Educator-Led Pedagogical Transformations in Vietnam: An Introduction

This chapter introduces the purpose and content of the volume, including an overview of each of the eleven chapters contributed by progressive educators in Vietnam’s higher education system. It reviews the concept of creativity as it relates to higher education in general and the policy agenda in Vietnam specifically, which shows that creativity in Vietnam is conceptualized as an individual attribute that can be cultivated for achieving digital transformation and socioeconomic development. Generational conditioning shapes creativity as a youth attribute, but creativity is nominated in policy more broadly. Situating creativity as a bottom-up approach to educator-led pedagogical reform, the chapter summarizes the content covered in the volume, including: becoming a twenty-first-century educator, using quality assurance processes to enhance educator and institutional autonomy, managing top-down and bottom-up contributions to curriculum reform, implementing sustainability in curriculum and assessment, transformation of student learning spaces, upskilling teachers and resourcing classrooms to teach industry skills, teaching beyond the classroom for building skills and moral development, engaging with ethical practice in higher education, trailing innovative teaching methods that challenge the existing paradigm, formalizing professional development and communities of practice among educators, reflecting on the translation of internationalization into local programs, and building professional integrity among educators who are navigating Vietnam’s higher education system as it transforms to meet the needs of its multiple stakeholders and national development priorities.