Education in the reform era: How policy and politics transformed Vietnamese students, school leaders, and communities
Open Access
- Author:
- Nguyen, Chi Phuong
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Leadership
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 04, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Kai Arthur Schafft, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kai Arthur Schafft, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Soo-Yong Byun, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Edward J Fuller, Committee Member
Leif Jensen, Outside Member
Kevin Kinser, Program Head/Chair
Soo-Yong Byun, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Vietnam
Vietnamese education
rural education
international education
comparative education
education reform
education policy
college expectation
college access
politics
educational leadership
principal - Abstract:
- Education in Vietnam has gone through massive reforms over the last decades. Chief among those is the ongoing reform to the college admissions policy, a nationally standardized, highly competitive process that all Vietnamese high school graduates must go through to be considered for college admissions. As this reform draws public attention to standardized testing and tactics to master the new exam’s format and structure for higher scores, policymakers seem to ignore the structural inequities embedded in students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and geographic locations that perpetuate the gap in college-going decisions among student groups. This dissertation offers a more comprehensive analysis of Vietnamese youth, schools, and communities in the reform era. Centered on social justice and equity issues in greater Hanoi, the dissertation explicates the impacts of recent reforms, particularly with respect to their intended and unintended policy consequences, on the educational experiences and well-being of rural/non-rural students, school leaders, and communities. This dissertation is structured as three separate articles addressing different aspects of the reforms. The first article, Vietnamese Youth, Schools, and Communities in Transition: A Decade after the Administrative Boundary Extension of Hanoi, lays out the contextual foundation for this work by examining changes of rural youth, schools, and communities following the 2008 administrative boundary extension of Hanoi. While historically known as an urban, metropolitan hub of Vietnam, after the extension, Hanoi now represents both urban and non-urban areas, including several rural districts located in remote mountainous regions. As a controversial policy at the time of its announcement, how has this policy influenced the sense of place, educational opportunities, and socioeconomic and cultural values of youth, schools, and communities in the non-urban, newly added districts? Drawing on 27 interviews with school leaders, teachers, and students of six non-urban high schools, the study reveals that the extension policy has not replaced the symbolic and cultural meanings of Hanoi in the mindset of rural community members, who still referred to Hanoi as ‘the other’ place. Moreover, while the extension has created rapid economic and sociocultural changes in rural communities, it delayed the process of rural school improvement. Amid these changes were rural youth, who struggled with their senses of place, decisions about leaving their hometown to attend colleges in “Hanoi,” and other difficulties they had to overcome, alongside their teachers and school leaders, to achieve their educational goals. The article provides a case study that illuminates how youth, schools, and communities are transformed during the rural-urban transition process, contributing to scholarship in the fields of rural education and rural sociology. The second article, Nationally Standardized Policy and Locally Interpreted Implementation: How Vietnamese School Leaders Enact Education Reform, investigates how Vietnamese school leaders interpreted and implemented policy changes following recent reforms of the National High School Examination (NHSE). Data were derived from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 high school leaders (seven principals and three vice principals). Based on the cognitive framework by James Spillane, Brian Reiser, and Todd Reimer (2002), the study reveals that although the policy was standardized, school leaders’ interpretations and implementations varied greatly according to (1) their knowledge, experiences, values, and beliefs (individual cognition) and (2) their institutional contexts (situated cognition). These variations may lead to inconsistent and unintended policy outcomes, as well as perpetuate systemic inequities in access to higher education. The study provides a more contextual application of the cognitive framework to school leaders in a top-down, centrally controlled education system. The third article, Going or Not Going to College? Explaining the College Expectation Gaps Between Rural and Non-Rural Vietnamese High School Students, investigates the college expectations of rural, urban, and suburban students in greater Hanoi. Findings from a survey of approximately 4,000 senior students and interviews with 40 students, 25 teachers, and 11 school leaders reveal a generally high number of students expecting to go to college; however, a significant gap in college expectations between rural and non-rural students persisted, even when controlling for other factors. The study points to students’ perceived positive connection between a college degree and future employment security and the advantages they might gain from a recent college admissions reform as major factors motivating them to apply to college. Meanwhile, their anxiety over the college entrance examination and desire to work immediately after high school were factors that discouraged them from applying. Particularly for rural students, the study finds those who decided against leaving their hometowns to attend college were not necessarily attached to rural life but rather felt a responsibility to stay and work to support their families. Using the case of Hanoi, the study contributes new perspectives to the long-standing scholarly debates over factors attributing to students’ college expectations and provides nuanced explanations for rural-urban disparities in college-going decisions. The dissertation explains why and how top-down policy reforms, despite being highly standardized, lead to unintended policy outcomes and perpetuate social and educational inequities. The project highlights struggles that students and educators of under-resourced, rural schools have to overcome to adapt to policy changes. The dissertation concludes with policy recommendations that aim to remedy the gap between policymaking and policy implementation within the constraints and benefits of a centralized political system.