‘Even studying higher, we just end up with earning a living by picking coffee cherries’: challenges to educational equity for ethnic minority students in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

One of the challenges to Vietnamese education has been the schooling inequality between students of the ethnic majority and those of ethnic minorities. This paper, therefore, reports on research that explored the challenges to educational equity for ethnic minority students in Vietnam from stakeholders at the lowest levels. Data were collected from interviews with teachers, school principals, an educational leader and the researchers’ notes of field trips to ethnic minority villages. The findings indicate the challenges lie in the inadequate preparation of teachers for teaching ethnic minority students and the students’ language barriers. Beyond the school setting, ethnic minority students’ schooling opportunities were hindered by the ethnocentric attitude of the ethnic majority towards their learning capacity. Political and economic constraints in local communities also prevented ethnic minority students from accessing high-level education. Recommendations for promoting educational equity for ethnic minority students in Vietnam and other similar contexts were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational equity
• ethnic minority students
• teaching for social justice
• culturally responsive teaching
• Vietnam central highlands

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the participants for their time and contribution to the study. We would also like to extend our thanks to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their critical reviews that greatly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Alumni Grants Fund [SGF–R2–00214].