EFL Faculty Mentorship Programs at HEIs in Vietnam

• Author / Creator

  Hung Quoc Tran

• This qualitative study investigated the extant English as a foreign language (EFL) faculty mentorship programs at four higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) of Vietnam. The findings were interpreted through a social constructivist research paradigm drawing on three theoretical lenses: Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural Theory of Development, Knowles’ (1970, 1998) Adult Learning Theory, and Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development.
  Purposeful sampling was utilized to choose four novel faculty members (mentees), four senior faculty members (mentors), and two experienced faculty administrators among these HEIs. Each of these actors participated in two individual semi-structured interviews in the Vietnamese language conducted by the researcher. Interviews were recorded, summarized, transcribed verbatim, and translated into the English language by the researcher. They were then verified by an EFL Vietnamese instructor and doctoral graduate from the University of Alberta. One week prior to the first interview, participants completed pre-interview activities (PIAs) provided.
  Data analysis revealed that the mentorship program mandated by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has been implemented differently at each participating HEI and that there was no an officially endorsed mentorship document that guided the mentorship programs at these HEIs. Other themes include successes and challenges experienced by mentees, mentors, and administrators. The successes were reported in the mentees’ and the mentors’ personal and professional development; their dyadic relationships; their unexpected benefits; and the administrators’ increased ease in making the mentee-mentor pairings, satisfaction with being good listeners, and expression of self-efficacy. The challenges were found in the mentees’ and the mentors’ personal pressures, their dyadic relationships, their additional issues, and the administrators’ challenge of different gender pairings and their insufficient scrutiny of the mentoring work.
  Practically, the current study has offered the actors in the mentorship triad a description of benefits and some best practices of tertiary EFL mentorship. Participants conveyed thoughts about an improved mentorship program and suggested that a national mentorship guide for EFL instructors at HEIs would be “a lifebuoy” for administrators, mentors, and mentees in helping the mentees socialize into the first stage of the teaching profession. Theoretically, this study has contributed its findings to the world’s growing knowledge of post-secondary mentorship by enriching the modest literature on Vietnamese tertiary EFL mentorship. Results may be of interest to other Asian contexts.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Education

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-xyma-3456

• License

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