The Influence of Uniform in Establishing Unity, Hierarchy, and Conformity at Thai Universities

Abstract

In most countries, wearing uniform in the university level is a rare practice. Interestingly, Thailand is one of a very few countries requiring the undergraduate students to wear the student uniform to attend class on daily basis. The university uniform has been seen to represent the ideas of politeness, honor, unity, and uniqueness of Thai culture. Hence, the practice of wearing the uniform is anchored on Thainess, the core of which is founded on kingship, religion, and nation creating a sense of shared identity among the Thai people. This research investigated (1) students' experiences of wearing the uniform concerning power relation among Thai university students inside and outside their universities, and (2) students' experiences regarding their personal development and how the university dress code affects them. This is the qualitative study of which theoretical frameworks are grounded on concepts of habitus and cultural representation by Pierre Bourdieu and Stuart Hall. As the study focuses on students' experiences, the phenomenological approach was applied. A total of eight interviews were carried out with students in Kasetsart University (Kamphaeng Saen Campus) and Nakorn Pathom Rajabhat University by purposive sampling. Data analysis was conducted with thematic content analysis. The research findings reveal experiences of the strict dress code indicating that the uniform engages with symbolic communication and hierarchical empowerment. Wearing the uniform keeps up the illusion of uniformity while exerting suppression of individuality. Further the strict dress code creates problematic gender issues but does not promote students' life goals.Chulalongkorn University's website (n.d.) stated that the uniform of undergraduate student was initiated in the reign of King Rama the V for the students in the institution. Sooksai (2013) remarked that the undergraduate students have been required to wear the uniform because it was viewed as 1) polite and appropriate dress, 2) representing the honor of university, 3) maintaining grace, uniqueness and value of Thai culture, 4) demonstrating unity, and 5) preventing sexual abuse in the university.

Reimagining the Higher Education Student

“…2 In Thailand all undergraduate university students wear university uniforms. Thai university uniforms have been a site of much debate, which extends beyond the scope of this chapter (see for example : Bunyawanich, Järvelä, & Ghaffar, 2018). 3 The historical periods we use in this paper correlate with those used by the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC, 2014) (cited in Crocco, 2018).…”