcomes. They said that their experience with SEPOM over a year has motivated them to encourage other members to participate in outside events. These principles illustrate the idea that critical consciousness goes beyond Freire's "beings who can reflect upon the fact that they are determined". Molly and Paula explained that it is very important for them to explain to women that they are not intrinsically bad just because they were treated like objects, and bought and sold. They believe that the only way to truly improve these women's lives is to work with them to shift their concepts of themselves and 343 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. society, to see that society's concept of them does not define them. Su said it took her nine years to understand that everything that happened to her made a pattern that she now wants to change. SEPOM breaks down the development of a critical consciousness into an active multi-step process. Paula and Molly explained that this initially means the ability to think critically about their experience and then involves an understanding that their understanding is formed by outside forces. Molly said that ideally members demonstrate their new understanding by stepping outside the trauma o f their own personal experiences to see how they fit within the universe of the experiences of others. In terms of the commitment and ability to participate, SEPOM members are inconsistent. Although there are always survivors present - and sometimes new members— not all members attend every activity. The core group members, Paula, Su, and Jay, in addition to staff members Molly and Laura participate regularly. At gatherings in which mothers bring their children, a staff volunteer in charge of children arranges activities for them so the adults can meet. Until the children are occupied they add life and bustle to the SEPOM house, much like their homes in the village. Women tend to share their stories of hardships at weekly meetings that usually take place on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. These meetings serve several purposes. Core group 344 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. members practice their narratives, particularly when new members are present. Paula and Molly give feedback on the narratives that will make them more meaningful for women to hear. Su and Nan have become external representatives of SEPOM, and have presented research or presentations destined for workshops or NGO meetings. Board members or invited experts give legal, housing, and other training at occasional weekend meetings. Saturday mornings are the time for most adult education classes at the government NFE program. Sunday afternoons resemble large family gatherings when all members help to prepare a large meal and sometimes follow the meal with a joint adult-child activity, batik making. The logistics of handling hot wax and vibrant colors of dye took their own toll on participant attention during the hot and damp days of the long rainy season when I observed the batik workshops. Batik activities seem to generate an intrinsic happiness and peace from the process o f producing vividly colored creative designs. Some women discovered strong artistic talents that added to their self-confidence. The principle regarding the establishment of a theoretical distance is perhaps the most difficult to observe. In interviews, core group and staff members were asked about the evolution from reflection about personal experience to the ability to stand back and see that experience within a greater context. Foley's characterization o f consciousness raising work as a creative 345 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. paradox is appropriate here: participants' personal experiences are a necessary pre-condition but they must move beyond the trauma or stigma of the experience(s) to a theoretical distance to achieve critical awareness. Molly said that she has seen members accept themselves, that they know (they) are not bad people, they build skill and knowledge and gain confidence. They feel more 'power' because people looked down on them and abused them. (They) need our help to bring heart (self/spirit) back up with encouragement, believe (they) can learn and develop to help others. Paula described her evolution from a state of critical awareness to the understanding that she had much in common with other trafficked women: When I returned from Japan, I kept in touch with my NGO friends in Japan. They reminded me of how I changed and that I can do a lot. I met Molly and she visited me many months and we talked about my experience. I wanted to do things for myself. Maybe I do not have education but I have many skills. (Molly and I) went out and got information how to use our own knowledge and experience. We visited some villages and talked to (trafficked) women. Some volunteers wanted to help us but they had not been trafficked so we asked them to help outside the NGO. When I told about my experience, more and more people heard and women who had been trafficked joined (with Paula). I want SEPOM to help women think about what happened and to change things. Members’ freedom to learn is strongly contested outside the NGO. Interviewees describe the tug of war between their families and themselves. Few women's parents, husbands or neighbors support or understand what women do at SEPOM. In an interview, Su described the behavior o f her boyfriend and parents about the time she spent at SEPOM: "They laugh at 346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. me and say I waste my time working for free. I say I am helping women who had same problem as me and they say, what problem? You made a lot of money." Younger member Nu expressed her concern about talking about their SEPOM activities: "My family does not understand why I come (to SEPOM). I don't talk about other (trafficked) women, I just say they help with the children's citizenship." Lia said: " They (my parents) are not interested. They want me to get a divorce from my Japanese husband and marry a wealthy Thai (man)." Laura explained a social taboo that underlies the ongoing contestation for women's allegiance between domination and liberation: in Thai society, (we) don't get involved in family problems. (I am) not comfortable asking." Women who were sex workers are objects of ridicule, shame or extortion in village communities. Once their funds are gone, their claim to status and consideration is also gone. As learning at SEPOM is embedded in the routine activities o f making meals, implicit in the actions of planning and meeting or participating in events, the physical presence of members within the learning environment and away from their families is crucial. It may be just as important that women are away from their families and communities and physically in the environment that works to liberate them. The demands made upon women's time and the resistance by significant others to members who change their behavior constitute retreats from the gains made in critical consciousness. The complex nature of the demands upon each member's 347 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. time and loyalties have become an important focus of learning in NGO activities. Some families are unable or unwilling to baby-sit children or share transport for women who want to travel to SEPOM meetings. Inadequate public transport and long distances to travel necessitate advance planning to obtain rides for women and work out childcare needs. Laura went on to say: "(We) built the core group because we need to get close (to each other) from Paula's example. She has lots of self-esteem. Members do not think about how they were brought up.“ Paula described how members move from critical awareness to taking a theoretical distance from their experience: The first step is to talk about their family and economic situation, if (they) have kids in school. Then we talk about the way they were brought up, the parents and community values, how they shaped them. We use different methods with different people because each person is in a different situation. We found that role plays using the content from members narrative is also effective. Women start asking about economic needs, legal rights. We started a savings bank and we have a volunteer lawyer who helps with individual cases and talks to members about their rights. Core group (members) are more confident and assertive about improving their lives. They used to be afraid to change anything at home. Members have had little access to the tools with which social and cultural capital are built (i.e., family support, education) that made them more vulnerable to trafficking. These tools, such as education, also serve capitalist cultural practice, complicating the process of providing learning unavailable to members with little primary school education. Formal school learning 348 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. not only inculcates recognition and responses, which assist in the development of critical awareness, it also reproduces attitudes which support the dominating social order (Walker and Barton in Foley, 1996). Achieving the ability to analytically consider one's situation is neither automatic nor inevitable. SEPOM members arrive with little exposure to formal schooling, therefore having had little chance to acquire the thinking process or behaviors of the dominating social order. This advantage is offset by an equivalent disadvantage: having grown up poor and undergone the diminishment o f trafficking, members have been conditioned to consider themselves as unworthy and not valuable. SEPOM's step by step approach in a non-threatening site of learning are necessary parts of the scaffolding support required for members to move beyond the borders that confine their knowledge. SEPOM does not provide direct facilitation or instruction in knowledge about the subordination of women, but they offer and encourage access to this information through special events and partners. The NGO provides models through narratives, role playing, and informal tacit learning— of the theoretical and collective knowledge needed for members to achieve personal elaboration. Many members have learned about the practical aspects of theoretical distance of how their experience fits in with the experiences of others from field trips to different locations. Nan said that she has participated in every SEPOM activity since she joined a year ago. In addition 349 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to the weekly meetings, she said her participation in an anti-trafficking training program at another NGO, and meeting other survivors at the local gender network meetings had a strong impact: My parents did not believe in education for girls. Now I know I do not agree with that. I wanted to make money to send to my parents and all I could do was to follow my sister to work in Japan, although she told me not to. Now I met NGO people who feel like I do. I did not use to talk up or to tell my feelings. At first it only felt good to get to talk about my experiences, to share and unburden. Now I tell those who are interested about my experiences (not to preach) to teach and help others who went there. E) Program Summary: SEPOM facilitates the acquisition of new awareness, practical, and personal skills by members in delivering NFE to trafficked women in northern Thailand. Beyond meeting the NFE goals of achieving individual skill competence through making salable art and financing member businesses through a micro credit program, SEPOM answers such questions as: how to care for the psychological well being of trafficking survivors and what are ways that marginalized women can participate more fully and confidently in their home culture on which they depend for their lives and livelihoods. After three years of members performing one-on-one outreach with female trafficking victims, knowledge of SEPOM's existence is widespread in the targeted seven counties in the province of Chiang Rai, as well as in national and international anti-trafficking organizations. 350 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table 6-3 below summarizes findings of participant learning according to the four dimensions of Stromquist’s model of empowerment. Members have made changes to their lives in several ways. Five members attend secondary school on the weekends. Members report that they are more confident about trying new things, getting part-time work or pursuing new skills. A discussion of participant learning continues after the table below. Table 6-3. SEPOM Participant Outcomes Activity Cognitive & Skill Outcomes Psychological Outcomes Economic Outcomes Political Outcomes Num-b er Support for Education Five members in DNFE secondary education Increased self confidence in speaking up, negotiating with family, making presentations Members state belief that they have greater job choices Members report experience planning and participating in outside workshops and meetings 20 Micro-Credit Group Learn to manage funds, monitor projects Increased confidence in ability to manage projects, obtain funds Funded member project contributes to family well-being Economic contribution increases personal independence and decision-making 8 Participation on NGO Premises Acquire legal, economic knowledge, self esteem and counseling skills, narration skills Increase self-esteem through knowledge acquisition, acceptance by peers Collective production effort to make products, farm or work Speaking up in NGO group, demonstrating critical thinking by asking questions 8-15 Group Meetings outside NGO Acquire knowledge about subordination of women Learn reasons for lack for education and cultural capital Learn about NGO management, fundraising, sustainability Become NGO worker as agent of changes; join recruitment efforts; educate villagers 5-10 Lia and Nu said that they feel more self-assured and are not shy about speaking up in public and in front of their families. Several women reported that they learned how to be more productive economically and personally from NGO activities. Sada was the first person to borrow from the savings bank to start up a massage business with her mother. 351 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SEPOM staff and its member workers continue to travel to villages in these counties to gather data on existing and future member problems and needs. At the same time, they encourage returnees with knowledge that they are not alone and with invitations to share their traumatic experiences with others. SEPOM functions as an educational and social scaffold for women that opens the doors to new knowledge and facilitates the rupturing of the borders of domination through peer relations of mutual respect and self-directed learning. These multiple evolving and connected layers of experiencing and experience ultimately fused into an enhanced sense of the survivors' feelings of self worth. This was displayed initially when survivors heard from others— for example, when they met SEPOM recruiters who visited their villages. Members said that the attention from recruiters was a welcome antidote to their social isolation, particularly after their money was spent. This is in contrast to the day-to-day village existence of these women who have been trafficked, particularly into prostitution, and are ostracized upon their return, preventing their involvement in much of the daily life of the village. Shunned by parents with young daughters for fear of "corruption" and by other adults who consider them to be "dirty", survivors have also been treated as available prostitutes by males in their community. Some survivors' families, particularly Sada's since she was deported from Japan without much money, or Jay's, who spent her money on luxury items, refuse to reintegrate survivors, demanding 352 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that they earn more money. Paula, Nu, and Lia's families considered that they harmed the family pride and reputation when their villages found out they were former commercial sex workers. Lia and Nu in particular find the attitudes of villagers towards them and their children hurtful, since they tried to preserve the image of dutiful daughters who were providing for their families. Their experience as former sex workers and proximity to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV-AIDS may contribute to this perception. Health issues and promotion is not a visible part of SEPOM’s agenda. The silence about this area is surprising considering member disclosure about their other experiences as coerced sex workers. Recruiters created a new positive visibility for survivors by making it clear to village leaders and residents that survivors were very interesting and worthwhile of their time. Paula and Su explained that new members’ improved self-image continued to evolve later, after they were able to practice creating narratives, and particularly, when they were welcomed to share their stories. Being listened to respectfully by peers and NGOs was an enactment of their new selves that gave substance to their revised self-perceptions. Still later, survivors exhibited a change of attitude towards their trafficking experience. Jay and Nan said they realized that they were not to blame and that they could move beyond that experience to help others in their families and villages. They no longer accepted blame for being forced into sex work and began 353 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to explain to others, especially young girls, about the true conditions they experienced. Paula, Su, Nan, and Lia actively contribute to their family's economic well being and take a more active role in decision-making. There is a sense of independence for those who are receiving stipends from the NGO or making money on their own that translates into greater self-confidence. Paula, Nu and Nan, in particular, are once again regarded as equal partners in their households. This started with funds from sex work, which enabled them to purchase a great deal of land and paid for significant home improvements. After their money was spent, many survivors were pressured to return to sex work. SEPOM members resisted that pressure, wanting to live a normal life. Their household status appears contingent upon their ability to contribute economically, so the opportunity to earn a stipend from work with SEPOM and to continue secondary education provides short and long term support. The contacts initially made during recruitment served a valuable function by directly addressing what Ginsberg and Rapp (2001) call euphemized violence. This occurs when the concerns and roles of women are effaced by those of significant others and local communities. SEPOM provides a forum, venue and safe house for survivors to function in visible ways. In acts that counter effacement, members express themselves, learn more about their community and to seek ways for changing their communities together with women like themselves. Through 354 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. recruiting of members and member presentations in public forums, survivors are also recognized as valuable individuals in a public setting and their stories are definitely worth hearing. Positive modeling occurs at both the organizational and the individual level. SEPOM provides an important organizational role model for NFE programs in terms of content and pedagogical approach and internally as an organizational and individual exemplar of what Bandura (1977) calls "role modeling" as a vehicle for individual learning and self-esteem. SEPOM members observe, extract the rules and structures of behaviors new to them, and internalize a unique individualized amalgam. This individual attention starts by taking the individual experiences o f participants into account, by focusing on experience-based learning, and by avoiding the use of pre-digested knowledge. As Bandura recommended, individuals choose their time and topic of interest in observing, hearing, and sharing with other members and in shaping their own learning to suit their lives. SEPOM offers a variety of individual role models through the core group, particularly Paula, Su, Lia, and Nu who model constructive responses to memories of the trafficking experience and problems with reintegration into home communities. Members observe behaviors that facilitate positive change and are encouraged to try them. Sada’s alcoholic retreat from her memories of trafficking is a challenge that NGO core group members have met with assistance 355 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that is congruent with their mission. Sada is encouraged to talk about her story, to seek professional and personal help and her children have found a loving temporary home. Sada has been trusted with the first micro-credit loan after she finished alcoholic rehabilitation with SEPOM’s support. The NGO’s long-term vision includes support for core group members returning to complete secondary school through the Thai government DNFE intensive weekend general education classes. Although SEPOM encourages members to continue their interrupted education, it goes beyond inserting marginalized individuals into vocational and remedial formal education programs. SEPOM’s members "look at the individual at a level of analysis, while acknowledging the individual's interdependency with his/her community" (Foley, 1999). Members now have the self-confidence to represent the NGO at local gender awareness, regional gender capacity network and national anti-trafficking NGO workshops. New members benefit from interacting with core group members who have made the shift from personal empowerment to participate in community and national efforts to change the way that trafficked women are treated. The NGO contributes to the wider agenda of social change through community-based organizing that occurs as a result of empowered individuals building social capital through personal and organizational networks. 356 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter VII: Analysis and Recommendations This chapter analyzes the impact of non-formal education upon participants at the three programs in this research study. O f the three NFE programs, two are non-governmental organizations and one is government sponsored. The first part of the chapter examines the curriculum and design o f each non-formal education program in relation to participants’ expectations of and reactions to non-formal education (NFE). The second part of the chapter addresses the question of whether the particular NFE pedagogical approach deals with the vulnerabilities of participants. Figure 1 below depicts each NFE program according to its impact upon participants. Figure 7-1. Placement of NFE programs within Stromquist Empowerment Model Cognitive Political Psychological .conomic DNFE DEPDC SEPOM Data collection and analysis revealed that, overall, participants in each program tended to experience change in the form of one and sometimes two aspects o f empowerment found in Stromquist’s model of empowerment (1993). 357 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A) Program Design and Participant Expectations: In this section, participant expectations are compared and contrasted with nonformal educational program design and curriculum. Each NFE program used different pedagogical approaches to accomplish participant learning and attracted participants with different personal characteristics. During initial research for this study, it became clear that no single non-formal educational program either encompassed the full range of possible vulnerable participants or addressed the variety of needs marginalized women had at different stages of life. Therefore, the three programs in this study were chosen to create a more heterogeneous and representative population sample and more fully represent the variety of needs and situations accompanying this population. All program participants are poor, lack schooling and possess little social capital, but they come to these programs at different ages, from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and from different experience bases. The two non-governmental organizations, DEPDC and SEPOM, work with somewhat to extremely vulnerable women at different points in their lives. The government non-formal education program, DNFE, works with women who, although poor, do not have as many characteristics of vulnerability as women at the NGO programs. Taken together, the three programs create a time and vulnerability line for marginalized women. In the following figure, programs are represented according to the age ranges of program participants. 358 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 7-2. Life Stage of Participants by Program Child _________Adult Childhood Teen 20s 30s 40s onwards DEPDC DNFE M-------------------► SEPOM M ------------------------- ► Women in the DNFE and SEPOM programs were older and had family and job responsibilities that were not yet relevant to young women in the DEPDC program. They experienced the pressure of being mother, wife, older daughter, and/or provider full time, and being able to commute to their non-formal educational program part time. For SEPOM participants, these responsibilities often occurred within a hostile social context that hindered their ability to provide for themselves and their families. Participants described different expectations and needs of their non-formal education program, depending on where they were in life and their level o f vulnerability. Table 7-1 below organizes participant expectations of non- formal educational programs into six categories. Table 7-1. Participant Expectations of NFE Participant Expectations NFE Program NFE Program Offering Economic security DNFE Vocational skill More freedom, independence DNFE Future promise of income generation Personal security, stability DEPDC Campus safety, avoidance of disrupted community Education, vocational training DEPDC Formal school through 12th grade, vocational skill training Social acceptance, support SEPOM Group membership, affiliation Child assistance SEPOM Assistance with legal status, childcare 359 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The categories in the table above are matched with NFE program offerings. Although DEPDC participants also experienced family pressure to help with family income, their physical remove from those pressures made the non-formal educational experience generally less fragmented or conflicted. Participants who were younger tended to seek safety from the dangers and pressures they faced at home or in their former villages. DEPDC interviewees all expressed a strong belief in the value of education. They believed that a high school degree would prove to their families that they were competent and would be able to get a job outside the sex sector. Participants from more stable homes, many of whom had families of their own were more worried about financial security and improving their daily existence. DNFE participants had not been trafficked, but several had lost the income of their husbands and found it difficult to survive. Others had abusive husbands or demanding families which caused them to want more independence which seemed more possible with their own income. Women who had been trafficked had very different priorities centering on their feelings of social isolation and anguish. SEPOM members reported feeling alone until they met other survivors, many with children wanted their children to have a stable identity and legal documents for school and welfare. 1) DEPDC Program While women at both NGOs have experienced severe poverty, early school dropout and social alienation due to destabilized families, DEPDC works with youth before they become 360 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ensnared in dangerous circumstances. The DEPDC student population comes from hill tribes and other families that are extremely impoverished and often destabilized so that they depend on the labor or income of their children. Traffickers tempt these parents to yield their children and young adults with promises o f huge sums, often fabricating jobs and locations. DEPDC’s mission is to prevent exploitation of young adults and children by providing a safety net in which they can attend school, learn about their social system while contributing to their academic progress. Students arrive at DEPDC often traumatized and sometimes unable to speak Thai. Student priorities are personal safety, family welfare, avoiding trafficking and a chance getting a legal job. Youngsters come to campus from unstable environments, often having attended little or no school. It is important to determine student needs early on in order for them to settle in successfully on campus or live nearby safely. Staff member’s experience plays an important role in fulfilling the NGO mission, since many are graduates of the program. Having arrived in similar states as their current charges, graduates are often best at dealing with scared students and helping them understand the program. Pia, the weaving teacher and a DEPDC graduate, said, “I feel safe here and.. .we don’t have any problems from police about our legal status. The living arrangements answer student needs for safety by providing a protected residence away from those 361 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. who harassed them and close to staff and older students who provide support. Resident students are placed in dormitories with a mix of people. Older students and staff live together with students in order to be available to solve problems, monitor student well being and foster personal hygiene habits. This is also the first exposure of many students to the campus mentoring system. DEPDC’s residential program provides learning opportunities and environmental input unavailable in non-residential NFE programs. Participants are often together 24 hours a day; many arrive on campus quite young, and are shaped by more extensive and intensive informal and nonformal learning opportunities. Many interviewees have been shaped as much by the DEPDC environment as by their original home environment. Inka, a current student, explained that “ .. .girls and women need more education in order to stand up for themselves.. .we must find a way to become educated or we are forced to do what we don’t like, such as working in the sex industry.” Young women were the original focus of DEPDC, for they tend to be pulled out of school earlier than males and need to catch up more in school. By having input into female participants outside classrooms, DEPDC can better integrate cognitive and psychological knowledge and critical thinking has the opportunity to take root earlier on. This distinguishes DEPDC from the governmental formal education system in Thailand. Families are considered an important part of the DEPDC network. Staff members involve families by regularly meeting 362 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with nearby families or traveling to their villages regularly. Family meetings are part of the NGO educational outreach to elicit from family members about some of the pressures they face, to involve families in the DEPDC safety network and to try to solve some of their problems with income or legal status. Depending on the age and stability of their youngster, students usually travel with staff to their family. None of the DEPDC hill tribe and Burmese students possesses legal identification papers or legal status in Thailand, so staff encourages families to obtain legal resident and work documents for the whole family. DEPDC’s mission to protect young people and student’s desire to avoid trafficking are tightly related goals. This is where non formal education plays its most important role in providing knowledge about the forces of domination and exploitation in palatable doses and appropriately contextualized so that young people with little social capital can grasp the concepts as well as the everyday realities of power. The NFE approach links acquisition of new knowledge of systemic inequities with personal development and leadership so that student growth occurs on parallel and intersecting tracks. Although student schedules are structured around their formal education classes, much learning occurs through structured and unstructured encounters outside the classroom. These learning opportunities include classroom based mentoring, campus duties, dormitory and casual mentoring between older and younger students, 363 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. experience in decision making on some budget items, and assisting in training for new students. Inside the sewing classroom, students are actively engaged in learning, often designing and delivering lessons to each other. More experienced students (piis) lead others in new projects, handing over more and more responsibility as younger learners (nongs) become proficient. Piis are expected to look out for their nongs outside of class as well. Piis and program graduates who stay to teach and work on campus train younger students to become assistants to primary school teachers. Outside the classroom, experienced students also have responsibility to grow some of the food they eat, to monitor nongs in meal preparation and dining behavior, and to mentor nongs in dormitory cleaning, maintaining appropriate noise levels, homework, and play. Students work together to decide on and execute orientation and civil rights training with program graduates who coordinate training. Decision making power is shared between teachers, staff, and students. Students choose how to work together in shared agricultural plots after initial instruction. Students also decide together on priorities for their part o f the school budget. The personal and vocational skills acquired in this variety o f ways play a large role in increasing student’s self-confidence, enhancing their self-image and increasing their job and career choices later on. Sala and Fran, in their final year in high school, want to become more proficient at sewing to get better jobs. Fran expects to ”.. .make a regular income and deal with 364 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the pressure to make money from my fam ily.. .1 am scared about being forced to go with traffickers, like my friends.” These skills are founded on emotional security derived from stable, positive relationships with staff and older students, safety of the removed campus setting and protection of students from exploitation. Bela said her idea about life changed while at DEPDC “ ...life is now interesting and has more value...I want to have a family but also I would like to work as a tour guide, so I want to go to college part time after I graduate.” DEPDC knowledge of parental and family situations also enables staff to help students understand their problems but not to sacrifice their education or welfare despite family demands for students to drop out. 2) DNFE Like most interviewees in this study, students in the DNFE sewing class are poor and none entered secondary school as a child. None of the DNFE study participants have been trafficked, although their age range— early twenties to thirties— is common for most trafficked women. DNFE participant family and home situations tend to be relatively more stable than participants in either NGO program, as most have never been forcibly displaced unlike NGO participants. DNFE’s mission is to address the gap between adults with little vocational or educational experience and the needs of the workplace. They specifically target low-income adults with a flexible curriculum useful to working adults. 365 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Students come to DNFE in order to improve their economic position and contribute to their family income. Some women plan to use sewing skills as part of their goal for financial independence or more say in family decisions. Others are seeking more vocational security. DNFE addresses student desires for economic improvement by teaching them a skill much in demand. Thailand produces, sells and exports finished clothing around the world. The level and variety of demand for clothing, combined with the low cost of wages has meant a boom of small and large scale clothing manufacturers. Students gain basic sewing skills in the first 100 hours of class. Most women stay to complete the 300 hours required to obtain a sewing certificate, which qualifies them to work in a small shop or factory with fixed wages. Once the teacher considers students to be competent, she may give them piece work to earn money while they study. Once students start earning money with their sewing skills, they are realizing their expectations for improved economic position and vocational security. Financial independence is more difficult to achieve especially if women are contributing to their parent’s or their own family’s household. Despite living very simply, full time sewing jobs did not provide enough income for full independence. All graduates interviewed for this study mentioned that they took extra work at home for additional income as well, although this income varied from week to week. 366 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Changing the nature of power sharing and decision making in families was also a slow and difficult process. While generating income for the family gave women higher status and more power, they often achieved this at the expense of radical alterations in family structure or location. Two women used their sewing skills to open their own businesses, combining sewing with another product or service. In both cases, they lived alone or with a daughter, explaining that they were no longer dependent upon erratic contributions by a boyfriend or husband. A side benefit of the participation in the sewing class is the personal relationships and mentoring that takes place informally between students, graduates and the teacher. Although not an articulated motivation for studying sewing, women benefit from these relationships in many ways. Advanced students learn how to teach by mentoring less experienced students. These students are expected to monitor the class when the teacher is busy elsewhere. They are asked to step in when someone is having trouble. Piis have demonstrated the correct method for feeding cloth into the sewing machine, more accurate ways to measure for a pattern, how to repair seams and zippers that do not lie flat, among other skills. Women get to know people they might never have met otherwise, either by mentoring or being mentored. As women mentor each other, they observe their peer’s responses to their interventions. Experienced students report very positive feelings after successfully helping another student. 367 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Some women commented that it was the first time in their lives that they were asked to help another adult. Ifpiis felt that their help did not achieve the desired results, they discuss it with the teacher and plan how to be more effective in the future. The insights into improved sewing lead to improved interpersonal skills as learners engage each other. The strong connection between graduates and current students is fostered by the teacher’s welcome to former students and encouragement of student-to-graduate networks. Women learn informally about different ways to live and think about topics that would never occur in the formal curriculum, such as household decisions, different paradigms o f interacting with husbands, parents and children, and ideas for self-employment. 3) SEPOM SEPOM targets women who, like DEPDC participants, have experienced severe poverty, early school dropout and social alienation due to destabilized families. However, unlike most other study participants, they have already survived one or more trafficking experiences. They range in age from late twenties through early forties. Their mission is unique for they work with women who are ostracized even among the marginalized and address psychological and emotional problems more than vocational needs. SEPOM members seek emotional safety akin to a port in the storm for themselves and their children. Many women do not easily articulate a 368 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. deeper need for social acceptance and recognition by their peers which is unavailable from their families and communities. SEPOM operates from a premise that survivors are best suited to heal and help each other if they receive proper training and support. A core group composed of survivors and a few staff have evolved from active recruiting efforts at the village level. Every action of the NGO, from recruiting to training, is designed to promote the emotional and psychological well-being of members. The recruiting process heightens the visibility of survivors in their villages in a way that counters popular notions of their low value. Members are given a stipend as necessary to enable them to come to weekly meetings, get to know each other and begin to participate in the life of the NGO. Few women have childcare assistance at home so the NGO makes it possible for them to participate and bring their children. Children are cared for with special attention, art projects and occasional movies and treats. There are activities they join in with their mothers and other times when they play together with other children. As women become more comfortable with the NGO and closer to members, they are invited to seminars and workshops offered by social service professionals in the community. Their needs and their children’s needs are addressed with information about divorce, obtaining Thai citizenship, pursuing Japanese citizenship or child support, etc. As members gain comfort 369 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and acceptance through group membership, they are encouraged to share their stories, eventually turning them into narratives of information and persuasion to help other women. The process of crafting and sharing narratives has a positive impact upon the individual’s self confidence. Once psychological shifts begin with self confidence, women become more comfortable trying other new things, such as attending outside workshops, and traveling with members to learn new ways o f farming and living. The creative nature of NGO support intertwined with social, emotional, and practical learning in ways that reinforced each other. Participants in the SEPOM program expected and received the fellowship and acceptance of other survivors of trafficking, and emotional support and legal assistance for themselves and their children. The NGO accomplished this by the construction of a supportive membership network through recruitment and training. The membership promotes psychological healing through social acceptance while teaching members about the nature of oppressive societal and global forces that marginalize women. B) Impact Upon Participant Vulnerability: The second part of the chapter addresses the question of whether NFE programs have had an impact upon the vulnerability of participants. Program curriculum, composition and location as well as pedagogical approaches form the learning environment o f participants. These factors impact upon participant learning as they interact and influence women’s self-perception, self- 370 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. confidence and vulnerability. Participants who were positively influenced by NFE programs experienced shifts in critical consciousness and behavioral changes resulting from the acquisition of new knowledge, skills and relationships. Participants reported significant shifts in their critical consciousness, economic security, and membership in social networks as a result of their experience in the NFE programs, organized in Table 7-2 below. Table 7-2. NFE Strengths Based on Stromquist Model Empowerment Pedagogy Stromquist Model Empowerment Phases DEPDC DNFE SEPOM Critical Consciousness 1) Cognitive 2) Psychological X X Economic Security 3) Economic X Social Networking 4) Political Source: Stromquist, 1993 Shifts in critical consciousness were most evident in participants of DEPDC and SEPOM and linked to cognitive and psychological empowerment. Gains in economic security and empowerment were made mostly by NFE participants who learned a new way to generate income. All participants experienced the benefits of social networks in different degrees. SEPOM members found their affiliation with other trafficking survivors provided significant psychological empowerment. DEPDC students and DNFE students experienced new ways to see themselves and to interact with others generating self-confidence and optimism about their place 371 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in the world. The following table links the primary pedagogical aspects of each program in relation to the level of vulnerability experienced by program participants. Table 7-3: Levels of Vulnerability Level of Vulner ability Definition of vulnerability levels Vulnerability Factors NFE Pedagogical intervention related to vulnerability High Two or more high weight factors, may also combine with low weight factors. High Weight Factors: -Poverty -Lack of schooling (access, retention) -Lack of family support -Low Self-Esteem -Physical/Sexual Violence -Poverty -Dysfunctional, violent family -Lack of schooling -Low Self-Esteem SEPOM: micro-credit collective DNFE: vocational skill DEPDC: School completion SEPOM and DEPDC: solidarity, protection DEPDC, SEPOM: group affiliation and acceptance Middle One high weight factor and two or more low weight factors. Low Weight Factors: -Parent’s break up or second marriage -Alcoholism or gambling in family -Domestic violence -Living in post-armed conflict areas (border with Burma) -Internal displacement/lack of legal status (hill tribes, refugees) -Living with people other than biological parents -Lack of fluency in Thai language and culture -One parent or changed head of household -Alcoholism or gambling in family -Living away from biological parents - Internal displacement/lack of legal status (hill tribes, refugees) -Domestic violence -Lack o f fluency in Thai language and culture SEPOM, DEPDC and DNFE: Group affiliation, accepting relationships SEPOM, DEPDC: Some assistance with finances, survival DEPDC: Residence away from conflict and problem adults SEPOM: assistance with legal status SEPOM: safe room in house DEPDC: Instruction in Thai, practice with students, staff DNFE: General education through secondary school Low One, two low weight factors See above See above 372 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. While both NGO NFE programs, DEPDC and SEPOM, offered critical knowledge and consciousness raising activities, DEPDC integrated this information along cognitive lines through the regular school curriculum as well as via non-formal educational activities on campus. SEPOM participants, by contrast, gained critical consciousness by belonging to a group of peers engaged in critical thinking and analysis in on-site activities as well as during off-site networking with similar organizations. The impact of NFE participation upon the vulnerability of participants has been organized into four categories(cognitive, psychological, economic, and political) based upon Stromquist's model of empowerment (1993) in table 7-4 below. Table 7-4: Participant Outcomes By Program And Empowerment Dimension NFE Program Cognitive Outcomes Psychological Outcomes Economic Outcomes Political Outcomes DEPDC * Acquire knowledge about subordination of women; Learn reasons for lack for education and cultural capital Increased self confidence in speaking up, negotiating with family, making presentations Students state that they have greater job choices Students report experience planning and participating in outside workshops and meetings. DNFE Acquired knowledge and experience with sewing. Gained informal knowledge about jobs from graduates and teacher. Increased confidence in ability to generate income. * New skill leads to increased income which contributes to woman’s decision making input and family well-being Membership in sewing alumnus group brings opportunity to share, influence others. 373 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table 7-4 continued: SEPOM Five SEPOM * Increased self Joined micro Used narration to members in esteem through credit group, influence vulnerable DNFE knowledge learned to make women away from secondary acquisition, batik products, trafficking.; joined education; members’ learned NGO recruitment Acquired collective batik alternative efforts; educated legal, production. farming villagers economic Acceptance by techniques. knowledge, peers, narration counseling practice skills, increased self enhanced self expression. esteem, narration skills * Indicates most active dimension of empowerment according to participants. Participants in the DNFE government program improved their economic security by acquiring vocational skills that improved their ability to generate income. DNFE participants also gained an informal network that assisted them in job placement and social capital by keeping in touch with the teacher and graduates. Each program tended to impact participants most strongly in one or two categories. The political category in particular is problematic for all of the above. The current Thai political climate is hostile to NGOs and to perceived threats to the status quo, which has resulted in NGO or other efforts to promote or increase civil rights in, but has discouraged other types of civic engagement, activism and mobilization. 1) Cognitive Dimension of Empowerment Participants experienced cognitive empowerment through acquisition of new knowledge, skills, and understanding that they had the ability to learn, to make connections between cause 374 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and effect. The most concrete gains were made in knowledge of their subordination, in Thai society, social skills such as decision making in meetings, planning projects, mentoring and peer tutoring, literacy and vocational knowledge about sewing, improvement in numeracy due to practice in measurements, a) Critical Knowledge The multi-layered nature of the SEPOM weekly group get-together is an important pedagogical feature that promotes empowerment. Members uncover the meanings of dominating myths and structural inequities that helped to create their marginalization by hearing each other’s stories, and participating in training events and educational opportunities. Members discover a different perception of the worth of women and girls and participate in a different framework of self-esteem where they practice behaviors that put them in charge. Multiple meanings and discoveries occur through implicit and informal learning that occurs through the routine of holding meetings, planning activities, preparing meals and making batik together. Informal learning is connected to SEPOM’s more structured learning opportunities such as workshops, micro-credit knowledge, project management, and anti-trafficking presentations in which knowledge o f women's subordination is taught along with critical actions. 375 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The shift from DEPDC students early understanding of power, from power inherent in parental or familial (e.g., grandparents) authority and status, to a new form promoted by DEPDC of power shared by students themselves is a significant part of students’ consciousness shift. DEPDC’s promotion o f the belief in personal power and agency is a significant departure from traditional Thai and hill tribe values and in direct contradiction to the emotional and intellectual trap woven by child abusers to entrap and imprison youngsters. Many DEPDC students were forced to separate abruptly from their parents and communities where they were traditionally protected, leaving them among adults with weak or nonexistent familial or tribal ties. Far away from home and traditional social structures, young people seek protection and struggle to survive in surroundings that are often both alien and alienating. When astute traffickers, gang members and criminals enter the void of authority and stability caused by displacement of family structures and communities, young people grasp at the chimera of protection proffered, thereby becoming a commodity for labor, sex, or worse. DEPDC contravenes traditional family structures and the exploitative underground culture by presenting a realistic option of another way to live. Bua explained that DEPDC became real for her through her big sister, who is an important role model, saying her sister“ .. .changed after studying at DEPDC.. .she avoided the sex trade and I will try now to 376 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. become a policewoman.” Sala said she . .know that I have to help earn money for my fam ily.. .but I hope to open my own shop for sewing in the future, not work in the sex trade.” Displaced or otherwise vulnerable students observe and experience DEPDC’s model of how to function constructively in a group, how to create and depend upon an alternative family structure, how to be an adult, how the NGO performs as a mutual help organization, and how to act and react politically to preserve the human rights of children and young adults. b) Social Skills Participants in DEPDC and SEPOM developed a variety o f social skills such as mentoring and peer tutoring. SEPOM members learned to participate in group decision making in order to plan and manage NGO projects and day to day activities. Core group members decided on their needs and planned meeting agendas accordingly. They invited professionals to speak on legal rights, domestic violence and other issues raised by members. SEPOM and DEPDC group members, such as core group members and older DEPDC students, also gained computer literacy and office skills. c) Literacy Skills DNFE sewing class participants who also study in the general education program made cognitive gains through improved literacy and numeracy skills. Several women are progressing 377 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. through secondary school in order to obtain a high school degree. SEPOM members without children and those who have assistance with childcare responsibilities also participate in a local DNFE general education program, which allows them to make up missed primary and secondary school credits and eventually graduate from high school with a high school equivalency certificate. DEPDC students all attended school full time and made the fastest progress in literacy skills. d) Vocational Skills DNFE and DEPDC students gained increased knowledge about sewing tools, making different types of clothes, and ways to generate income from sewing. Some interviewees commented on what they were learning in the general education classes as well. Many improved their numeracy skills as they practiced sewing measurements and calculations. 2) Psychological Dimension of Empowerment Participants experienced several facets of psychological empowerment such as increased self confidence, self esteem, greater efficacy resulting in improved living conditions, or the ability to motivate people, and to participate in social networks. 378 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a) Self Confidence Core SEPOM group leaders such as Paula and Su tell their stories to other survivors. Learning occurs as members acquire positive attitudes and values about themselves which allow skills and emotional changes to occur through observation, listening and sharing and ultimately group facilitating. The nature of the empowerment process in SEPOM cuts through layers of subordinating discourse by facilitating self-directed and self-controlled disclosure generated by core group members' own choices of whether or not to share their experiences and to participate in SEPOM activities. The sewing teacher’s pedagogical approach encouraged DNFE students to make concrete gains in learning, which translated into positive psychological changes. Students reported boosts in self-confidence and esteem after mastering sewing skills. Interviewees indicated how much they liked Wanpen and her low- key, relaxed approach to learning. The classroom atmosphere made it easier for students to learn by allowing them to function normally and deal with their other responsibilities. Many students commented on her flexibility with frequent lateness or absences as their family and work responsibilities interfered with consistent class attendance. Several mentioned that she treated them as adults and they always felt comfortable returning to her and the class. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nina explained that “it was easier to learn sewing than studying Thai language since I can see the demonstrations and can follow step by step.” Nina is excited to learn more sewing “ so I can earn more money”. Loy thinks her study experience at DNFE helped her gain confidence to make this decision. She said “I learned the skills and feel better about myself and my skills because of my sewing (study).” Tina was the most striking example of confidence, both personally and professionally. She said “I am very pleased to talk about how happy I am with my sewing skills.” Tina also indicated that she was lucky that several previous jobs and her strategic decision to study at DNFE helped her put together the sewing skills and funding needed to open her shop. Tina’s independence and ability to plan made a big difference to her ability to realize her dream. She also benefited from the support of her NFE network and family members. Dela hopes that DEPDC can get enough money so “ ...I can coordinate more workshops for the students... and I want to travel more around the world.. .take other staff with me.” DEPDC’s program design encourages older students to elicit input of younger students in order to engage them consciously in their own learning. Bua described a particularly motivating facet of education at DEPDC “ ... both girls and boys get the same attention here... it is so different from my other school.. .now I want to finish high school.” Students being encouraged to speak up and 380 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. participate in decision-making in their learning environment report greater self-confidence and interest in trying new things, b) Efficacy SEPOM members shift from playing strictly an observer role, listening to other survivors share their stories, to exhibiting greater psychological comfort with actively sharing their own stories. Paula and Su described the impact of seeing the reaction of other women to these stories that encouraged them to become more active role models. Nan, Jay, and other members mentioned more subtle internal changes such as simply being able to know a group of similar women, and becoming comfortable with them. Finding comfort and acceptance was a revelation in and of itself for Su, in particular, after nine years of silence and pain. Their sense of belongingness and release from feeling like aliens appeared to be critical steps along the path to trust before these new members were able to tell their own stories of abuse or exploitation. Several new members said it was most difficult to talk about sex work because revisiting those experiences recharged their conception of themselves as unworthy people of no value. Su explained that she was motivated to change because of the influence exerted by Paula. She said: I admired Paula's way of sharing her own experiences to reach out and help other women who had returned from Japan. I really appreciate Paula's sharing and presentations that made me feel good as well as activities we do together with others make me want to help. 381 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SEPOM members learn that operation of individual choice and the growth of personal agency are further served by the action of personal sharing and the subsequent valuing of that sharing. Members have the opportunity to grow in various ways, most importantly serving as what Bandura calls social facilitators or guides within a context of critical consciousness. As newly minted social guides, members acquire additional social and cultural capital, which is a necessary precursor to effective personal and community change. In detailed interviews, SEPOM members shared stories of their personal transformation through the construction and delivery of personal narratives, their actions towards economic independence, and their growing awareness o f political actions for change. Several women mentioned their increased role in family decision- making. Paula and Nan were partners with their families for farming and household decisions. Members who were personally able to provide for their parents generated greater self-confidence which reinforced their self-esteem. Members' transformation takes the shape of changes in their self-esteem and their life goals, while practicing and exhibiting assertive behaviors within the NGO as well as in family decision-making and village interactions. The foundation of trust built through the sharing of meals, personal experiences, and in producing batik and T-shirt products SEPOM contributed not only to the organization's goal of psychological healing but generated funds for the NGO as well. Some members have Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. been able to join educational field trips to learn about alternative agriculture techniques, the oppression of women and other relevant topics, c) Social Networks The SEPOM weekly group meeting assists trafficking survivors to accept themselves through group support and sharing. SEPOM makes a critical contribution in ensuring that participants have the opportunity to take advantage o f a “contradictory principle of social life” (Barton and Walker cited in Foley, 1999). This principle is that most capitalist cultural practices such as learning and education are vehicles of reproduction o f that system. As survivors become more visible to themselves and others in a positive way, they can see the contradiction in learning and education which reproduces inequities in society at large but which also offers the opportunity to generate individual recognition from behaviors that may assist these individuals to enter that world while developing a challenging and critical stance towards that order (Foley, 1999). Members' personal agency is invoked as they consciously connect their changed attitudes with actions taken; at the same time, they recreated their place in the community and presented themselves as women o f value. Nan explained her changed feelings "I have more gamlangjai (power) now. I get encouragement working with SEPOM, feel more valuable so I can talk to others". 383 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Membership in the DEPDC and DNFE student network provided women with a new vision of themselves through the eyes of women who are unrelated and under no obligation to them, a vision that includes their self as social beings, as beings able to learn and grow and join with other women in projects of mutual interest and benefit. Lisa was adamant about wanting to empower her daughters with greater choices than she had herself. Ahi, Bua, Song, and Fong, like Nancy, Terry and Loy had crafted strong relationships with other students and the teacher, which provided mutual support with difficulties or in making changes in their lives. Social networks acquired through the DNFE sewing program led to jobs, sewing projects, emotional and sometimes financial support. Nancy and Terry, like Ahi and Bua, were very close. Nancy arranged the visit to Terry’s home for the interview and explained a great deal about her background, helping with questions and putting Terry at ease. Terry helped Nancy by encouraging her to stay in the sewing program and gave her advice in several areas. These contacts also provided income generating opportunities as well as informal or formal networks providing information, contacts and development at personal, family, and community levels. Nancy said that she . .could not just learn from theory and patterns — that she needed to learn by doing and trying. She had changed, become calmer than her previously hot temper had allowed her to be. “ 384 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3) Economic Dimension of Empowerment Women participants all hoped to escape from poverty to improve their lives and their families. The low cost of the DNFE courses, the availability of free time and transportation for participants, and perhaps most importantly the prospects of earning money after learning sewing all were important factors for women to participate. They used sewing skills or their education to start their own business, get full time jobs or join with others for financial support. Sewing program graduates mentioned the desire for economic security and/or independence as a powerful force for change in their lives. Participants made the connection between making money and/or saving household funds on clothes as an important reason to learn sewing, a) Economic Security: DNFE participants said making money from their sewing skills improved their situations. Some women reported increased self-confidence in adding to the household budget. Other women mentioned that they spoke up more about household affairs. Nancy’s thoughtful perspective on how Wanpen motivated her helped her see how she herself had changed in the year she had been studying sewing. Nancy said “I changed a lot.. .now I am part o f a restaurant partnership with my friend.. .that is not how 1 used to be.. .1 work there full time., and it is hard to wake up for sewing class.” Her labor constitutes part of her investment and she uses her income 385 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from sewing to reinvest in the business. Nu plans to“... live with my parents and w ork.. .1 can save enough money to buy my own house. I will live there with my husband after we are married.” Pia felt she played an important role at DEPDC by “ . ..helping DEPDC get money from my woven cloth and products for sale I do not like to go outside of campus.” .. .1 don’t need to worry about jobs and employers here.” Loy, a graduate, said “yes, I feel different after nine months studying... it was hard for me to come back at first.. .1 return for visits and students ask me for advice.” At first she thought that it was veiy difficult, but later it became easier. In describing her feelings after graduating, Loy said she was proud to have her own sewing business now. She is making cotton cloth to sell for the “One product. One village” national plan promoted by the Prime Minister. She is making cotton bags and is working on a unique logo (the interpreter had a very similar bag from a different village product). This business now employs several people, the ladies in her community work with her on this project. They are in charge of the logo design and painting activity. She says she got the idea for her business from a visit she made to see people selling things at booths for the “One village, One product” national plan. She knew that few villages bothered to write proposals for this fund. She says that her previous sales experience combined with the sewing skills helped her open her own shop. She came back to her village and wrote up a proposal, that Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was accepted . Loy thinks this is a good project because it is 100% local and it impressed her municipality as well. Lisa made enough money from her sewing and laundry business to open her own bank account. She said her life has changed a great deal after she completed the sewing certificate. She can now protect her income from her husband and ensure funds for household and childcare expenses. Lisa said this will help her make sure her daughter completes school. Nina plans to work in a sewing shop after she gains legal working status. Mia said “my new skill in sewing makes me hope that I can work and not worry about my health.. .now I have a chance to start my own business.” Tina runs her own sewing business which shared space with her rental book shop and she marketed a jacket to a sewing customer very professionally, later measuring them while we observed. Many women work full time in clothing factories or handicraft centers, and have more input into family decisions than before, b) Group Collaboration: Members who have experienced the regular batik designing and making sessions at SEPOM remarked that they got more ideas about generating income. Nan said she wanted to learn additional ways to earn money. Most core group members have joined SEPOM's micro credit project. In line with SEPOM's goals of achieving critical consciousness and challenging 387 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. community perceptions, the micro credit initiative has been an attempt to help members achieve economic independence. Members and supporters have pooled their contributions in a general fund. Amounts from this fund may be borrowed and repaid by members. As it enters its fourth year, SEPOM aims to combine simultaneously the pursuit of the early goals of healing and networking with economic independence and critical action. It has begun to accomplish this via sponsored field trips of members to local and national meetings where members hear testimonials by female activists, exchange stories, and present their own experiences o f trafficking. Core group members have made efforts to challenge the discrimination against Thai women and the widespread perception in Thai society of women as subordinate beings without a right to their own personal aspirations. Economic independence is a concrete vehicle for women’s empowerment and NFE helps them move towards that goal in many different ways. 4) Political Dimension of Empowerment: Participants experienced the beginnings of political empowerment as they learned about critical consciousness from role models, tried on new identities and roles, and grew in understanding of power itself. 388 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a) Role Models Graduates of DEPDC who work as teachers and staff embody the attributes of self- confidence and personal agency for the students. These staff members manage DEPDC’s operations and train older students in practical office and management skills. They add to NGO organizational stability because of their personal understanding of the dynamics and needs of participants, which is knowledge unavailable to staff without that experience. The DEPDC team takes purposeful and motivated action towards empowerment by encouraging students, teachers and staff to exercise power through enabling others (especially new and younger students) to make informed decisions and participate actively. Students are given more responsibility and more opportunities to lead as they mature, becoming peer advisors, assistant trainers, and office workers. DEPDC graduates and older students also provide realistic examples of personal growth that are within the grasp of students. DEPDC’s goal is to involve the students themselves in self protection through teaching them their vulnerabilities, training them in practical strategies to avoid traffickers, and inspiring them to go beyond protection to working towards a transformative vision of a stable personal, community and national future where they are not exploited. The example of power sharing through an alumni-staff-student network is a powerful symbol of the 389 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. alternative structure for living offered by DEPDC. Nan says “I am happy I do not have to work as a laborer like my parents have.. .1 want to get married, but my children, especially my daughter, will learn from me to complete school and be more independent.. .1 like to motivate girls in my neighborhood to finish high school and stay away from traffickers and drug dealers.” As students participate in NGO control, decision making and newcomer orientation, they learn how to respond to the arguments of those who would victimize them by using their family poverty or negative self-image to lure them into exploitation as a commodity. Paula served as the first role model for SEPOM core group members. Later, core group members become role models after acquiring experience in several aspects of managing the NGO and receiving training. These women consistently participate in weekly meetings and function as respected facilitators and social guides with a deep understanding o f members, since they come from similar villages and educational constraints as the other members. Their personal dedication has then served as a means of increased personal self-esteem as they have become respected facilitators within the group. SEPOM has linked many complementary aspects of learning and reinforcement that include most importantly a dedicated space for learning, validation of women’s experiences, critical knowledge and tools to contest their subordination. These latter tools include narrative creation and sharing, participation in learning activities that improve their 390 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. economic and psychological well-being and the opportunity to engage in coalitions seeking to improve the social and political status of marginalized women. The intertwined nature of empowerment in this context rewards women who become involved. Paula and Su evolved to become internal monitors of the growing awareness and shifts in consciousness and behaviors of other members, enabling them to take larger roles in the NGO and to participate in new projects. When SEPOM members get together and talk about ideas for projects, it is clear that they believe themselves to be capable o f managing the NGO and its growing activities. Through their shifting family relationships and growing economic and emotional independence, it is clear that they are empowered as members of a closely knit network that has joined other NGOs and networks to improve the situation of women. SEPOM's approach addresses the need for healing of survivors of trafficking, validates their experiences and assists them to make meaning o f those experiences through narrative and supporting others. In basing the learning process on peer to peer communication, SEPOM facilitates the enacting o f personal agency, in dialog and group form. The psychological climate is crucial in creating an atmosphere of acceptance that builds trust. As members trust each other, they open up about their experiences and learn to re-create themselves in a nurturing environment of new intimate relationships. Many survivors then take an additional step and move explicitly to work with the NGO and reach out to returnees. The 391 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. process of constructing personal narratives to educate others about their experience, coupled with NGO management and project monitoring skills gained working as staff members, actualize member's empowerment, b) Power The nature of the empowerment process in SEPOM cuts through layers of subordinating discourse by facilitating self-directed and self-controlled disclosure generated by core group members' own choices of whether or not to share their experiences and to participate in SEPOM activities. Many SEPOM members also participate in a local DNFE general education program, which allows them to make up missed primary and secondary school credits and eventually graduate from high school with a high school equivalency certificate. Power as a phenomenon in the DEPDC structure is experienced by students in a shared and collective form. This is demonstrated by the management structure. Dr. Sompop, the founder, delegates much of the day to day NGO operations and management to a resident team composed of staff, volunteers, graduates and students. This team promotes student knowledge of the reasons for their poverty and marginalization and activating this knowledge through demonstrating ways to resist exploitation. Through promotion of DEPDC graduates as workers and through a network of DEPDC alumni and supporters, the organization accomplishes several 392 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. benefits: students are empowered through recognition of their abilities as workers who contribute to the NGO’s well being; through generating their own income; through being able to contribute to their families; and by their unique placement straddling the gap between students and staff allows them to uniquely contribute to the nurturance of students’ empowerment. C) Recommendations Although non-formal education cannot influence the macro level structural forces of vulnerability leading to gender discrimination, the cultural and religious subordination of women, or the economic dislocation of less skilled workers pulling them -- especially women — into a worldwide diaspora, it does have a positive impact upon female participants. This occurs primarily through the influence of NFE upon the micro level factors causing vulnerability. As shown in the previous analysis, vocational training as well as knowledge and skill acquisition are concrete responses to women’s lack of self-confidence, negative self-image, lack of alternative income generating skills and lack of education and, consequently, social capital. The three NFE sites in this study meet, and in some cases, surpass, the expectations of their participants. Overall, they have achieved impressive results. However, these programs do not take full advantage o f their role or proximity to women and their communities and therefore do not impact upon the vulnerability of women to their fullest potential. 393 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. These three programs change individual lives in valuable and profound ways. DNFE graduates improved their personal and family situations through income generated from sewing skills. Critical consciousness changes in DEPDC students were a culmination of their knowledge about social and economic inequities and their practical experience in being mentored as well as mentoring other students. Students gained self-confidence from the experience at school and campus and from presenting information about exploitation in public venues. SEPOM members learned to see themselves differently through the eyes of other survivors of trafficking, which gave them new self-confidence. This enabled them to take their stories of abuse and humiliation out of hiding which strengthened their psychological well-being. As a result of my research into the impact of non-formal education upon female participants in three programs, I have come to the conclusion that NFE has accomplished a great deal. As a remedy for women and girls who have been marginalized out of the economic and social mainstream, NFE provides group membership, informal and formal social and vocational support and economically useful skills. NFE cannot, however, change the trajectory of economic and social inequity which underlies the poverty, illiteracy and lack of social capital of a large percentage of the population, 394 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. particularly female. Table 7-5 below outlines some potential collaborations and directions for the future which take into account the macro scale of marginalization of women. Table 7-5: NFE Accomplishments and Recommendations Accomplishments Recommendations DNFE, DEPDC, SEPOM participants create strong network assisting self actualization, providing ongoing support. Long term network survival is problematic. DNFE vocational skills contribute to economic well-being and security of participants, but avoid involvement in other participant problems. Link DNFE with NGOs to expand mission to address gaps in cognitive and psychological empowerment. Provide funding for participant driven initiatives which complement empowerment outcomes such as network strengthening. SEPOM, DEPDC group affiliation provides basis for psychological healing, ongoing learning. Links with similar programs and reintegrated alumni weak. NFE programs and client groups to prepare and plan post-NFE follow-up meetings to strengthen alumni networks. DNFE introduce their stakeholders to each other in preparation for social and legal literacy, civil rights training in home communities of participants Government and NGO stakeholders cooperate to generate report on DEPDC model and effectiveness. Recommendations not fully implemented. Use report results as basis of future integration between DNFE and NGOs for training and supporting marginalized adults in all areas of empowerment. DNFE has national coverage and stable budget, but agenda and input from non government stakeholders is limited. Graft NGO NFE programs and missing dimensions of learning and empowerment onto a stable funding base with shared power between government staff and participants. Education is a key to the elimination of forced labor and exploitation and the Thai Ministry of Education, through its arm, the DNFE has the potential to reach vulnerable populations nationwide. The articulation of a more flexible policy approach linking positive change with NGO-DNFE cooperation can take advantage of creative approaches from the NGOs’ social web with the large scale reach ability of the DNFE. In particular, the phenomenon of strong peer relationships and group affiliation to some degree in every program provides an opportunity for deepening bonds between NFE participants 395 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and graduates to effect more significant personal transformation. Further, group affiliation based on affinity and shared experience creates the potential for community and local intervention at minimum in the form of educational outreach and furthering vocational and psychological awareness in the home communities of participants. A more ambitious step would be to have graduates join forces with teachers, facilitators and role models to promote the civil and women’s rights agenda in culturally appropriate ways. SEPOM already takes advantage of its NGO and academic network to educate members and could take the lead in bringing experts and activists into its community for educational purposes culminating in grassroots activism by members and supporters. The Ministry of Education is preparing an in-depth evaluation of the DEPDC type efforts and preparing a report on preventing children entering prostitution through vocational education for several stakeholders including local government, the IPEC Operational Center to Assist Women and Child Labor and input from DEPDC. DEPDC is part o f provincial and national efforts to research and perpetuate its mission on a wider scale. These reports could be used to generate publicity, support, funding, and leverage to influence other social service agencies and NGO agendas. In this way, NFE programs can cooperate together to impact participants’ lives in more than one dimension of empowerment. 396 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Ministry of Education’s post-reform budget stability means that NFE programs will continue their national reach. However, the DNFE’s weakness in focusing educational delivery almost exclusively on the human capital model leaves a gap in which other participants’ needs are not addressed. A study of micro-finance programs identified three contrasting approaches to women’s empowerment: financial sustainability approach, integrated community development approach and the feminist empowerment approach (Mayoux, 1998). The first two approaches assume that women can increase their income and improve their situation without domestic or community conflict or strategies for redistribution of resources. This study has shown that many poor women grow up in subordinating situations, which make it unlikely that improvements in women’s economic or psychological positions will change societal and economic forces marginalizing women. In addition, continuing social pressure upon women to enter the commercial sex industry, sweatshops or other exploitative labor make it unlikely that non-formal educational interventions will effect long-lasting change in poor women’s situations without appropriate reinforcements, such as domestic, community and political redistribution of power and resources. Linda Mayoux describes the limitations of microfinance and empowerment programs in terms o f women’s personal and political needs and calls for “ ...more explicit measures to address 397 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gender subordination both at the enterprise and household levels” (1998). In Mayoux’s (1998) analysis of women’s empowerment through the four categories of power necessary for development, she offers a checklist against which educational and other interventions can be measured. The checklist is summarized on the next page: • Power within or increased will for change for individual women, • Power to or increased capacity for change in individual women, • Power over or reduction in obstacles to change at household and community level, • Power with or increased solidarity with other women for change at household, community and macro-levels. Cooperation between government NFE and NGO NFE is a way to close the power gap with existing resources. Funding is a continuing problem for NGOs in Thailand and worldwide, impairing organizational sustainability. In Thailand, in particular, the hostile political environment has crippled many NGOs and restricted their ability to function, despite their efficacy in working with many marginalized groups. A linkage between government and NGO NFE programs would create greater stability for government programs by ensuring that disaffected populations are not left out and that the causes of marginalization - the lack of social and cultural capital, as well as gender inequities — are not ignored. 398 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. D) Final Remarks The failure of the educational and social system in Thailand and certain less developed neighboring countries to reach and serve poor women and young adults is one of the most important reasons that traffickers are successful. DEPDC’s experience shows that in addition to improvements in the gendered distribution of wealth, resources and education, special measures are also necessary for women who are more difficult to reach and exposed to a high risk of exploitation. These special measures must push down the barriers that currently exist between government and non-government programs to better serve marginalized citizens. Thailand’s highly centralized bureaucracy and educational system makes it imperative that the government partner with others to address the factors pushing and pulling women to migrate domestically and internationally. Although the diaspora of Thai workers is not limited to women, trafficking victims are an important element in the worldwide feminization of migration. The government must lead the way in providing job skills and creating disincentives for traffickers by working in concert with other nations to counteract the negative forces of globalization, unbridled capitalism, top-down development approaches and patriarchy that underlie the structure and discourse of female oppression. 399 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The limitations placed upon learning, teaching, and organizational responsibility result in increasingly narrow specialization by service providers. One result is NFE programs that focus on one skill or one area. Some programs only teach vocational skills, others only teach civil rights, others, health care. NFE programs in this study tended to address only one dimension of empowerment. Instead of confining resources to one area, NFE should be a venue where poverty alleviation, health care, vocational training, and civil rights are addressed in complementary ways. Women coming for one set of needs could discover a variety of resources and support for personal and professional growth. NFE programs could become centers for human development and engines for civil society. As input into NFE becomes richer, missing dimensions in empowerment can be addressed in an holistic fashion. Even as stakeholders at the national and international level must cooperate to engender positive change, so must individuals make and exploit opportunities for change at the grassroots. Development agencies, national governments, academic researchers and practitioners in non- formal education have a responsibility to assist marginalized participants to value themselves and provide the tools for more equitable educational and development policies. It is incumbent on stakeholders possessing the majority of power to open their personal, social, and professional networks to make learning opportunities available to ever growing numbers of people and to 400 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. structure that learning in ways that contribute to personal, community, and global political change. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. REFERENCES Acker, J., Barry, K. and Esseveld, J. (1991). Objectivity and Truth: Problems in Doing Feminist Research, in Fonow, Mary Margaret & Cook, Judith A. (Eds). (1991). Beyond methodology: feminist scholarship as lived research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Acker, Sandra (1994). Gendered Education: Sociological Reflections on Women, Teaching and Feminism. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Addelson, K.P. (1991). The Man of Professional Wisdom, in Fonow, Mary Margaret & Cook, Judith A. (Eds), Beyond methodology: feminist scholarship as lived research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. American Association of University Women (AAUW). 1992. How Schools Shortchange Girls. Washington, D.C.: AAUW and Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. Anderson, H. (1997). Conversation, Language, and Possibilities: A Post-Modern Approach to Therapy. New York: Harper Collins. Appleyard, Reginald. (1999). Migration and Development. Prepared jointly by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Arizpe, Lourdes. (1982). The rural exodus in Mexico and Mexican migration to the United States. In Border That Joins (pp. 162-183). Edited by Peter G. Brown and Henry Shue. Rowman & Littlefield. Arizpe, Lourdes. (1981). Relay migration and the survival of the peasant household. In Why People Move: Comparative Perspectives on the Dynamics of Internal Migration (pp. 10- 18). edited by Jorge Balan. Paris: UNESCO Press. Arnold, Fred and Shah, Nasra M. (1984). Asian labour migration of the Middle East. Working paper no. 32, Honolulu: East West Population Institute. Axford, Dr. Roger W. (1980). Adult Education: The Open Door to Lifelong Learning. 402 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Indiana, PA: The A.G. Halldin Publishing Company. Baker, Victoria J. (1989). Lessons from black-thicket jungle: what is feasible in village schools of disadvantaged areas? International Review of Education, 35 145-58. Bandura, A. (1971). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press. Bandura, Albert. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Bandura, Albert (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117-148. Bahn Ruam Jai Highland Development Project. (2001). Organizational Website, Statement o f organizational objectives and description of empowerment program for hill-tribe women. Barua, Bijoy Prasad. (1999). Non-formal Education and Grassroots Development: A Case Study from Rural Bangladesh. Dissertation. Concordia University (Canada). Beneria, L. and Roldan, M. (1987). The Crossroads of Class and Gender. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. In Stromquist, N. P. (1997). Literacy for Citizenship: Gender and Grassroots Dynamics in Brazil. Albany: State University of New York Press. Bhola, H.S. (1998). World Trends and Issues in Adult Education on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century. International Review of Education. 44:5-485-506. Blanc-Szanton, M.C. (1990). Gender and inter-generational resource allocation among Thai and Sino-Thai households. In L. Dube (ed.) Structures and strategies: women, work and family. New Delhi: Sage. In Lim, L. L. (1998). The Sex Sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva: International Labor Office. 403 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bock, John C. (1982). Education and development: a conflict of meaning. In Comparative Education. Edited by P. Altbach, R. Armoe, and G. Kelly. New York: Macmillan. Bock, J. C. and Papagiannis, G. J. (1983). Nonformal Education and National Development: A Critical Assessment of Policy, Research and Practice. New York: Praeger Publishers. Bruce, F. (1996). Children and Prostitution: Don’t give up on me. Geneva: International Catholic Church, in Lim, L. L. (1998). The Sex Sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva: International Labor Office. Bourdieu, Pierre. Richard Nice, Translator. (1998). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bruner, J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bruner, J. (1986). Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bunnag, Tej. (1969). From monastery to university: a survey of Thai education from 1824 to 1921. In Education in Thailand: A Century of Experience. Kingdom of Thailand: Department of Elementary and Adult Education. Carlson, Dennis and Apple, Michael W. (1998). Power/Knowledge/Pedagogy: The Meaning o f Democratic Education in Unsettling Times. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Caouette, T. (1998). Needs Assessment on Cross-border trafficking in Women and Children-the Mekong Sub-region. Prepared for the UN Working Group on Trafficking in the Mekong Sub-region. Bangkok: UN Working Group. Caouette, T.& Y. Saito (1999) To Japan and Back: Thai Women Recount Their Experiences. Geneva: International Organization for Migration. 404 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cohen, Roberta and Deng, Francis M. (1998). The Forsaken People: Case Studies of the Internally Displaced. Washington DC: Brookings Institutions Press. Connell, R. W. (1985) Teachers’ work. London: George Allen and Unwin. Coombs, Philip H. and Manzoor Ahmed. (1974). Attacking Rural Poverty: How Nonformal Education Can Help. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Davies, L. (1983). Gender, resistance and power. In Stephen Walker and Len Barton (Eds.) (1983) Gender class and education. Lewes, Sussex: The Falmer Press. DeJene, A. (1980). A Broader Concept of Development and the Role of Non-formal Education: An analysis of Three Rural Development Projects. Dissertation. Cornell University. Demery, Lionel. (1983). Asian labour migration to the Middle East: An empirical Assessment. Paper prepared for Conference on Asian Labour Migration to the Middle East. Honolulu: September 19-23, 1983. Denzin, Norman K. (1988). Triangulation. In John P. Keeves, Education Research, Methodology and Measurement: An International Handbook. New York: Pergammon Press. Denzin, Norman K. (1989). Interpretive Biography. Qualitative Research Methods Series, No. 17. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Press. Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln, Yvonna. (Editors) (2000). The Seventh movement: Out of the past. Handbook of Qualitative Research (Chapter 41). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press. Duongsaa, Usa (1986). Adult Education and Community Context: An Ethnographic Case Study of the Implementation of a Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning Program in a Selected Rural Village in Northeastern Thailand. Dissertation, Florida State University College of Education. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Denzin, Norman K. & Lincoln, Yvonna S. (Eds.) (1998). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Denzin, Norman K. & Lincoln, Yvonna S. (Eds.) (2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Department o f Non-Formal Education (DNFE). (2000). Community Learning Center, Kingdom of Thailand: Ministry of Education. Ellis, G , C.E. Kiesinger, and L. Tillmann-Healy (1997). Interactive interviewing: talking about emotional experience. In R. Hertz (ed.), Reflexivity and Voice (pp. 119-149), Thousand Oaks: Sage. Esteva, Gustavo. (1992). Development. In Wolfgang Sachs (ed.). The Development Dictionary (pp. 7-23). London: Zed Books. Federici, N. (1989). Causes of international migration. In Reginald Appleyard (ed.) Thelmpact of International Migration on Developing Countries. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Foley, Griff. (1999). Learning in Social Action: A Contribution to Understanding Informal Education. London: Zed Books. Fonow, Mary Margaret & Cook, Judith A. (Eds). (1991). Beyond methodology: feminist scholarship as lived research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Fordham, P. E. (1993) Informal, non-formal and formal education programmes. In YMCA George Williams College ICE301 Lifelong Learning Unit 2. London: YMCA George Williams College. Foundation For Women (FFW). Translator Supapom Ariyasajseesakul. (1991). Women Development as viewed by the Grassroots Group of Women. Voices of Thai Women, Issue 5, p. 7-10. 406 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Foundation For Women (FFW). (1995). Once in My Life, Our Lives, Our Stories. Voices of Thai Women, Issue 5, p. 12-42. Fox, Greer Litton (1977). Nice Girl: Social Control of Women through a Value Construct. Signs 2:805-17. Freire, Paulo. (1993). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New Revised 20th Anniversary Edition. New York: Continuum. Frow, John and Morris, Meaghan. (2000). Cultural studies. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 315-335). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fry, Gerald. (1983). Empirical indicators of educational equity and equality: a Thai Case Study. In Social Indicators Research 12 (pp. 199-215). Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Co. Fuentes, Sylvia. (1998). La Pisca, La Familia, y Las Schools: Personal Narratives of Tejana Women in the Midwest and the Nature of Adult Education. Dissertation. Northern Illinois University. Gecas, V. (1989). The social psychology of self-efficacy. Annual Review of Sociology, 15, 291- 316. Genzuk, Michael. (2001). A Synthesis of Qualitative Research. Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research, University of Southern California. Website: www-rcf.usc.edu/~genzuk/Qualitative_Research.html George, Pamela (1987). University Teaching Across Cultures: Lessons from U.S. Fulbrighters in Southeast Asia and Their Colleagues in Thailand. Bangkok: United States Information Service. German Adult Education Association. (1989). Adult Education in Thailand. Adult Education and Development. No. 33. Bonn: Department for International Cooperation. 407 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Getzels, Jacob. (1956). Learning theory and classroom practice in adult education. Report of a Conference on Instruction. Syracuse University, May 1956, pp. 7-8. Gibson, Margaret A. & John Ogbu. (eds.) (1991). Minority Status and Schooling: A Comparative Study of Immigrant and Involuntary Minorities, New York: Garland. Giroux, Henry A. (1992). The hope of radical education. In What Schools Can Do: Critical Pedagogy and Practice. Albany: State University of New York Press. Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW). (1996). Handbook for Human Rights Action: In the context of traffic in women. Bangkok: GAATW. Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW). (1999). Human Rights in Practice: A Guide to Assist Trafficked Women and Children. Bangkok: GAATW. Gubrium, Jaber F. and Holstein, James A. (2000). Analyzing Interpretive Practice. Chapter 18 in Denzin, Norman K. & Lincoln, Yvonna S. (Eds.) (2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Hammersley, M. (1990). Reading Qualitative Research: A Critical Guide. London: Longman.Hartmann, Heidi (1976). Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation. Signs 1:137-169. Heald, Susan. (2002). Reinventing the Wheel, or: Just Wondering Why We're Saying All This Again. Ivory Towers, Feminist Issues: Selected Papers from the WIN Symposia, 2000 - 2001. Ottawa: Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada. Hesse-Biber, Sharlene, Gilmartin, Christina & Lydenberg, Robin (Eds.) (1999). Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology: An Interdisciplinary Reader. New York: Oxford University Press. hooks, bell (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge. 408 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Harbison, Sandra F. (1981). Family structure and family strategy in migration decision making. In Migration Decision Making: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Microlevel Studies in Developed and Developing Countries (pp. 225-251). Edited by Gordon F. de Jong and Robert W. Gardner. Pergamon Press. Hill Area and Community Development Foundation. (2001). Organizational website, Statement of organizational objectives. Huguet, J.W. (1989). International labour migration from the ESCAP region. In Reginald Appleyard (ed.) The Impact of International Migration on Developing Countries. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Husserl, E. (1970). Logical Investigation. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press. Isaac, Stephen & Michael, William B. (1995). Handbook in Research and Evaluation. Third Edition. San Diego: EdiTS. Janesick, V. J. (1994). The dance of qualitative research design: metaphor, methodology, and meaning. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (Chap. 12). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Johnson, R. (1994). Where’s the power in empowerment? Definition, differences, and dilemmas of empowerment in Ihe context of work-family boundary management. Dissertation, Harvard University, Boston. Jorgenson, Danny L. (1989). Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies. Applied Social Science Research Methods Series. Vol. 15. Newbury Park: Sage. Kanics, J. (1998) Trafficking in Women. Foreign Policy In Focus Briefs.3:10 www.foreignpolicy-inforcus.org/briefs/vol3/v3n30wom_body.html Kane, Hal. (1995). The Hour of Departure: Forces that Create Refugees and Migrants. Washington DC: WorldWatch. 409 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Kanaiaupuni, Shawn Malia. (2000). Social Forces. Vol. 78 no. 4 (June) pp. 1311-47. Klausner, William J. (1993). Reflections on Thai Culture. Bangkok: Amarin Printing Group. Kanjana, K., Sewatamara, A. and Vichitpom, S. (1991). Community Existence: Struggling And Development Process of Chomthong District, Chiangmai. Chiang Mai: Catholic Council of Thailand for Development and CEBEMO of The Netherlands. Kessler, S., Ashenden, R., Connell, R. and Dowsett, G. Gender relations in secondary schooling. Sociology of Education. 58:1-34. Kincheloe, Joe L. and Peter McLaren (2000). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (Chap. 18).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Klausner, W.J. (1993). Reflections on Thai Culture. Bangkok: Amarin Printing Group. Knowles, M. S. (1980). The Modem Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy. 2n d Ed. Wilton, Conn: Association Press. LaBelle, T. J. (1986). Nonformal Education in Latin America and the Caribbean: Stability, Reform, or Revolution? New York: Praeger Publishers. Lather, P. & C. Smithies (1997). Troubling the Angels: Women Living with HIV/AIDS. Boulder, CO: Westview. Leonard, Nancy H., Beauvais, Laura L. & Scholl, Richard W. (1999). Work motivation: The incorporation of self-concept-based processes. Human Relations 52:8, pp. 969-98. New York 410 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Le, Ngoan. (1993). The case of the Southeast Asian refugees: Policy for a community at-risk. In The State of Asian Pacific America: Policy Issues to the Year 2020, ed., Leadership Education for Asian Pacifies (LEAP), Los Angeles, CA: LEAP and UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Lim, L. L. (1998). The Sex Sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva: International Labor Office. Lind, Agneta and Anton Johnson. (1990. Adult Literacy in the Third World. A Review of Objectives and Strategies. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). Lofland, J. Lofland, L.H. (1995). Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis^ Third Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Longwe, S.H. (1999). Monitoring and Evaluating Women’s Educational Programmes: Concepts and Methodological Issues. In Medal-Anoneuvo, C. (Ed.) Breaking Through: Engendering Monitoring and Evaluation in Adult Education. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education. Lovett, Tom and Libby Mackay. (1976). Adult education and the working class: a case Study. The Urban Review. 9 (3) 193-200. Maguire, P. (1984). Theoretical Basis for Women in Development. In Women in Development: An Alternative Analysis. Amherst, MA: Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts. Massey, Douglas. (1987). Understanding Mexican migration to the United States. American Journal of Sociology 92: 1372-1403. Massey, Douglas, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand, and Hector Gonzalez. (1987). Return To Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico. University of California Press. 411 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Massey, Douglas. (1990). The social and economic origins of immigration. Annals of the American Academy of Political Science 510: 60-71. Mayo, Peter (1999). Gramsci, Freire & Adult Education: Possibilities for Transformative Action. Global perspectives on adult education and training series. London: Zed Books. Mayoux, Linda. (1998). Research Round-Up Women’s Empowerment and micro-finance programmes: strategies for increasing impact”. Development in Practice, May, Vol.8:4. Oxford: Oxfam UK and Ireland. McKinley, Brunson, Laczko, Frank and Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels. (2001) Challenges for the 21st century. Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy. Knoxville: 16 (2) 68-74. Meesok, A. and Bennett, Nicholas. (1973). Cultures in collision: an experience of Thailand. Paper presented to the 25th anniversary World mental Health Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health, Sydney, Australia. October 8-12, 1973. Meissner, Doris, Hormats, Robert, Ogata, Shijuro. (1993). International Migration Challenges in A New Era. New York: The Trilateral Commission. Mekong Region Law Center (MRLC) and National Commission on Women's Affairs O f Thailand (NCWAT). (1997) Trafficking in Women and Children. Proceedings of the Regional Conference, Bangkok: SEAFILD/CIDA and UNICEF. Merriam, S.B. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers. Merriam, Sharan B. And Rosemary S. Caffarella. (1991). Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 412 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mies, Maria. (1983). Towards a Methodology of Feminist Research. In Gloria Bowles and Renate Duelli Klein (Eds.) Theories of Women’s Studies. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Miller, W. L. and Crabtree, B. F. (1998) in Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln, Yvonna. (Editors) Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry (Chapter 11). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press. Ministry of Education, Thailand. (2000). Thai Education in Brief: Its Past, Present and Future. Bangkok: Ministry of Education. Muntarbhom, V. (1997). The Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Sub- region: Law and policy as effective countermeasures? Paper presented at the Regional Conference on Illegal Labor Movements: The case of trafficking in women and children. Bangkok: Mekong Regional Law Center. Nielsen, J. M. (Editor.) (1990). Feminist Research Methods: Exemplary Readings in the Social Sciences. San Francisco: Westview Press. Office of the National Education Commission. (1999). National Education Act o f 1999. Kingdom of Thailand: Office of the Prime Minister. Office of the National Commission on Women's Affairs. (1999). Memorandum of Understanding on Common Guidelines of Practices For Agencies Concerned With Cases Where Women and Children Are Victims of Human Trafficking. Office of the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister. Bangkok: ONCWA. Office of the National Education Commission, Office of the Prime Minister. (1997). Education in Thailand 1997. Bangkok: Seven Printing Group. Ogbu, John U. (1982). Cultural discontinuities and schooling. In Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 12 (4): 290-307. 413 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ogbu, John U. and Herbert D. Simons (1998). Voluntary and involuntary minorities: a cultural-ecological theory of school performance with some implications for education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 29(2): 155-188. Olesen, Virginia L. (2000). Feminisms and qualitative research at and into the millennium. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, Handbook of Qualitative Research (2n d ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press. Papagiannis, G.J., S.J. Klees, and R.N. Bickel (1982). Toward a political economy of educational innovation. Review of Educational Research. 52(2) 245-290. Picon, Cesar. (1991). Adult education and popular education in the context of the State and NGOs. Convergence. XXIV (1 and 2). Piore, Michael J. (1979). Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor and Industrial Societies. Cambridge University Press. Piotrow and others. (1997), Health Communication Lessons from Family Planning And Reproductive Health. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. Popkewitz, T. (1984). Paradigm and Ideology in Educational Research. New York: Falmer. Prochaska, J.O. & DiClemente, C.C. (1982) Transtheoretical therapy: Toward a more integrative model of change. Pscychotherapy: theory, research and practice, 19: 276-288. Polkinghome, D. E. (1991). Qualitative procedures for counseling research. In C.E. Watkins & L.J. Schneider. (Eds.) Research in Counseling. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Raymond, J.G. and Hughes, D.M. (2001) Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States: International and Domestic Trends. Project paper online. Los Angeles: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. 414 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reinharz, S. (1992). Feminist Methods in Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press. Roby Kidd, J. (1975). How Adults Learn. New York: Association Press. Rogers, Carl R. (1969). Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill Books. Rogers, Carl R. & H.J. Freiberg. (1994). Freedom to Learn (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill/Macmillan. Roongshivin, Peerathep. (1985). Survey of the situation of Thai returned migrant Workers for development of a re-integration policy for the sixth five-year plan, 1987-1991: A case study of Khon Kaen. Paper presented at the Policy Workshop on International Migration in Asian and the Pacific, Bangkok: October 15-21, 1985. . Rossman, G.B. & Rallis, S.F. (1998). Learning in the field: an introduction to qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Sacks, Rachel. (1997) Commercial sex and the single girl: women’s empowerment through economic development in Thailand. Development in Practice, November, Vol. 7:4. Oxford: Oxfam UK and Ireland. School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). (2001). Protection Project Online Database. Johns Hopkins University. www.sais-ihu.edu/protectionproiect/index.html Schutz, A. (1970). On phenomenology and social relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sen, Amartya (2000). Population and Gender Equity. The Nation (July 24/31): 16-18. Sen, Gita and Caren Grown (eds.) (1987). Alternative visions, strategies and methods, In Development Crisis and Alternative Vision: Third World Women’s Perspectives. London: Earthscan 415 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Skrobanek, S., Boonpakdi, N. and C. Janthakeero. (1997). The Traffic in Women: Human Realities of the International Sex Trade. New York: Zed Books. Spradley, J. (1979). The Qualitative Interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Spradley, J. (1980). Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Spreitzer, G. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy o f Management Journal, 38(5), 1442- 1465. Spreitzer, G. (1996). Social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 39(2), 483-504. Stake, Robert E. (2000). Case studies. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (Chap. 40). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Stewart, A. and Winter, D. (1977). The Nature and Causes of Female Suppression. Signs. Vol. 2. 3:531-53. In Stromquist, Nelly. (1998). Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues. New York: Garland Publishing. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. London: Sage Stromquist, N. P. (1990). Women and illiteracy: the interplay of gender subordination and poverty. Comparative Education Review. 34 (1) 95-117. Stromquist, N. P. (1993). The theoretical and practical bases for empowerment, In Carolyn Medel-Anunuevo (ed.), Women, Education and Empowerment. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education. 416 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Stromquist, N.P. (1994) Education for the Empowerment of Women: Two Latin American Experiences. In D ’Oyley, V. et al. In Education and Development: Lessons from the Third World. Calgary, Canada: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. Stromquist, N.P. (1995) Romancing the State: Gender and Power in Education. Comparative Education Review. 39:4 Stromquist, N. P. (1997). Literacy for Citizenship: Gender and Grassroots Dynamics in Brazil. Albany: State University of New York Press. Stromquist, N.P. (1998). (Ed.) Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues. New York: Garland Publishing. Stromquist, N.P. and Monkman, K. (Eds) (2000). Globalization and Education: Integration and Contestation Across Cultures. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. Stromquist, Nelly. (2000). Contributions and Challenges of Feminist Theory to Comparative Education Research and Methodology. In Discourse Formation in Comparative Education. Editor Jurgen Schriewer. Europaischer Verlag der Wissenschafiten: Peter Lang. Stromquist, Nelly. (2000). On truth, voice and qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education. 13:2 (139-152). Summerfield, G. and Aslanbeigui, N. (1998). The Impact of Structural Adjustment and Economic Reform on Women. In Stromquist, N.P. (1998). Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues. New York: Garland Thai Department o f Non-Formal Education. (2000). Community Learning Center, Kingdom of Thailand: Ministry of Education. Tharp, Roland G. & Ronald Gallimore. (1988). Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning and Schooling in Social Context. New York: Cambridge University Press. 417 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Directory of Non-Governmental Organizations in Thailand. (2001). Bangkok: Thai Development Support Committee. Torres, Carlos A. (1990). Paradigms of nonformal education. In The Politics of Nonformal Education in Latin America. New York: Praeger. Tunsiri, Vichai (1989). Nonformal education in Thailand: philosophy, concept and practice. In Adult Education and Development: Adult Education in Thailand. Bonn: German Adult Education Association. Tunsarawuth, S. (1996). Thailand’s $44 billion underworld prostitution heads list of lucrative illegal businesses. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Straits Times. In Lim, L. L. (1998). The Sex Sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva: International Labor Office. Unger, R. K. (1981). Sex as a social reality: Field and laboratory research. Psychology of Women Quarterly. 5:645-53. in Fonow, Mary Margaret & Cook, Judith A. (Eds). (1991). Beyond methodology: feminist scholarship as lived research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. United Nations Children’s Fund. (2000). Children in Thailand 1990-2000: Country Report on the Follow up to the World Summit for Children. Bangkok: UNICEF Thailand Office. United Nations Development Program. (1999). Human Development Report of Thailand 1999. Bangkok: United Nations Building. United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (1975). UNESCO Adult Education information notes, 3:4. United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (1995). EFA Monitoring and Follow-Up Information Systems: Thailand. Report of a National Workshop. Bangkok: UNESCO Principal Office for Asia and the Pacific. 418 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (2002). ACCU Regional Literacy Programmes, UNESCO Member States in Asia and the Pacific. Web download: http://www.accu.or.ip/literacv/lpd/index.htm United States Department of State. (1999). Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Thailand. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, February 25, 2000. United States Department of State. (1998). Memorandum for the Secretary of State. The White House Office of the Press Secretary. Online publication March 11. http://secretarv. state. gov/www/picw/trafficking/steps .htm Vorapipatana, Kowit. (1975). The khit pen man, Report no. 8. New York: World Education. Walters, S. (1998). Informal and Nonformal Education. In Stromquist, N.P. (1998). Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia o f Contemporary Issues. New York: Garland Publishing. Weiler, K. (1988). Women Teaching For Change: Gender, Class and Power. Critical Studies in Education Series. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Weiler, K. and Mitchell, C. (Eds.) (1992). What Schools Can Do: Critical Pedagogy and Practice. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Westkott, Marcia (1990). Feminist Criticism of the Social Sciences, in Nielsen, Joyce M. (Editor) (1990) Feminist Research Methods: Exemplary Readings in the Social Sciences. San Francisco: Westview Press. Westmarland, Nicole (2001). The Quantitative/Qualitative Debate and Feminist Research: A Subjective View of Objectivity. Forum: Qualitative Social Research. On-line Journal. February, 2:1. Available at: http://qualitative-research.net/fqs/fas-eng.htm. Accessed” May 14, 2004. 419 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Wijers, M. (1995). Supporting Victims of Trafficking. Paper presented at the International conference on Traffic in Persons. Utrecht/Maastricht. 15-19 Nov. 1994. In Skrobanek, S., Boonpakdi, N. & C. Janthakeero. (1997). The Traffic in Women: Human Realities of the International Sex Trade. New York: Zed Books. Wolpe, A. (1994). Adult Education and Woman’s Needs. CACE Publications. Bellville, South Africa: University of Western Cape. In Stromquist, Nelly. (1998). Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues. New York: Garland Publishing. 420 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX 1: Map of Thailand with research sites Mae Sai DEPDC site Chiang Mai DNFE government site - X Bay of Bengal Chiang Rai -SEPOM site o s > y m F « * > 7 X / \ v Cfflang Mai ? « N M f t R \ u a . - . * pmrnrnm •jj™ 1 X ® * * • K nott W w a e S o t • Ktim t • ^ v / T H A I L A N D , ^ V \ r ' ^ r n 8 > i ^ y \ Ban ! \ 7 < L V * « 4 B » fllw j/ V \ South China Sea VIETl , . • s „ ™ l CAMBOdIA , V rnHOni • ^ Pm h% C —5 G ulf of Thai land J ThtM t JongKttla 0 too 200 K f t i t \ f V ^ a 8afliata,CA1 j j £/**• 421 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX 2 - DEPDC Site 0 E f | M L Laying out a pattern Foot and hand pedaled sewing machines 422 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX 3 : DNFE site Government Non-Formal Education Center (DNFE) DNFE sewing classroom with teacher Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission APPENDIX 4: Sewing Diagram * W J « 'D T i V '"I -0 T r V 'l f l 'S i ' i rY iifc ' J t t V - ' H / U 3 i l . in.'.n 5?ivnnuv3iwBfii-:iiVint<Aiu v r b t- i > v inWlB'ltnUi'l* r i v ♦cfmoM :-) m w m *n v. E n-.vi w u'w non i > i i I I i. TuBfiB - Swtiirenuiimn - .u < i 424 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX 5: SEPOM site SEPQM multi-use room with Laura, Su Sunday meeting 425 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Community learning in environmental NGO projects in Vietnam: A comparative study

PDF

Educating women on sexual health and reproductive rights: A case study of a prevention program in Peru

PDF

Adult urban community college student success: Identifying the factors that predict course completion and goal attainment for students aged 25 years and older

PDF

A typological history of non-heterosexual male college students in the United States, 1945 to the present

PDF

Course -taking patterns of Chinese students native and non -native speakers of English at community college

PDF

Education for change in a changing Nigerian Igbo society: Impacts of traditional African and western education on the upbringing of Igbo children

PDF

China's critical educational access demand and United States higher education distance learning curriculum: An answer?

PDF

Educational development aid and the role of language: A case study of AIT -Danida and the Royal University of Agriculture in Cambodia

PDF

An examination of the contract education program in a multi-college community college district in Southern California: A descriptive and qualitative case study investigation

PDF

Educational reform at the general secondary schools in Armenia

PDF

A daily diary approach to compare the accuracy of depressed and nondepressed participants' estimation of positive and negative mood: A test of the depressive realism hypothesis

PDF

Intra-familial child sexual abuse: The experience and effects on non-offending mothers

PDF

Border crossing: the experience of international students from Latin America in a California community college

PDF

Catholic schools and civic engagement: A case study of community service -learning and its impact on critical consciousness and social capital

PDF

Internationalization of higher education: A case study of a private United States research university

PDF

Course completion and older adult students: The effects of self-efficacy, self -regulation, and motivation

PDF

A qualitative examination of the nature and impact of three California minority engineering programs

PDF

Factors related to the persistence of students seeking the bachelor's degree at 4-year institutions

PDF

Exploring ethnic identity on a university campus: Filipino American students' perspectives

PDF

Assessment of Taiwanese business students' learning styles using the Myers -Briggs Type Indicator

Asset Metadata

Creator Westebbe, Shelly (author)

Core Title Gender, learning, and trafficking: Helping vulnerable Thai women through NGO and government non -formal education programs

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, adult and continuing,OAI-PMH Harvest,psychology, social,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Stromquist, Nelly (committee chair), Eskey, David (committee member), Hagedorn, Linda Serra (committee member), Lutkehaus, Nancy (committee member), Rideout, William M. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-329374

Unique identifier UC11335801

Identifier 3155496.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-329374 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3155496.pdf

Dmrecord 329374

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Westebbe, Shelly

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA