Maintaining teachers’ face in the context of change: results from a study of Vietnamese college lecturers’ perceptions of face

Abstract

Gaining and saving face are very important in Vietnam as a mechanism of social control, including the professional behaviour of teachers. Interviews with 15 lecturers (aged 24–37) at a teacher training college in a Central Coast province of Vietnam illustrated the relationship between their concepts of face and their beliefs about good teaching. Most were still strongly influenced by traditional Confucian beliefs about the role and position of teachers, the nature of teachers’ knowledge and the relationship between teachers and students. On the other hand, some teachers also were aware of, and to a limited extent open to, more modern ideas that seemed to be related to broad social changes and reforms in approaches to teaching and learning in recent decades in Vietnam. The findings suggest that some teacher educators are uncertain about the value of traditional professional wisdom in the context of critical changes in society and in education. The research also suggests that the concepts of face and saving face are important for teachers’ sense of agency, and that Vietnamese educational authorities could increase the effectiveness of innovations in teacher education by paying attention to the influence of concepts of face on the teachers’ beliefs and behaviours.