Investigating the influence of student–teacher Facebook interaction in Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand, older individuals or ‘Phu Yai’ are people with higher social status and power as compared to younger people or ‘Phu Noi’ (Komolsevin & Knutson, 2010). In the realm of education, teachers are considered Phu Yai while students are considered Phu Noi. This concept reinforces Hofstede’s (1991) major finding on Thailand being categorized as a high power-distance culture. The current study examines students’ perspective of the effect of student–teacher Facebook interactions on intercultural communication concepts such as power distance and submission to authority within the Thai student–teacher relationship. Questionnaires were administered to 353 students (N = 353) at a large international university in Thailand. The study found that social media use between Thai students and teachers influence how students view the face-to-face power dynamics between them and their teachers. Specifically, the more students and teachers interact on Facebook, the lower students perceive the power distance between them and their teachers.