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Where be the ‘magic bullet’ for educational change? Vietnam and the quest of policy borrowing from abroad

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Abstract

This paper is a reflection upon my previous research on an educational reform initiative in Vietnam that was borrowed from Colombia’s renowned Escuela Nueva model. In addition to being situated within the global phenomenon of policy lending/borrowing, or policy transfer, this case also reflects the prevalence of policy borrowing in Vietnam’s contemporary educational policy-making. Through a reflection of Vietnam Escuela Nueva and various cosmopolitan traces within Vietnamese education policy-making, I will highlight the constant thread of Western modernity as an anchoring reference in the pursuit of educational change. In this particular context of Vietnam as a supposedly postcolonial developing country, learning from abroad is always a process intertwined with questions of coloniality.

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Notes

  1. For citations of Vietnamese in this paper, I use the author’s full name in the convention of last name-middle name-first name, unless the author has indicated a preference for the Western convention (last name, first initial).

  2. Comment posted in the online discussion comment of “Bo Giao duc Chinh thuc Giai dap Thac mac Ve Du an Mo hinh Truong hoc Moi (VNEN) [MOET Officially Responds to Questions about the New School Model (VNEN)]”, published on Giao Duc Viet Nam [Vietnamese Education] newspaper, December 10, 2015. Retrieved from http://giaoduc.net.vn/Giao-duc-24h/Bo-Giao-duc-chinh-thuc-giai-dap-thac-mac-ve-du-an-mo-hinh-truong-hoc-moi-VNEN-post164022.gd.

  3. Some critics have suggested that Vietnam’s high performance on the PISA is due to its low secondary enrollment rate, third lowest in all the countries participating in PISA 2015. In other words, the students who remain in school by the time they take the PISA test (age 15) tend to be from a higher socioeconomic status (Steiner-Khamsi 2019).

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Funding

Funding was provided by Swarthmore College (US) (Grant No. J. Roland Pennock Fellowship).

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  1. International Education Policy, University of Maryland – College Park, Benjamin Building, College Park, MD, 20740, USA

    Le Minh Hang

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Le, M.H. Where be the ‘magic bullet’ for educational change? Vietnam and the quest of policy borrowing from abroad. J Educ Change 21, 455–466 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09370-7

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