Rachanee Dersingh

Contributing to the plenary panel “English in South East Asia: The Story Thus Far,” this paper proposes Exploratory Action Research (EAR) as a powerful, bottom-up framework to promote equity and teacher agency in Thailand’s English language education. Traditional professional development often relies on top-down approaches and imported methodologies shaped by native-speaker norms, which rarely align with the day-to-day realities of resource-challenged Thai classrooms. This mismatch leaves local educators feeling marginalized and ill-equipped to handle systemic constraints.

This presentation demonstrates how EAR reframes local teachers not merely as consumers of foreign methods, but as expert investigators of their own teaching environments. By first exploring classroom realities before taking action, EAR enables teachers to design culturally responsive and context-sensitive solutions that support diverse learners. This approach challenges the dominance of external native-speaker ideals by validating local teacher knowledge and student needs. Ultimately, this paper argues that integrating EAR into the narrative of Thai ELT can fostera more equitable, reflective, and sustainable educational ecosystem, demonstrating that effective solutions for resource-challenged contexts emrge from within.