Discussions

Your Name and Title: Dr. Thi Tuyet Tran 
Your School, Library, or Organization Name: Institute for Employment Research, Federal Employment Agency, Germany 
Your Twitter Handle (@name): 
Name(s) of Co-Presenter(s): 
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Nuremberg, Germany 
Language in Which You Will Present: English 
Target Audience: Policy makers, teachers 
Short Session Description: Can East meet West? Problematizing Westwards-looking educational reforms in Vietnam

Session Strand (use the "tag"): 
Full Session Description:  

Since the adoption of the economic reform known as Doi Moi process at the end of 1986, Vietnam has made impressive progress in increasing the size and diversity of its post-school educational system. The general educational attainment of the Vietnamese workers has also been increased. Nonetheless, the system does not seem to meet the expectation of providing high skilled labour force for the development of the economy and for the international competitiveness of the industry.

Recognising the need for further change from the educational system, the government has called for and also placed a pressure on the educational system to renovate to ‘lift’ its education quality up to the ‘international standard’. Different programs and resolutions have been developed and implemented in different levels of schooling in the system, from primary schools to higher education institutions. Discarding the grade-system assessment in primary schools, replacing the traditional teaching method by student-center teaching and learning initiative, launching ‘fundamental and comprehensive reform of higher education in Vietnam 2006-2020’ (HERA)… are to name a few of these movements. Most of the implemented reforms were derived from developed countries - the so called ‘the West’ in Vietnam, or developed with the support of the international donors, most are also from the West.  Nonetheless, the impact of these movements is considered modest in the eye of most related stakeholders, some have even developed negative attitude toward what is called ‘reform’ or ‘renovation’ placed in the educational system in Vietnam recently and called for a more radical, comprehensive and systematic change that works in the Vietnamese context.

Comprehensive national educational change is often a difficult and complex process, and normally, it requires conditions to be met. Apart from the two decisive conditions, which are the political support for the proposed changes and the capability to carry the changes of those involved in the reforms, in the specific case of Vietnam, there is also a need to consider whether the ‘imported’ reforms fit in with the local context (culturally and economically). The first two conditions I have discussed in a separate journal article[1]. In this short presentation, I will discuss some factors regarding the third condition and argue that while learning from more developed educational systems is a common tendency in the globalized era, what to learn and how to learn to make it work in the local context needs to be careful taken into consideration. I also want to problematize the notion of ‘the West’ by comparing two educational systems in two developed countries: Australia and Germany and suggest that different countries in the West may adopt different education philosophies, which drive their educational practices in different directions. This poses a challenge for the ‘followed’ educational systems such as in Vietnam, who may not be selective enough in their choice and mix up the initiates adopted from the systems guided by different educational philosophies. This mixture will not work, and may distort the local educational system.