Towards a democratic school: experience and viewpoints of stakeholders in Vietnamese secondary schools

Le, T.T.T. (2022)

Doctoral Thesis

The Vietnamese education system before 2013 struggled with many emerging issues, including achievement obsession, inflexible teaching strategies, student passivity, and cumbersome and lacking practice curriculum (see Le et al., 2022). Against that background, a comprehensive educational reform was initiated in 2013, emphasising students’ social and emotional learning and civic learning (Le et al., 2022). Vietnamese educational policymakers believe that promoting a democratic school environment would benefit students’ civic learning by empowering them to engage deeply in school decision-making (CPV, 2013; Ngo, 2015). Hence, the latest Education Reform in Vietnam focuses on promoting democracy in education which aims to make democratic acts of stakeholders (i.e., school leaders, teachers, students, and parents) feasible. The grassroots democracy regulation in Vietnamese schools requires decision-making based on consensus and deliberation of stakeholders (MOET, 2020). Thereby, the voice and leadership spirit of teachers and students in school affairs have been encouraged (Truong & Hallinger, 2017). Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training- MOET considers promoting a democratic learning environment as a fundamental mission in the latest educational reform in Vietnam. Yet, the policymakers still seem to squirm: what does a democratic school look like? How do we promote a democratic learning environment at the grassroots? As Gutmann (1987) has argued, democratic acts only occur when citizens can conceive the nature of the democracy they commit and pursue. However, the stakeholders in Vietnam have not been equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to implement and reach democratic commitment in their schools (Mai & Hall, 2017; Thanh, 2017). Therefore, having insights into stakeholders’ democratic beliefs and democratic practices is essential to sketch and adjust the current education strategy of democratisation education in Vietnam. This dissertation aims to provide a critical view of Vietnamese secondary school stakeholders’ awareness of democratic education regarding the core educational democratic values and democratic acts within either the ‘physical’ or digital learning environment.

• Democratic education
• Digital citizenship
• Democratic values
• Conflict management
• Student-teacher relationship
• Vietnamese secondary school
• Conflict resolutions

• All authors: Le, T.T.T.
• Supervisor: Admiraal, W.F.
• Co-supervisor: Tigelaar, E.H.
• Committee: Wouters, P.F.; Saab, N.; Mearns, T.L.; Brok, P.J. den; Schuitema, J.A.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden Institute of Education and Child Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University
• Date: 2022-11-29
• Title of host publication: ICLON PhD Dissertation Series
• ISBN (print): 9789490383428