Vietnam Journal of Education

Internationalised Master’s Education for Sustainable Development: Aspirations and Access Barriers among Youth Climate Actors in Vietnam

Hai Linh Nguyen — 2026-05-30

Internationalisation-at-Home has become an important development strategy for Vietnamese higher education sector. In this effort, internationalised Master’s education expands access to global and interdisciplinary knowledge while enhancing professional competence locally without requiring overseas mobility. In practice, access to these educational programs remains challenging due to high costs, English-medium instruction requirements, urban concentration and information barriers. This study examines youth climate actors’ aspirations and their perceived barriers to accessing internationalised Master’s education related to sustainable development. Using a multiphase mixed-methods design, the study analyses collected data from 117 valid questionnaires, six in-depth interviews, and one focused group discussion. Findings show that participants seek globally informed, locally applicable knowledge, interdisciplinary capacity, professional legitimacy, and collective action networks for sustained climate work and policy engagement. Meanwhile, perceived barriers include limited access to program information, inflexible formats, the limited affordability of tuition fees, scholarship uncertainty, high language requirements, and limited recognition of climate-related experience in admissions. The article argues that internationalised Master’s education should be evaluated not solely in terms of its scale of expansion, but also in terms of the extent to which intended learners can identify, access, and apply what they have learned meaningfullyto sustainable development practice.

Education for Sustainable Development Awareness, Attitudes, and Actions: A Quantitative Study of In-service Teachers in Vietnam

Huy Gia Huynh — 2026-05-30

In the context of growing global and national efforts to integrate sustainability into teacher education, understanding how teachers perceive and enact the Sustainable Development Goals is essential for strengthening education for sustainable development. This study investigated the awareness, attitudes, and actions of 158 Vietnamese in-service teachers across the economic, social, and environmental domains of the Sustainable Development Goals. A 51-item questionnaire grounded in UNESCO’s learning objectives for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals was administered using a four-point Likert scale, and the mean interpretive scale adapted from Alico and Guimba (2015) was used for interpretation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and one-way ANOVA in SPSS 26. Findings revealed high levels of awareness and attitudes, but only moderate-to-high levels of action. The lowest scores were observed for for Sustainable Development Goal 10 in awareness, Sustainable Development Goal 5 in attitudes, and Sustainable Development Goal 14 in actions. Although awareness and attitudes were strongly correlated, their associations with actions were considerably weaker, indicating a persistent attitude-action gap. No significant differences were found across gender or teaching levels. These results highlight a clear knowledge-practice gap and suggest that teacher education programs in Vietnam should more explicitly integrate locally relevant sustainability issues, participatory pedagogies, and institutional support structures to translate teachers’ strong cognitive and affective orientations into consistent classroom practice.

Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs and Instructional Practices Regarding the Teaching of Mathematical Proofs

Tong Huu Duong — 2026-05-30

The beliefs and self-assessed instructional competences of pre-service mathematics teachers regarding the teaching of mathematical proofs play a crucial role in their professional development. This study involves a survey with 295 pre-service mathematics teachers from selected universities in Vietnam’s southern region, aiming to explore their beliefs and instructional practices regarding teaching mathematical proofs. Findings indicate that many pre-service teachers felt confident about basic proof concepts and methods, yet a substantial proportion reported insufficient knowledge of mathematical proofs and proof teaching, revealing internal contradictions in their self-perceptions. In addition, their self-assessed teaching competencies do not reflect their beliefs, especially in designing learning activities, organizing instruction, and assessing high school students’ performance. The gap between pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices is a core issue to address in current mathematics teacher training. The results yield important implications for mathematics teacher training and new research directions.

Connectivism in Language Education: What Does Literature Tell Us?

Long Van Nguyen — 2026-05-30

Connectivism has been widely mentioned in language education research to explain learning in networked and technology-rich environments. However, the literature remains difficult to interpret as a coherent evidence base, because connectivism has been used in different ways - as a learning theory, as a pedagogical orientation, or only as a descriptive lens). This article reviews what the literature reveals about connectivism in language education through a systematic scoping review with an evaluative synthesis. The analysis maps the learning ecologies where connectivism is most visible (e.g., LMOOCs, social media communities, blended online learning, and emerging AI-mediated contexts), and examines how studies operationalize “connections” (social interaction ties, resource curation, and platform/algorithmic mediation). Across studies, the most consistent reported outcomes relate to engagement, participation, learner agency, and digital literacies, while stronger evidence for measured language development is less common and often not well aligned with network indicators. Overall, the review suggests connectivism is currently more robust as a design rationale than as a tested explanatory theory in language education. The review concludes by outlining priorities for future research, focusing on clearer construct definitions, better indicator-outcome alignment, and comparative designs across ecologies.

Negotiating Power and Teacher-leader Relationships: Evidence from Lower Secondary Schools in Central Vietnam

Thang Dinh Truong — 2026-05-30

In education systems shaped by hierarchical traditions and collectivist cultural values, school leadership is not only exercised through formal authority but also through the everyday negotiation of relationships, trust, and professional legitimacy. This study examines how power dynamics shape teacher-leader relationship building in Vietnamese lower secondary schools, with attention to how principals navigate authority within a hierarchical and collectivist cultural context. Drawing on a post-structuralist lens, the research employed a qualitative multiple-case study design. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 18 participants (principals, deputy principals, and teachers) across three public schools. The findings show that hierarchy remains a strong structuring force, but authority is continuously produced and legitimised through relational and moral work. Principals combined formal decision-making power with relational strategies - such as recognition, informal dialogue, and community-building - to foster trust and collaboration, while simultaneously shaping the terms under which teacher voice and dissent could be expressed. Cross-case comparison further indicates that leadership practices were contextually negotiated, resulting in different configurations of hierarchical, hybrid, and more participatory approaches. The study contributes to educational leadership scholarship by offering a culturally grounded account of how authority and relationality intersect in everyday leadership practice, with implications for leadership development and policy design in hierarchical and collectivist education systems.

Designing and Evaluating the EVALLOS Model for Course Learning Outcome Attainment Measurement and Quality Assurance in Vietnamese Higher Education

Dat Duc Pham — 2025-12-28

Outcome-based education requires higher education institutions to provide evidence of Course Learning Outcome attainment that is transparent, consistent, and suitable for quality assurance and accreditation. In practice, course learning outcome reporting is often computed manually from assessment data, which can be time-consuming and difficult to audit across courses and assessment instances. This study proposes and evaluates a structured model to computing course learning outcome attainment using item-level assessment evidence and explicit item-to-course learning outcome mappings in a Vietnamese university context. The research study was conducted over two consecutive semesters using exam-team assessments (e.g., midterm and end-of-term assignments/papers) that included both score-based items and rubric-based evaluations. Accuracy was examined by comparing computed course learning outcome attainment results with instructor-validated spreadsheet calculations. The findings show close consistency with manual computation and improved traceability from course learning outcome attainment indicators back to assessment evidence, supporting more consistent outcome reporting for internal quality assurance and accreditation preparation. The study highlights the value of item-level course learning outcome attainment analytics as a practical foundation for strengthening outcome-based quality assurance in higher education.