Creating “Good” Thai Citizens: Religions in Thai Textbooks Kakanang Yavaprabhas Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand Email: kakanang.yava@gmail.com Received: September 28, 2021 Revised: December 16, 2021 Accepted: March 10, 2022 Abstract Religions form part of the content in textbooks and are typically seen as standard knowledge. This study examines how religions appear in Thai textbooks, an important but relatively unexplored topic of study. Using an anthropological approach to textbooks and critical discourse analysis, I analyze 42 textbooks of primary school levels that are used for three subjects. I propose that there are three main discourses formed by religions: discourses about us and others; about goodness; and about Buddhism, Thai-ness, and the Thai state. I argue that these discourses show how the Thai state uses religions in the hope of creating desirable “good” citizens, while simultaneously stigmatizing those who fail to conform. Keywords: textbooks, religions, Buddhism, Thai state, discourse analysis Introduction If we ask students enrolled in Thai schools what materials they use for studying, one of the answers would be “textbooks.” Textbooks 1 are part of the modern Thai education system and are typically seen as providing standard knowledge. Importantly, this knowledge is seldom questioned or criticized in Thai society. Scholars, however, have observed that the content of textbooks worldwide is not necessarily appropriate knowledge, in the sense of 1 “Textbooks” in this article refer to textbooks that are constituents of formal education from primary to high school level, and do not include higher education or adult education textbooks. Journal of Mekong Societies Vol. 18 No. 2 August 2022 pp. 105-124