Desacralising teachers: inside Myanmar’s educational capitalism

Abstract

This study focuses on the changed roles and symbolic identities of Myanmar teachers under the forces of marketisation and the privatisation of education. Private tutoring by school teachers is used as an example of what society perceives to be the incursion into education of market-oriented values that are incompatible with traditional morals. The theoretical framework draws on Durkheim’s concept of the sacred and its interpretations in neo-Durkheimian scholarship, particularly cultural sociology. The main argument presented revolves around the idea that the marketisation of education is profaning the teaching profession. Based on qualitative data from a larger three-year study conducted in eight Yangon schools, combined with textbook and document analysis, the study highlights the patterns of exceptional respect traditionally afforded to Myanmar teachers. This is then contrasted with the consequences of the growing marketisation of educational values through tutoring. The study identifies tutoring as a force polluting into what society perceives to be a sacred profession. Although bringing much-needed economic benefits to teachers, in the eyes of society, it has corrupted the idea of teachers as sacred individuals. This analysis enables critical reflection on the privatisation of education and its consequences for the lives of teachers, which are still under-researched.