DEL PATRIMONIO DE LA FAMILIA CAPITULO UNICO

Teacher Profile District Profile

Mai Mai is the pilot teacher in District A and has been following the new curriculum and textbooks since 2010. She has permanent contractual status. Mai has been teaching for 14 years. She started working as an English language teacher in a secondary school and became a primary English language teacher in 2003. She has been working in her current school for five years. Her school is large with over 1,800 students and her classes have around 63 students. Mai attended both the local teacher training college and university and was trained to be a teacher of secondary level English language. There are two other English teachers in her school who are not on permanent contracts.

District A

District A is a growing residential and commercial area with a population of around 140,000 (Hanoi Government Portal, 2009) and is one of 12 urban districts in the province. It is a relatively affluent district and parents are keen to send their children to private language centres for extra English tuition. There has been recent, rapid expansion in the number of newly built high rise residential and commercial buildings. As with all urban districts in the province, District A has seen a rising influx of people from outer-lying rural areas over the last five years putting pressure on available places for the top state schools. This has led to large class sizes, often over 60 students in some schools. There are 16 primary schools in the district and 45 primary English language teachers, with 28 of those having permanent contractual status in their schools.

Bao Bao is on a permanent contract and has been teaching for 6 years. Her school started following the new curriculum and textbooks in 2011. There are approximately 1000 students in her school and she has around 50 students in her classes. There are two other hourly-paid English teachers in her school. Bao attended the local teacher training college to train to be an English language teacher at secondary level. She also has a BA in Interpretation and Translation.

Nhung Nhung started teaching in 2001 in her current primary school. She is on a permanent contract and there are four other English teachers in her school, all of whom are also on permanent contracts. Her school is large and modern with around 2000 students from Grade 1 to Grade 5. She has about 60 students in her classes. Nhung was trained to be a secondary English language teacher and attended the local teacher training college.

Lien Lien is the ‘pilot teacher’ in District B and became involved in the implementation of the new curriculum in September 2010. She has been teaching for 12 years and became a permanent teacher in 2008. She graduated from the local teacher training college with a teaching certificate in teaching English at secondary level and then went on to complete a BA in English language teaching at university.

Her school is smaller than the ones in the urban districts and there are around 800 students. Lien has about 35 students in her class. There is one

District B

District B is a rural district with a total population of about 205,000 (Hanoi Government Portal,2009). The majority of people are employed in agriculture, although it is becoming increasingly urban with improved road links and infrastructure projects. As the teachers report, English is

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other hourly-paid English teacher in her school. hardly used outside the school setting and the majority of parents do not speak English. Unlike District A, there are few private language centres or schools where parents can send their children.

Class sizes are smaller than in the urban districts and most classes in the two schools I visited have around 35 students. Being located in a rural area, schools have more space to expand, and the two schools I visited had bigger classrooms than in the urban districts and a

spacious outside playground. There are 24 primary schools in the district and around 36 English language teachers (24 of whom are on permanent contracts) Chi Chi has been working as a primary teacher for 9

years and became a permanent teacher 4 years ago. She started implementing the new

curriculum and using the new textbooks in September 2011. She attended the local teacher training college and was trained to teach at secondary level.

Chi has around 35 students in her classes. She is the only English teacher in her school.

Thanh Thanh is the ‘pilot teacher’ in District C. He has been a primary English language teacher for 16 years working in the same school. He is on a permanent contract. Like the other pilot teachers, he started implementing the new curriculum in September 2010. He graduated from university with a BA in teaching English at secondary level. There is one other hourly-paid teacher working in the school.

District C

District C is a small urban district with a population of around 107,000. It is located in the old part of the

provincial city and the architecture of the old buildings means that it is very difficult to expand school areas to

accommodate the growing number of students. There are 14 primary schools in the district and these have around 60 students in a class. This district services a relatively wealthy population and most parents are able to send their children to private language centres for extra lessons.

Chau Chau has been teaching English at primary level for 18 years. She is a permanent teacher. She has been implementing the new curriculum in her school since 2011. She graduated from university with a BA in teaching English at secondary level. She is the only English teacher in her school.

Table 5.1 Profile of teachers and their districts

The names of the teachers have been changed. Throughout this chapter I include extracts from classroom observations and interviews. I have coded them to show the particular teacher and data source. So for example:

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(T.Mai.INT1/4.11.13) refers to Interview 1 with (teacher) Mai from District B on 4 November 2013.

(T.Bao.O3/10.4.14) refers to the third observation follow-up interview I had with Bao on 10 April 2014.

(T.Mai.LO3/11.4.14) refers to the third lesson observation I had with Mai on 11 April 2014.

(T.Thanh.TGP/18.4.14) refers to an extract from Thanh during the group interview with the three pilot teachers on 18 April 2014.

(T.Chau.TGNP.translation/17.4.14) refers to an extract from Chau during the group interview with the four non-pilot teachers on 17 April 2014.

Where the teachers’ words have been translated, I indicate this as above.