ABSTRACT
This paper reports a case study examining how the leadership and management practices of a Vietnamese university influenced teacher engagement with the implementation of the student-centred teaching approach. The analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews with academics and academic leaders revealed that existing leadership and management practices failed to change teachers’ habit of using traditional teaching methods. Teachers were disengaged from the implementation of student-centred methods, or executed it with discrepancies, due to their personal beliefs, a lack of student-centred teaching expertise and several contextual factors, all associated with institutional leadership and management practices. Using Fullan’s six secrets of change implementation and Bourdieu’s concepts of social field and habitus, this paper explains why leadership and management practices failed to engage teachers.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tran Le Huu Nghia
Tran Le Huu Nghia is a researcher at Ton Duc Thang University. He obtained a PhD in Higher Education Studies. His research interests include teaching and learning in higher education, graduate employability, teacher education, international education and TESOL.
Phan Thanh Ngoc Phuong
Phan Thanh Ngoc Phuong is a lecturer at School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University. She is interested in conducting research to improve her teaching. Her research interests include TESOL, student-centred teaching methods, and teacher professional development.
Tran Le Kim Huong
Tran Le Kim Huong is a freelance English teacher. She likes doing research in TESOL, teacher professional development, pedagogical practices, and teaching young children.