Contextualising Service Learning for Vietnamese Higher Education

10.26686/wgtn.16850581 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Thi Ngoc Dung Nguyen

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Service Learning ◽

Policy Development ◽

Local Context ◽

Viet Nam ◽

Observation Data ◽

Moral Value ◽

The West ◽

Wide Range ◽

Vietnamese Higher Education

The term ‘service learning’ has appeared on the horizon of Vietnamese higher education in the past few decades and is one among a wide range of pedagogical approaches that have been imported from the West. ‘Looking outward’ (Nguyen & Tran, 2017), especially to the West, is a legacy of long-lasting foreign domination that has shaped political and social changes in Viet Nam. Despite its Western roots, the service learning approach also appears to have accommodated Vietnamese ideological influences associated with creating a more capable workforce, fulfilling socialist responsibilities, and cultivating Confucian moral values. This form of experiential learning is expected to respond to the dreams of the nation by producing young graduates who possess the expertise and ethics to meet Ho Chi Minh’s socialist ideology ‘Vừa hồng, vừa chuyên’ (Both socialist-minded and professionally competent), who are better prepared for a modernised and globalised workforce. Driven by these ideologies, service learning has become increasingly popular in Vietnamese universities. Yet, despite the widespread adoption of the approach, the contextualisation of service learning is underexplored in academic research. This study aims to address the research gap by investigating the inception, challenges and opportunities, and implications for the growth and expansion of service learning in Vietnamese context. This multisite case study, which involved participants from four universities in Viet Nam, employed an interpretivist paradigm and Kuan-Hsing Chen’s (2010) Asia as Method as theoretical orientations. An interpretivist lens enabled an exploration of the subjective experiences of those who have been involved in service learning projects and the meanings they construct. Meanwhile, Asia as Method highlighted the specificity of the local context and offered a more radical edge to an interpretivist lens, particularly in terms of proposing changes to service learning in Vietnamese higher education. A reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) of interview, document, and observation data revealed three distinguishing features of service learning in Vietnamese higher education: the importance of communities as a means for educational change, the challenges associated with navigating power relationships, and the significance of benevolence as moral value. My findings suggested important implications for policy development and service learning practices in Vietnamese higher education. In order to bridge the gap in literature on service learning in a socialist, communist, and Southeast Asian developing country, a framework for institutionalising service learning in Viet Nam is proposed, together with a set of tactics to support practitioners to sustain their service learning initiatives. I envisage that the framework will serve as a reference point for service learning initiatives in universities in the wider Asian region, particularly those with a Confucian heritage, ex-colonised territories, and developing countries.

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What makes or breaks higher education community engagement in the South African rural school context: A multiple-partner perspective

Education Citizenship and Social Justice ◽

10.1177/1746197917731353 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 177-196 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Eugene Gabriel Machimana ◽

Maximus Monaheng Sefotho ◽

Liesel Ebersöhn

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Service Learning ◽

Community Engagement ◽

School Context ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Rural School ◽

Multiple Partner ◽

Social Challenges ◽

Education Community ◽

Wide Range

The purpose of this study is to inform global citizenship practice as a higher education agenda by comparing the retrospective experiences of a range of community engagement partners and including often silent voices of non-researcher partners. Higher education–community engagement aims to contribute to social justice as it constructs and transfers new knowledge from the perspectives of a wide range of community engagement partners. This qualitative secondary analysis study was framed theoretically by the transformative–emancipatory paradigm. Existing case data, generated on retrospective experiences of community engagement partners in a long-term community engagement partnership, were conveniently sampled to analyse and compare a range of community engagement experiences ( parents of student clients ( n = 12: females 10, males 2), teachers from the partner rural school ( n = 18: females 12, males 6), student-educational psychology clients ( n = 31: females 14, males 17), Academic Service-Learning ( ASL) students ( n = 20: females 17, males 3) and researchers ( n = 12: females 11, males 1). Following thematic in-case and cross-case analysis, it emerged that all higher education–community engagement partners experienced that socio-economic challenges (defined as rural school adversities, include financial, geographic and social challenges) are addressed when an higher education–community engagement partnership exists, but that particular operational challenges (communication barriers, time constraints, workload and unclear scope, inconsistent feedback, as well as conflicting expectations) hamper higher education–community engagement partnership. A significant insight from this study is that a range of community engagement partners experience similar challenges when a university and rural school partner. All community engagement partners experienced that higher education–community engagement is challenged by the structural disparity between the rural context and operational miscommunication.

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Developing Best Practice in Linking and Sharing Administrative Data – A Comparison of Views in Health and Higher Education

International Journal for Population Data Science ◽

10.23889/ijpds.v5i5.1560 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Jackie Street ◽

Annette Braunack-Mayer ◽

Stacy Carter ◽

Tam Ha ◽

Xiaoqi Feng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Administrative Data ◽

Policy Development ◽

Best Practice ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Health Sector ◽

Clear Understanding ◽

Data Governance ◽

Sensitive Data ◽

Wide Range

IntroductionLarge administrative datasets are now being used for secondary purposes across a wide range of public sector organisations, including in health and higher education. However, governance, regulation and policy surrounding the use of these datasets are at different stages of development in these sectors. Our aim was to explore similarities and differences in the use of administrative data between the health and higher education sectors to inform policy development. Objectives and ApproachWe investigated views on the use of administrative data in both the health and higher education sectors. We conducted 18 qualitative in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, to provide insight into the ethical, social and legal issues associated with the use of big data in these settings. The interviews were transcribed and thematically coded. ResultsParticipants indicated the rapid pace of technological change and large volume of potentially sensitive data collected raises governance, infrastructure and ethical issues in both settings. Common challenges include communication, staff capabilities, delays in access, multiple policies and governance committees, and technical and operational issues. In the health sector, there was clear understanding of the issues and governance structures to address these issues, whereas this understanding was more variable in the higher education sector. Trust in government (to use responsibly and store securely) was raised in the health sector but not in universities. Conclusion / ImplicationsUnderstanding and use of administrative data are at quite different levels of development in the higher education and health sectors. Higher education needs policy and ethical guidance and higher level governance and greater consultation across the sector. Both sectors would benefit from a national approach to data governance.

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Professional Development Experiences Of English As A Foreign Language Lecturers At A Vietnamese University

10.26686/wgtn.14910162.v2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nga Ngo

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Professional Development ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Professional Growth ◽

National Language ◽

Education Reforms ◽

Wide Range ◽

Vietnamese Higher Education

As a consequence of globalisation, English language teaching (ELT) has been identified as one of the key emphases of the national education reforms in Vietnam. Professional development (PD) of teachers attempts to enhance the quality of ELT. However, there is a paucity of research investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers’ perceptions towards their experiences of PD in order to understand how PD currently functions and could potentially function within the context of Vietnamese higher education. My project has sought to address this gap by contributing insights into tertiary EFL lecturers’ PD experiences. More specifically, this study has drawn on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory and Knowles’ (1980) andragogy theory as theoretical frameworks for understanding how tertiary EFL lecturers experience PD as adult learners and the contextual factors which influence their PD experiences. A phenomenological research design as proposed by Moustakas (1994) enabled lecturers’ lived experiences of PD to be explored through phenomenological interviews with 12 EFL lecturers across the three groups of beginning, midcareer, and late-career and four academic managers at one Vietnamese university. The recruitment of the participants from the three groups aimed to examine lecturers’ experiences of PD at their different career stages. The inclusion of both lecturers and academic managers was considered essential in collecting multiple perspectives on the PD experiences. In addition, document analysis was used to collect information from national and institutional documents in order to better understand the contexts within which lecturers experienced PD. Evidence from this study highlights that lecturers’ PD is a multidimensional and dynamic activity. Influenced by the national language reforms and important projects such as Project 2020 and Project 911, EFL lecturers had been exposed to a wide range of formal PD activities (e.g., seminars, workshops, and conferences) and job-embedded PD activities (e.g., research projects, textbook and teaching material development, and professional meetings) in the three years prior to data collection. Lecturers expressed their need for further PD activities that were content-focused, on-going, collaborative, and specific to their career-stage. EFL lecturers’ involvement in PD activities was positively influenced by enablers (e.g., the status of English as a global language, national policies and projects, student outcomes, occupational prestige, and personal responsibility), but there were also barriers hampering lecturers’ career development (e.g., top-down national requirements, inappropriate institutional policies, insufficient collegial and managerial support, and time constraints). This study demonstrates that PD initiatives for Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers need to be reformed. At the national level, it is important for the Vietnamese government and MOET to understand lecturers’ real needs for PD when implementing any PD activities. At the institutional level, a comprehensive framework with specific requirements and guidelines regarding lecturers’ engagement in PD activities would bring greater coherence and consistency. At the individual level, a proactive role by EFL lecturers would further foster their professional growth along with fulfilling the national and institutional requirements. The findings of this study are represented through an integrated framework of effective PD for tertiary EFL lecturers which combines three main aspects of content, context, and process. This representation helps to shed light on what PD planners and academic managers need to focus on when planning, organising, and implementing PD activities in the setting of Vietnamese education reforms. Implications are drawn for PD planners, academic managers, and EFL lecturers as these groups need to closely collaborate in order to promote lecturers’ PD and improve the quality of ELT in Vietnam. Implications for future research are also discussed. The study makes significant contributions to current literature related to tertiary EFL lecturers’ lived experiences of PD within the Vietnamese higher education context and may be applied to other international contexts.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LECTURERS AT A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY

10.26686/wgtn.14910162.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nga Ngo

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Professional Development ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Professional Growth ◽

National Language ◽

Education Reforms ◽

Wide Range ◽

Vietnamese Higher Education

As a consequence of globalisation, English language teaching (ELT) has been identified as one of the key emphases of the national education reforms in Vietnam. Professional development (PD) of teachers attempts to enhance the quality of ELT. However, there is a paucity of research investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers’ perceptions towards their experiences of PD in order to understand how PD currently functions and could potentially function within the context of Vietnamese higher education. My project has sought to address this gap by contributing insights into tertiary EFL lecturers’ PD experiences. More specifically, this study has drawn on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory and Knowles’ (1980) andragogy theory as theoretical frameworks for understanding how tertiary EFL lecturers experience PD as adult learners and the contextual factors which influence their PD experiences. A phenomenological research design as proposed by Moustakas (1994) enabled lecturers’ lived experiences of PD to be explored through phenomenological interviews with 12 EFL lecturers across the three groups of beginning, midcareer, and late-career and four academic managers at one Vietnamese university. The recruitment of the participants from the three groups aimed to examine lecturers’ experiences of PD at their different career stages. The inclusion of both lecturers and academic managers was considered essential in collecting multiple perspectives on the PD experiences. In addition, document analysis was used to collect information from national and institutional documents in order to better understand the contexts within which lecturers experienced PD. Evidence from this study highlights that lecturers’ PD is a multidimensional and dynamic activity. Influenced by the national language reforms and important projects such as Project 2020 and Project 911, EFL lecturers had been exposed to a wide range of formal PD activities (e.g., seminars, workshops, and conferences) and job-embedded PD activities (e.g., research projects, textbook and teaching material development, and professional meetings) in the three years prior to data collection. Lecturers expressed their need for further PD activities that were content-focused, on-going, collaborative, and specific to their career-stage. EFL lecturers’ involvement in PD activities was positively influenced by enablers (e.g., the status of English as a global language, national policies and projects, student outcomes, occupational prestige, and personal responsibility), but there were also barriers hampering lecturers’ career development (e.g., top-down national requirements, inappropriate institutional policies, insufficient collegial and managerial support, and time constraints). This study demonstrates that PD initiatives for Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers need to be reformed. At the national level, it is important for the Vietnamese government and MOET to understand lecturers’ real needs for PD when implementing any PD activities. At the institutional level, a comprehensive framework with specific requirements and guidelines regarding lecturers’ engagement in PD activities would bring greater coherence and consistency. At the individual level, a proactive role by EFL lecturers would further foster their professional growth along with fulfilling the national and institutional requirements. The findings of this study are represented through an integrated framework of effective PD for tertiary EFL lecturers which combines three main aspects of content, context, and process. This representation helps to shed light on what PD planners and academic managers need to focus on when planning, organising, and implementing PD activities in the setting of Vietnamese education reforms. Implications are drawn for PD planners, academic managers, and EFL lecturers as these groups need to closely collaborate in order to promote lecturers’ PD and improve the quality of ELT in Vietnam. Implications for future research are also discussed. The study makes significant contributions to current literature related to tertiary EFL lecturers’ lived experiences of PD within the Vietnamese higher education context and may be applied to other international contexts.

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Pathways towards Enhancing HEI’s Role in the Local Social İnnovation Ecosystem

Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management - Social Innovation in Higher Education ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-84044-0_3 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 37-59

Author(s):

Danijel Baturina

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Service Learning ◽

Policy Development ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Learning Program ◽

Innovation Ecosystem ◽

National Education ◽

The Social ◽

Social Innovations ◽

Education Science

AbstractSocial innovation as a potential way of looking for new ways to combat the most challenging social problems is underdeveloped in Croatia and Europe. This chapter assesses the contribution of specific Higher education institute (HEI) to developing a social innovation ecosystem in the Zagreb agglomeration area (and beyond) in several dimensions: (a) research and evidence that informed social innovations (SI) and wider policies; (b) education; (c) creating networks and advocating, and (d) community engagement. Additionally, the introduction of the service-learning program is presented to illustrate that contribution. The capacity of the higher education institutions in fostering the development of the social innovation ecosystem is discussed through the prism of the local and national education, science and public (social) policy development in Croatia.

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Self-assessment and Language Learner Autonomy: An Exploratory Study in a Vietnamese University

Vietnam Journal of Education ◽

10.52296/vje.2021.88 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 72-83

Author(s):

Thao Thi Thanh Phan

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Language Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Learner Autonomy ◽

Language Learner ◽

Local Context ◽

Self Assessment ◽

Academic Context ◽

Vietnamese Higher Education

This paper aims to explore the role of self-assessment in developing language learner autonomy in the Vietnamese higher education context. Specifically, it focuses on how the assessment for English language learning is currently conducted and how this relates to learner autonomy. Despite the Vietnamese government’s official requirement for learner autonomy, Vietnamese higher education’s language academic context provides presently little space for autonomous learning. The idea of self-assessment is relatively unfamiliar and has, therefore, been little investigated. Based on qualitative data from observations and interviews with 38 university students, this paper presents the understanding of learner autonomy in Vietnamese higher education. In particular, the findings suggest that self-assessment may be a useful operational approach for fostering language learner autonomy in Vietnam and other similar settings. Also, they highlight the demand of promoting self-assessment literacy and the importance of self-assessment principles within the local context.

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Transformative learning, tribal membership and cultural restoration: A case study of an embedded Native American service-learning project at a research university

Gateways International Journal of Community Research and Engagement ◽

10.5130/ijcre.v10i1.5334 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Brent E Sykes ◽

Joy Pendley ◽

Zermarie Deacon

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Native American ◽

Service Learning ◽

Transformative Learning ◽

Research University ◽

Social Impact ◽

Focal Point ◽

World View ◽

Wide Range ◽

Tribal Nation

This research examines the case of a service-learning project embedded within a CBPR-based Native American tribal nation and research university collaboration in the US. Transformative learning (TL) served as the theoretical framework by which we, the multidisciplinary research team, came to appreciate the significance of the tribal nation’s lived history and deep sense of cultural loss, as well as the social impact of the service-learning project. To date, the majority of research on transformative learning has focused on the individual. This research builds on the work of a growing cadre of TL theorists who consider the role of the collective in transformation. This is especially salient for community-focused research efforts that incorporate service-learning. In this case, we treat consciousness raising, observed through documents, direct observation and participant observation, as evidence of collective transformation. Results indicate that the service-learning project served as a catalyst for tribal nation higher education students and tribal leaders to collectively engage in critical reflection. In doing so, both groups came to develop new, emergent views of tribal membership. Students, in particular, emerged with transformed world views and deepened cultural connections, while tribal leaders came to appreciate service-learning relative to tribal needs. We thus assert that service-learning can be a culturally appropriate, sustainable educational mechanism that has application across a wide range of Indigenous communities, thereby highlighting the instrumentality of this case. The research also indicates how higher education institutions and fellow researchers oriented to CBPR may render more successful their future collaboration practices with historically marginalised communities. We advocate that service-learning be directed by the tribal nation or community in question. As such, the community’s lived experience and world view becomes the focal point of the partnership, thereby making it culturally relevant and broadening the views of other stakeholders.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LECTURERS AT A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY

10.26686/wgtn.14910162 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nga Ngo

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Professional Development ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Professional Growth ◽

National Language ◽

Education Reforms ◽

Wide Range ◽

Vietnamese Higher Education

As a consequence of globalisation, English language teaching (ELT) has been identified as one of the key emphases of the national education reforms in Vietnam. Professional development (PD) of teachers attempts to enhance the quality of ELT. However, there is a paucity of research investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers’ perceptions towards their experiences of PD in order to understand how PD currently functions and could potentially function within the context of Vietnamese higher education. My project has sought to address this gap by contributing insights into tertiary EFL lecturers’ PD experiences. More specifically, this study has drawn on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory and Knowles’ (1980) andragogy theory as theoretical frameworks for understanding how tertiary EFL lecturers experience PD as adult learners and the contextual factors which influence their PD experiences. A phenomenological research design as proposed by Moustakas (1994) enabled lecturers’ lived experiences of PD to be explored through phenomenological interviews with 12 EFL lecturers across the three groups of beginning, midcareer, and late-career and four academic managers at one Vietnamese university. The recruitment of the participants from the three groups aimed to examine lecturers’ experiences of PD at their different career stages. The inclusion of both lecturers and academic managers was considered essential in collecting multiple perspectives on the PD experiences. In addition, document analysis was used to collect information from national and institutional documents in order to better understand the contexts within which lecturers experienced PD. Evidence from this study highlights that lecturers’ PD is a multidimensional and dynamic activity. Influenced by the national language reforms and important projects such as Project 2020 and Project 911, EFL lecturers had been exposed to a wide range of formal PD activities (e.g., seminars, workshops, and conferences) and job-embedded PD activities (e.g., research projects, textbook and teaching material development, and professional meetings) in the three years prior to data collection. Lecturers expressed their need for further PD activities that were content-focused, on-going, collaborative, and specific to their career-stage. EFL lecturers’ involvement in PD activities was positively influenced by enablers (e.g., the status of English as a global language, national policies and projects, student outcomes, occupational prestige, and personal responsibility), but there were also barriers hampering lecturers’ career development (e.g., top-down national requirements, inappropriate institutional policies, insufficient collegial and managerial support, and time constraints). This study demonstrates that PD initiatives for Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers need to be reformed. At the national level, it is important for the Vietnamese government and MOET to understand lecturers’ real needs for PD when implementing any PD activities. At the institutional level, a comprehensive framework with specific requirements and guidelines regarding lecturers’ engagement in PD activities would bring greater coherence and consistency. At the individual level, a proactive role by EFL lecturers would further foster their professional growth along with fulfilling the national and institutional requirements. The findings of this study are represented through an integrated framework of effective PD for tertiary EFL lecturers which combines three main aspects of content, context, and process. This representation helps to shed light on what PD planners and academic managers need to focus on when planning, organising, and implementing PD activities in the setting of Vietnamese education reforms. Implications are drawn for PD planners, academic managers, and EFL lecturers as these groups need to closely collaborate in order to promote lecturers’ PD and improve the quality of ELT in Vietnam. Implications for future research are also discussed. The study makes significant contributions to current literature related to tertiary EFL lecturers’ lived experiences of PD within the Vietnamese higher education context and may be applied to other international contexts.

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The (Mis)Uses of Race in Research on College Students: A Systematic Review

JCSCORE ◽

10.15763/issn.2642-2387.2017.3.1.5-41 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 5-41

Author(s):

Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

College Students ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Student Affairs ◽

Educational Outcomes ◽

Racial Groups ◽

Higher Education Journals ◽

Wide Range ◽

Implicit And Explicit

Race has been one of the most controversial subjects studied by scholars across a wide range of disciplines as they debate whether races actually exist and whether race matters in determining life, social, and educational outcomes. Missing from the literature are investigations into various ways race gets applied in research, especially in higher education and student affairs. This review explores how scholars use race in their framing, operationalizing, and interpreting of research on college students. Through a systematic content analysis of three higher education journals over five years, this review elucidates scholars’ varied racial applications as well as potential implicit and explicit messages about race being sent by those applications and inconsistencies within articles. By better understanding how race is used in higher education and student affairs research, scholars can be more purposeful in their applications to reduce problematic messages about the essentialist nature of race and deficit framing of certain racial groups.

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