Transnationalization of Professional Identities: A Study of Five Vietnamese TESOL Educators
Sparks, Jason
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/71895
Description
Title
Transnationalization of Professional Identities: A Study of Five Vietnamese TESOL Educators
Author(s)
Sparks, Jason
Issue Date
2008
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Rizvi, Fazal
Department of Study
Educational Policy Studies
Discipline
Educational Policy Studies
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Bilingual and Multicultural
Education, Administration
Abstract
In Vietnam, a recent national educational policy reform narrates a process in which Vietnamese university TESOL educators study in MA and PhD programs at universities in English-speaking countries in order to engage with "key global achievements and international approaches," and through this engagement, transform their professional practices and return to Vietnam to assist their home institutions in "adopting" these "global" practices. While this policy process narrates the transformation of professional practice, it does not account for the ways professional identity transformation is a key part of this process. Following James Paul Gee's (2001) suggestion to use "identity as a theoretical lens for education research," this inquiry seeks to understand the ways five Vietnamese TESOL university educators have transformed their professional identities through their engagement with the spaces and practices of what this research analyzes as the 'emerging transnational academic TESOL community' during their overseas study. Using qualitative, ethnographic methods, this research finds that national policy aims have been realized to the limited extent that the professional identities of these educators were transformed around an allegiance to "key global achievements and international approaches"; however, the policy aims are unrealized to the extent that these educators, upon return to the Vietnamese academic context, find that their capacity to provide the leadership narrated in policy is mitigated by a range of critical obstacles to sustaining and developing their transformed identities as educators and researchers.
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