A qualitative case study of raising Thai teachers’ critical consciousness for equity and social change in English and Thai literacy education at the borderland school context of Northeast Thailand

Basic education in Thailand emphasizes functional literacy skills, with Englishand Thai as compulsory subjects. Proficiency in these languages facilitates access to prestigious positions in society. Meanwhile, it also poses challenges particularly for marginalized students in the borderland context of Northeast Thailand. This study thusaims to advocate for literacy teachers’ transformative actions to address thesedisparities in literacy education. This study employed qualitative case study research with two teacher participants participating in the Participatory Action Research project. The research findings reveal the teacher participants’ critical consciousness as they demonstrated their recognition of the disadvantaged positions of students due t o multisocialbackgrounds. The teacher participants’ developmental processes of criticalconsciousness transitioned to the state of critical consciousness when their autonomy and agency in teaching literacy reflected their collaboration, reflection, and action as classroom praxis. Certain influential factors were also found to hinder the teacherparticipants’ development of critical consciousness. The study offers implications for raising literacy teachers’ critical consciousness and strategizing the transformativepraxis. Insights gained from the borderland school context highlight the systemic inequalities in Thailand's education system. This research calls for educators to adopt culturally relevant approaches to literacy education, fostering equity and social justicein literacy education.