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Megumi Ebisuya, Junzhe Wang, and Sachiho Funabashi

July, 2017

Abstract

Although Cambodia is now one of the most rapid-growing countries in the world, its higher education sector has not been fully developed yet. In particular, because of the quantity-focused expansion policies which have been implemented by the Government since the 1980s, higher education institutions has been facing difficulties to improve the quality of education. Searching for resolutions, surveys have been conducted to understand the present situation, however, most investigations had been based on quantitative analysis and have rarely focused on the individuals, who are lecturing at Cambodian higher education institutions. The actual states of the teachers in the universities would not be recognized only by numerical data but also the story they told. Thus, this study collected qualitative data by conducting interviews with eight teaching staffs from three deferent universities in Cambodia. Interviews were carried out using Life History methods. In this paper, we aimed to reveal the life history of each lecturer that cannot be seen from the quantitative approach and focused on their motivations and self-recognition towards their professions. Naturally, the results show different stories of the lecturers’ lives, however, it is also suggested that the part-time lecturing staffs enjoy the frank working conditions and sharing their knowledge with younger generations simultaneously. Though most of the lecturers have stopped doing their own research and this situation prevents the development in higher education, on the other hand, they spare time for the preparation for the lectures, implying the helpful and caring education.