A Phenomenological Study of Stakeholders’ Perspectives for Curriculum Development to Enhance Thai Communication Skills among Pre-service Teachers
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Abstract
Thai communication skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing, are core professional competencies that underpin instructional quality, ethical practice, and public trust in the teaching profession. However, pre-service teachers in regional universities continue to face persistent challenges in developing these competencies due to disparities in educational background, linguistic foundations, and access to authentic communication practice. This study aimed to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on contextual conditions and challenges influencing Thai communication development, examine perceived needs and expectations for enhancing communication skills in teacher education, and synthesize these perspectives to inform curriculum development aligned with national teacher professional standards. Adopting a qualitative phenomenological approach within an instrumental case study, data were collected from 431 stakeholders at Kalasin University, Thailand, including university administrators, teacher educators, and pre-service teachers. Data collection employed a combination of individual in-depth interviews and small-group discussions. Group-based discussions were used to elicit shared experiential meanings and reduce power-related discomfort, while individual interviews were selectively conducted in cases involving sensitive, vulnerable, or personally nuanced experiences, in accordance with participants’ preferences and ethical considerations. This flexible data collection strategy enabled the study to preserve phenomenological integrity while capturing both collective and individual dimensions of lived experience across a large and diverse participant group. Thematic analysis revealed five interrelated experiential dimensions shaping Thai communication development, namely problem-related, context-related, needs-related, awareness-related, and learning-support-related dimensions. Key barriers included unequal prior educational experiences, limited opportunities for sustained and authentic communication practice, and fragmented institutional support. Despite these challenges, stakeholders consistently conceptualized Thai communication competence as a professional and ethical responsibility integral to teacher identity and public trust. The findings underscore the need for curriculum development approaches that prioritize experiential learning, contextual responsiveness, and structured learning support, providing empirically grounded insights for developing coherent and equitable frameworks to enhance Thai communication skills in teacher education.
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