An Integrated Framework of Professional Development for Vietnamese Lecturers of English as a Foreign Language

1.1 Ecological Systems Theory and Andragogy

The ecological systems theory proposed by Bronfenbrenner (1979) is the first theoretical framework guiding this study. Although originally relating to child development, this theory also provides insights into adult learning. The theory focuses on the ways in which contexts can influence individuals and vice versa. In this model, ‘the environment is conceived as a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979: 3). At the centre, a microsystem focuses on ‘a pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given setting with particular physical and material characteristics’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979: 22). The next layer, mesosystem, comprises the interrelations between microsystems or connections between contexts. Therefore, a mesosystem is considered as a system of microsystems. The third layer, exosystem, refers to ‘one or more settings that do not involve the developing person as an active participant, but in which events occur that affect, or are affected by, what happens in the setting containing the developing person’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979: 25). The outer layer, macrosystem, represents ‘the subculture or the culture as a whole, along with any belief systems or ideology underlying such consistencies’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979: 26).

Over the years, researchers have employed Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) theory to explore teachers’ PD within different contexts (Hwang, 2014; Pesce, 2015; Yue et al., 2016). Their findings highlighted the impact of contextual factors on teachers’ PD. Thus, this theory provides a useful framework for exploring the different contextual factors influencing Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers’ PD experiences.

Andragogy, an adult learning theory developed by Knowles (1980), is the second theoretical framework underpinning this research. Andragogy is delineated by Knowles (1970: 43) as ‘the art and science of helping adults learn’ as compared to pedagogy, ‘the art and science of teaching children’. According to Knowles (1984), adults have greater self-direction and a deeper level of experience than children when performing a task or solving a problem. Initially, Knowles presented four core assumptions of andragogy. However, over the years, he refined and expanded these to six assumptions of andragogy that provide the foundation for planning adult learning experiences:

adults need to know why they need to learn something before learning it;

Although the international literature has revealed that the effectiveness of PD within the field of adult education could be improved dramatically through applying andragogy theory (e.g., Lee, 2016; Wang and Storey, 2015; Zepeda et al., 2014), there have been few studies using the assumptions of andragogy to investigate EFL lecturers’ PD experiences in Vietnam. This study conceptualises PD initiatives as adult education and EFL lecturers as adult learners who are autonomous, able to identify their needs for PD, self-directed, self-motivated, self-oriented and have accumulated different kinds of individual and professional experiences. Thus, by drawing on andragogy theory, this study may contribute to understandings of EFL lecturers’ PD experiences within a Vietnamese university setting. This research, grounded in andragogy theory, may also result in an in-depth understanding of the ways to design effective PD activities for EFL lecturers.

In summary, Kessels (2015: 5) stated that ‘in most countries the concept [of andragogy] is closely related to adult learning and the academic support for PD in the domain of adult education and lifelong learning’. As a result, integrating ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) with andragogy theory (Knowles, 1980) conforms well to our research purposes in order to examine the lived PD experiences of Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers. These two theoretical frameworks are complementary because the ecological systems theory serves to capture the contextual factors that impact lecturers’ engagement in PD, while the andragogy theory helps explain lecturers’ experiences of PD.

1.2. National Professional Policies for EFL Teachers in Vietnam

The Vietnamese government has highlighted ELT as a cornerstone of the national education reforms and teachers’ PD as a crucial activity in order to promote the quality of ELT. In 2008, a national project named Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System from 2008 to 2020 (hereafter, Project 2020) provided funding of approximately US$443 million (Nguyen, 2018), with 80% allocated for teachers’ PD associated with language proficiency and pedagogy.

As well as implementing Project 2020, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has established other important activities in the field of ELT (e.g., redesigning curricula, developing a new series of textbooks, undertaking action research across different educational levels and integrating computer-assisted language learning into the classrooms) (Nguyen, 2018; Nguyen and Bui, 2016).

However, due to lack of consistent EFL teachers’ levels of expertise, teaching resources and implementation procedures, Project 2020 could not achieve its goals (Linh, 2016). As a result, in 2017, the MOET introduced a new project entitled Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, period 2017-2025. This project revised the original Project 2020’s goals to set more realistic targets to foster well-qualified EFL teaching staff.

These policies indicate that the Vietnamese government has made significant efforts to facilitate EFL teachers’ PD in order to fulfil the general objectives of the national education reforms. EFL teachers play a vital role in realising language learning and language policy reforms (Nguyen et al., 2020). Although empirical studies have highlighted the importance of teachers’ PD (Joshi et al., 2018; Krille, 2020; Mohammadi and Moradi, 2017; Özgehan and İrem, 2019; Roemer, 2021), an extensive search of the literature revealed no research undertaken that specifically focused on Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers’ perceptions of their PD experiences. This study has attempted to strengthen the limited empirical literature located within the Vietnamese context by exploring the lived PD experiences of tertiary EFL lecturers and the interaction between different contextual factors that influence their PD experiences. These main aspects are important to scrutinise when planning, organising and delivering effective PD programmes for EFL lecturers in higher education in Vietnam.

2.1. Research Design

With the aim of uncovering how Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers experience PD, a phenomenological approach within the interpretative paradigm was employed in this study. As explained by Creswell (2013: 75), ‘a phenomenological study describes the common meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon’.

2.2. Participants

Data were collected in 2018 in a large Vietnamese public university that plays an important role in the region’s social and economic development. This university offers programmes across many different disciplines at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels (Star University, 2019). ¹ EFL lecturers teach both undergraduate and postgraduate English majors and non-majors.

This study recruited participants through purposeful sampling (Davies, 2016), based on four criteria. The participants should (1) be willing to participate in the research interviews, (2) have been a university lecturer for at least three years, (3) be employed full-time and (4) hold a tertiary ELT qualification accredited by the Vietnamese MOET.

A total of 16 participants agreed to participate in this study: 12 EFL lecturers and four academic managers. The inclusion of the four academic managers was important in collecting multiple perspectives on PD needs. Alongside their management duties, these participating managers also accounted for developing PD programmes and teaching different courses of EFL. Table 1 shows the participants’ gender, age and years of teaching experience across three main groups: beginning lecturers (1–5 years teaching); midcareer lecturers (6–20 years teaching); and late-career lecturers (20+ years teaching). The main aim for recruiting participating lecturers who had diverse years of teaching experience was to investigate their PD experiences at different career stages. Each participant was assigned a pseudonym and their job positions are not presented in this table to ensure anonymity.

Ethical approval was granted by the Human Ethics Committee on 5 December 2017 (Approval No. 25431). All participants were sent an official invitation letter and consent form explaining the research aims and procedures, the use of audio recording and their right to withdraw from the study.

Data collection comprised a series of semi-structured interviews lasting from 1 to 1.5 hours each. The interviews took place in Vietnamese, then were translated into English and checked for accuracy by another senior EFL lecturer.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the contexts within which the participants experienced PD, document analysis also provided more in-depth information from national and institutional decisions, guidelines, circulars, annual statistics and reports.

2.4. Data Analysis

In this study, NVivo 12 was used to code the interviews, which were analysed in English to establish emerging themes or patterns. Data analysis followed the phenomenological steps suggested by Moustakas (1994). Firstly, the first author read and reread the interview transcripts to draw out significant statements that gave in-depth information about how the participants experienced the PD phenomenon. Secondly, these significant statements were grouped into themes that provided the foundation for interpretation. Thirdly, by employing these significant statements and themes, a description of ‘what’ the participants experienced, named a composite textural description, was developed. In addition, a description of the context or setting that affected ‘how’ the participants experienced the phenomenon, called a composite structural description, was developed in this step. Finally, a compound description that shows the essence of the phenomenon, named the textural-structural synthesis, was developed. It concentrates on the common experiences of the participants. This approach is acknowledged as being detailed, systematic and rigorous when analysing lived experiences (e.g., Moerer-Urdahl and Creswell, 2004; Pelin and Soner, 2015). In this study, the first author was the sole coder, but she applied peer review by inviting one Vietnamese senior colleague who held a doctoral degree in education in order to discuss the research procedures, data analysis, interpretations and conclusions from a Vietnamese perspective. Moreover, her two supervisors, who were from outside the Vietnamese context, provided close supervision and advice on the coding and data analysis.

3.1. EFL Lecturers’ Lived Experiences of PD

The first sub-research question examined EFL lecturers’ lived experiences of PD. Four main themes emerged from the interviews: types of PD, lecturers’ motivation for engaging in PD, lecturers’ suggestions for the improvement of their current PD and lecturers’ perceived needs for further PD.

With regard to types of PD , 14 participants revealed that they had experienced both formal and job-embedded PD (JEPD) activities. More specifically, the findings indicate that seminars, workshops and conferences both within and outside the institution were the most typical formal PD opportunities that many participants had attended in the previous three years. A beginning lecturer stated:

Seminars, workshops, and conferences are considered frequent PD activities that lecturers at my department usually engage in. In particular, each semester, the school regularly organises seminars presented by the teaching staff.

In addition, 15 participants reported that they had experienced some typical JEPD activities (e.g., research projects, textbook and teaching material development and professional meetings) at the time of data collection. For instance, a midcareer lecturer revealed: ‘As part of educational reform policies, the number of EFL lecturers undertaking research projects has significantly raised in the last two years’.

In terms of motivation for engaging in PD, the participants identified four main motivators. These consisted of enhancing professional knowledge and skills, improving student outcomes, gaining financial benefits and networking. Of interest, two-thirds of the participants indicated enhancing professional knowledge and skills and improving student outcomes as the two most significant motivators for their engagement in PD. For example, one midcareer lecturer explained: ‘After I have undertaken some research projects, my professional knowledge could be enhanced remarkably. As teaching and doing research have a close relationship, I could make appropriate adjustments in my lectures. This helps improve my teaching practice’.

Regarding lecturers’ suggestions for the improvement of the current PD, six key aspects were reported by the participants. Nearly half of the participants stated the necessity of providing financial support and obtaining collegial and managerial support, while some participants recommended that PD should be of sustained duration. Furthermore, three-quarters of participants suggested that PD planners and academic managers should put more focus on lecturers’ needs for and interests in PD, strengthen the institutional policies regarding lecturers’ PD and raise lecturers’ awareness of the importance of PD. For instance, one beginning lecturer reported:

In 2017, after attending a workshop on testing and assessment organized by Project 2020, I was very dissatisfied because I could not learn any new things. As the content of this workshop was not updated, it was quite boring. I strongly believe that effective PD should be grounded in lecturers’ needs.

In terms of perceived needs, the participants identified a range of activities that they felt would meet their future PD needs. Fifteen participants hoped to engage in more seminars, workshops and conferences because these activities were considered the most popular type of PD in their institution. In line with the influence of globalisation and national education reform policies, more than half of the participants raised their future expectations for undertaking research projects and higher education. In addition, six participants expressed their perceived needs for engaging in other PD activities (e.g., exchange programmes or short training courses in foreign countries, professional meetings and research groups). A beginning lecturer explained: ‘The objective of my engagement in PD activities is to gain more professional knowledge and update a good CV for doctoral education’. However, another late-career lecturer reflected:

It is very hard for me to apply for a doctoral scholarship because I am more than 45 years old. Instead of calling for doctoral study, the university should frequently launch more conferences, workshops, and other PD initiatives within the institution. Thanks to these activities, many senior lecturers can gain more favourable conditions and higher inspiration for PD.

Overall, this study reveals that the participants from the beginning career stage through to late-career stage had experienced many formal and JEPD activities at the time of this research. These participants generally appreciated the value of their PD opportunities. However, there were significant differences regarding the PD experiences among the beginning, midcareer and late-career participants.

3.2. The Contextual Influences on EFL Lecturers’ Experiences of PD

The second sub-research question explored how contextual factors influenced lecturers’ PD experiences. Four key themes emerged from the interview data, namely global, national, institutional and individual influences.

Global factors particularly English as a global language, were indicated by 12 participants as a significant aspect impacting lecturers’ professional expertise and career opportunities. For instance, one midcareer lecturer stated:

As a result of globalisation, EFL lecturers have received more opportunities to access new teaching methodologies and modern facilities. They have also gained more diverse environments to practise English. Thus, their professional expertise has been developed faster.

Moreover, more than half of the participants reported that national factors greatly influenced their PD experiences. Eight participants reflected that they felt stressed due to compulsory policies from the national level. A late-career lecturer shared his experience:

In 2012, after taking an English proficiency test required by Project 2020, 100% of EFL lecturers in my school reached the national education requirements, approximately C1 level of CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) or Band 7.0 of IELTS (International English Language Testing System). Nevertheless, influenced by the educational reform policies, lecturers have to continue higher education in order to gain advanced qualifications.

In terms of institutional factors, 11 of the 16 participants identified that finance and management policies affected their PD engagement. On the one hand, a midcareer lecturer reported that in the previous five years, she had put more focus on undertaking research projects, developing teaching materials and supervising students’ theses because she could gain higher income through these activities. On the other hand, a beginning lecturer reflected:

There are several free PD activities, but others are not. Lecturers must pay for themselves when they would like to take part in their favourite activities. If lecturers could receive more financial support from the university, they are more motivated to engage in PD.

In addition, half of the participants considered a lack of collegial and managerial support as an influencing factor. One beginning lecturer indicated: ‘Sometimes, I have to collaborate with lecturers from other departments to undertake research projects because a few senior lecturers in my department are not willing to share their experiences with me’.

Regarding individual factors, 14 participants identified that occupational prestige and personal responsibility were key motivators for EFL lecturers’ PD engagement. For instance, one beginning lecturer indicated: ‘I participate in many PD initiatives so that I am more confident when discussing any teaching problems with my colleagues or students. I do not want to receive negative comments and feedback from others’. Another midcareer lecturer explained:

I partake in PD activities to fulfil my responsibility as a university lecturer. If I always stay at the same level of knowledge and experience, I could not keep up with social and educational developments in the next 10 years.

Compared to the male interviewees, more female participants reflected that they did not have many favourable conditions to engage in PD activities due to time constraints. For example, one midcareer lecturer revealed that it was very difficult for her to attend PD activities because she had to be responsible for family, teaching and management duties at the same time.

In summary, the findings of this study show that EFL lecturers’ PD experiences were both negatively and positively influenced by the contextual factors at different levels of macro, exo, meso and micro systems. This study contributes to the research field by providing in-depth insights into Vietnamese tertiary EFL lecturers’ perceptions of their PD experiences. The findings enabled the researcher to identify key issues to consider in order to support planning, anticipating, organising and delivering effective PD programmes for EFL lecturers within the context of higher education reforms in Vietnam.

Content refers to the ‘what’ of PD. It includes the new knowledge, skills and understandings that teachers need to be successful in their career development (Guskey and Sparks, 1996; Murray, 2014). The data from this study show that the participants were not particularly satisfied with the content of available PD activities. As many PD activities that EFL lecturers had participated in focused mostly on enhancing their teaching methodologies and language proficiency, some lecturers called for further PD activities concerning areas of English applied linguistics (e.g., phonology, semantics or discourse analysis) and foreign cultures (e.g., American or British culture and society). Moreover, the question of who decides the PD content is an important factor influencing the quality of lecturers’ PD. The participants reflected that the content of available PD activities was mostly decided by the managing board of the national projects, PD planners and academic managers. Because lecturers did not have the ability to express what PD content they needed, many PD activities that they had attended were not always relevant.

These findings reinforce points argued by international scholars (e.g., Appova and Arbaugh, 2018; Labone and Long, 2016) that PD should be content relevant and concentrate on specific differences in teachers’ needs. The findings from this study are usefully seen through Knowles’ (1980) fourth and fifth assumptions concerning adults’ readiness and orientation to learn. It can be explained that since EFL lecturers, as adult learners, recognise their own orientation to on-going learning, they are primarily willing to participate in PD opportunities that are applicable and relevant to their teaching practices. The data from this study suggest that lecturers need to have a say in what content of PD is relevant to them. The study demonstrates that EFL lecturers, as adult learners, are autonomous, self-motivated, self-oriented and have accumulated different kinds of individual and professional experiences. They should be involved in decision-making at the institutional level and have their voices heard concerning their PD needs.

4.2 Context

Context refers to the ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ of PD. It concerns the organisation, system and culture in which PD occurs and where the new understandings will be undertaken (Guskey and Sparks, 1996). The evidence from this study shows that EFL lecturers’ PD was significantly influenced by the contextual factors at the macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem levels, drawing on ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

At the macrosystem level, this study indicates that the impact of English as a global language has stimulated Vietnam, like other Asian countries, to launch English education reforms in order to enhance the quality of ELT. Thus, it is important for EFL lecturers to undertake on-going learning in order to keep up with the new trends of a globalised world. This finding supports Hwang’s (2014) project, which found that the global context influences concrete policies at the national and institutional levels in the South Korean education setting.

At the exosystem level, the institutional policies are regarded as a key factor influencing lecturers’ PD. In particular, the participants reported that financial issues and administrative procedures should be improved in order to encourage EFL lecturers’ engagement in PD. This finding concurs with those from earlier literature (Demir and Qureshi, 2019; Pesce, 2015) that institutional policies could help incentivise teachers to participate in PD. This study emphasises the need for establishing relevant institutional policies in order to offer lecturers more favourable conditions for their career development (e.g., delivering more financial incentives and rewards, reducing the stipulated teaching hours, allocating suitable time for engaging in PD or promulgating appropriate administrative procedures).

At the mesosystem level, the evidence from this study shows that occupational prestige, personal responsibility and time were the three prominent factors affecting EFL lecturers’ individual motivation to engage in PD activities. These motivators are all linked to each other. In particular, occupational prestige was identified as the most important motivator by the participants. It can be argued that, because of their concern for maintaining face and public image, by updating their professional knowledge and pedagogical skills regularly, lecturers are better able to maintain their occupational prestige. This finding reveals the influence of Term 69 of the Vietnamese Education Law, which regulates that teachers have a duty to maintain their attributes, prestige and honour (Vietnamese National Assembly, 2019). This study reinforces Dimmock and Walker’s (2005: 154) argument that in China, also a similar Confucian context, ‘teachers are generally reluctant to admit to their own weaknesses, or problems, typically responding in ways suggesting that they do not have any problems’. In addition, the majority of the participants identified personal responsibility as another positive factor. The data show that lecturers always considered PD as one of the most important duties in their profession. They would like to play a proactive role in identifying their individual needs and finding PD opportunities to design and resource their own PD across different stages of their career, in line with previous literature indicating that teachers would like to be the first decision-makers in their professional growth (McMillan et al., 2016). Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory suggests that because individual lecturers play a direct role, have direct experiences and have direct social interactions with others, their work not only influences their educational achievements but it also changes their social values and development. As stated in the second assumption of andragogy theory (Knowles, 1980), the self-concept of adult learners depends on a move towards self-direction. Thus, occupational prestige and personal responsibility could be important drivers in enhancing lecturers’ individual motivation for PD.

Time was reported as a prominent influencing factor at the mesosystem level. Lecturers, particularly female lecturers, reported that they had time constraints due to heavy workloads and gender roles. These factors could prevent their involvement in PD activities. Similar findings exist in studies from several Asian countries (Ali, 2014; Jazi et al., 2015). It is important for PD planners and academic managers to propose suitable timetables concerning lecturers’ teaching and PD duties so that lecturers can be provided with favourable conditions to engage in different types of PD opportunities.

At the microsystem level, this study highlights that EFL lecturers are key players in implementing macro policy decisions in practice. The evidence indicates that even though the top-down national reform policies had provided EFL lecturers with favourable conditions to engage in many PD opportunities, the MOET’s requirements concerning lecturers’ further education and professional expertise had also placed more pressure on lecturers’ career growth. Consequently, PD activities could be more effective if both elements of top-down and bottom-up approaches are integrated. This finding supports the arguments made by Agbayahoun (2016) and Wyatt and Ager (2017) that both top-down and bottom-up approaches should be combined in order to enhance the effectiveness of teachers’ PD. If PD planners and academic managers are able to pay attention to EFL lecturers’ voices when developing and implementing high-stake policies, lecturers can be provided with appropriate and timely support and be more easily able to fulfil the government’s expectations.

4.3 Process

Process refers to the ‘how’ of PD. It consists of the approaches of PD activities, and the ways of planning, organising, implementing and evaluating those PD activities (Murray, 2014). In this study, the participants acknowledged the value of their engagement in both formal and JEPD approaches (e.g., workshops, conferences, textbook and teaching material development and action research projects). Lecturers were particularly interested in PD activities implemented on an on-going basis with appropriate follow-up and support so that they could have opportunities to transfer new knowledge into practice and improve their teaching practices. Such findings lend weight to the arguments made by other scholars (e.g., Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Dayoub and Bashiruddin, 2012) that teachers need multiple opportunities to interact with information and ideas through a long-term continuing process that is carefully planned.

In this study, EFL lecturers also emphasised the importance of collaboration in their career development as they explained that PD activities could offer them useful opportunities to collaborate, reflect and develop their teaching practices through the support of their colleagues and academic managers. This finding is consistent with international research that has emphasised the necessity of teachers’ collaboration (Avalos-Bevan and Bascopé, 2017; McElearney et al., 2019). Organising and implementing more collaborative PD activities (e.g., peer coaching, mentoring or monthly professional meetings) will create opportunities for EFL lecturers to gain support from their colleagues and academic managers. Finally, the question of who decides the process of PD activities should be considered when designing and planning future PD initiatives. It is necessary to seek opinions from different stakeholders (e.g., EFL lecturers, PD planners and academic managers) before making decisions concerning the process of PD activities.

Combining these elements of content, context and process, effective PD is presented as the core component in this framework. It is expected that high-quality PD for tertiary EFL lecturers should achieve three main targets: (1) fulfilling national and institutional requirements; (2) enhancing lecturers’ professional expertise, practices and motivation; and (3) improving student outcomes. These three targets are all important and connected to each other.