FACTORS INFLUENCING THE EDUCATIONAL AND CAREER

CHOICES OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS:

A CASE STUDY IN VIETNAM

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF HAW AIT IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN

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EDUCATION

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August 2009
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By
Thuy T. La
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Dissertation committee:
Stacey Roberts, Chairperson
Ronald H. Heck

David P. Ericson
Frank C. Walton
Graham V. Crookes
 UMI Number: 3378315

Copyright 2009 by
La, Thuy T.

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Copyright page

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in
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1

Overview 1

Statement of the problem 5

Purpose of the study 6

Need and significance of the study 6

Research questions 9

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Terminology and definitions 10

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE IE 13

Contextual factors 14

Parental, family, and role model influence 14

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The influence of socio-economic and school structure factors 21

The influence of individual factors 28

The influence of gender 33

The challenges and perceived barriers in the educational and career decision-making 40
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Summary 45

CHAPTER 3. A BRIEF REVIEW OF SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT 48

Overview of Vietnam Education Systems 48

General Education System 48

Postsecondary Education 50

Vocational Education System 51

International partnerships and investors to Vietnam's Education 52

Education for Vietnamese Youth: Current Issues and Problems 53

Vietnam Education for the 21 s t century: National Strategies 58

The Need to Socialize Vocational and Technical Education in Schools and Society 61

CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY 64

Introduction 64

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 Study Sample 66

Participants 66

School characteristics 69

Instrumentation and data collection 72

Theoretical framework 73

Data analysis 75

The role of the researcher 80

Limitations 81

CHAPTER 5. ANALYSIS & FINDINGS 83

Descriptive data findings 83

Findings 84

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Influence of contextual factors 86

Influence of individual factors: Students' beliefs and students GPA 96

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Gender Influence on Educational and Career aspirations

Perceived challenges and difficulties:

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The cases of four Vietnamese senior high school students: Picture of reality 117
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Summary 123

CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION 124

Discussion 124
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Recommendations for policy and practice 132

Recommendations for policy 133

Recommendations for practice 134

Implications for future research 135

APPENDIX A STUDENT INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 136

APPENDIX B PARENT INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 137

APPENDIX C STENDENT DEMOGRAPHICS SURVEY 138

APPENDIX D PARENT DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY 139

REFERENCES 140

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to dedicate this dissertation to my mother Hua, Thi So and my father La,
Thanh Son, my little daughter Ngoc Nguyen, and the rest of my family. Thank you for
your unconditional love, selfless support and faith in me.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my committee members Dr. Graham V.
Crookes, Dr. David P. Ericson, Dr. Ronald H. Heck, Dr. Frank C. Walton, and especially
my chairwoman Dr. Stacey Roberts for your dedicated support and encouragement. You
all have inspired me and motivated me to achieve this endeavor. Your expertise,
knowledge, and inspiration have been invaluable for my study in the University of
Hawai' i at Manoa.

I also want to thank my mentors at the East West Center, particularly: Terry

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Bilgake, Mendl Djuinaidy, Mary Hammond, Kim Small, Puongpun Sananikone, Thanh
Lo Sananikone, the scholarship officers at the International Fellowship Program and
Center for Educational Exchange with Vietnam (CEEVN) Minh Kauffman; Nguyen, Thu
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Huong, Nguyen, Thanh Binh, and many other mentors at the EWC that I don't have
enough space to thank properly. Being in the East West Center and the Ford Foundation
Fellowship community, I have gained valuable experiences and friendships in a unique
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cultural environment that I cannot find anywhere else.

I'd like to thank the International Fellowship Program and the East West Center
for their generous funding of my research and education. With your support, I have had
this wonderful opportunity to widen my horizons.
PR

In addition, I would like to thank my mentors and colleagues at the Curriculum

Research & Development Group: Dr. Judith Olson, Dr. Melfried Olson, Jonnine Sova
and the rest of the folks at CRDG. You're awesome supporters.

I am grateful for my friends' tireless help and cheers. I'm thankful for all of my
friends who stand by me through the rough time, through hardship and through the
celebration of my journey. I can't tell how much I am grateful for your encouragement,
your thoughtful help, your inspiration, your friendship and love. For all of you, my
friends, whom I can't list all your names here, you know my gratitude is always with you.
You know I always remember you.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank the students, their parents, teachers, school
administrators, and my friends who helped me during my fieldwork. Without you, this
dissertation would be impossible.

Thank You All for being with me on this journey!

I look forward to seeing you in my next adventure!

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 ABSTRACT

This exploratory qualitative study examined factors that could influence the
educational and career decision-making of the senior students in the Northern part of
Vietnam. The researcher was interested in the students and their parents' perceptions of
the contextual factors, gender, individual factors, and the challenges that contribute to the
students' academic and career decision-making. Based on previous studies, the
conceptual framework of this study consists of the contextual factors that are
characteristics of the larger system around the students, the individual factors relate to
students' academic achievement, the beliefs and values students and parents have
regarding occupational interests, and the gender factor.
Ninety-five students and 47 parents from 12 public schools in Hanoi, Yen Bai,

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Lao Cai participated in this study. Qualitative data was collected from individual
interviews. The students came from four different types of schools: the regular urban
public high schools, the public tracking high school, the center for vocational and
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technical orientation, and the regular rural public high school. The analysis was
conducted on the ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis program to investigate how the
contextual factors, individual factors and gender influenced the Vietnamese senior high
school students' educational and career choices. The researcher also analyzed the
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challenges perceived by the students and their parents.
The results showed that these factors: parents' support, residence area, school
structure, gender, the students' values and beliefs, and their grade point average have
considerable influence on the Vietnamese senior high school students' educational and
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career choices. The findings were discussed in term of implications for educational policy
in the context of Vietnam, implications for practice and for future study. This study
contributed to the knowledge base of education in Vietnam and comparative education in
the context of Asia and Pacific region.

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. The Education System of Vietnam Source: MOET (2007b) 50

Figure 2.Conceptual framework of students' educational and career choices study 74
Figure 3. Coding in ATLAS.ti (Friese, 2002-2008) 79

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VIII
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Parent participants' characteristics 67

Table 2. Student participants' characteristics 68
Table 3. Number of total students in Province A schools (school year 2007-2008) 71
Table 4. Number of total students in province B schools (school year 2007-2008) 71
Table 5. Number of total students in province C schools (school year 2007-2008) 72
Table 6. Response rates of participants regarding demographic data 83
Table 7. Factors influenced Vietnamese senior high school students' educational and career
choices 86
Table 8. Students' choices of careers 93

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IX
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Overview

In the last decade, the Vietnamese government has promoted economic and social

changes in many areas, including education. Vietnam's economy has developed

considerably. According to the Asian Development Bank, Vietnam's Gross Domestic

Product (GDP) increased by 7.5 % overall in the past decade, and placed second only

after China in the South East Asia region (ADB, 2007). Vietnam's workforce increased

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by 6 million persons during 1991-1997, of whom the state sector absorbed 155,000 (three

percent), and the non-state sector the remaining 5,865,000 - mostly in agriculture (two
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million), industry (898,000), trade (1.38 million), and across most other sectors

(McCarty, 1999).
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The socioeconomic transformations have been largely due to the utilization of

structural changes in socioeconomic applications with the international financial support

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and monitoring of the leading international institution such as the World Bank, and the

Asian Development Bank. The Vietnamese government has achieved changes in not only

the socioeconomic sector but also within the educational system. Culturally, Vietnamese

people have strong beliefs in the value of education. In Vietnam, there are popular

sayings "Literacy makes one a man" ("Hoc de lam nguoi"), and "Respect your teacher

and practice ethics" ("Ton su trong dao").

Since the success of the revolution in 1945, Vietnam has undergone a number of

educational reforms (MOET, 1990). According to the Ministry of Education and

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Training, the country experienced four earlier reforms (MOET, 1990). The first

educational reform took place in 1950 with the establishment of a nine -year education

system. The reform focused on developing citizens loyal to democratic republic. The

second reform was in 1956 with the creation of the 10-year education system. The goals

of this reform were to promote ethical education and stress the links between learning and

practice, and society and schools. The third reform was after 1975 with the aim of

unifying the education systems of the North and the South. In this period, the government

developed the long-term strategy for education development.

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The fourth reform occurred in 1981 with the establishment of the new 12-year

educational system that also included the education of students with disabilities, and for
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gifted students. The aim of the reform is "to turn out citizens equipped with socialist
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spirit, national character and professional ability" (MOET, 1990, p. 15). In this period,

vocational education became part of the education system, and pre-school education was

added as well. In 1990, the Vietnam education system became even more diverse,
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including preschool education, and general education (MOET, 1990, p. 16). Pre-school

education included home-school, seasonal, shift-based kindergartens, factory-area, office-

based kindergartens, full-time and part-time preschool classes, and boarding pre-school

classes. General education included normal school, semi public schools, private school

and universities, classes for underprivileged, home-based classes, semi boarding school,

boarding school, schools for the talented in physical training, art, literature, information

science, mathematics, foreign languages, and school for the disability, work-based

schools, training schools, schools for the ethnic minorities, part-time complementary

education schools, workshops for adults, vocational schools, and factory-based classes.

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 The next reform in the school year 2006-2007 focused on the MOET

implementation of the high school tracking programs. There were three tracking

programs: (1) natural science track, (2) social science and humanity track, (3) the basic

education track (Lan, 2007 ). According to the long-term plan of the MOET for the years

2007-2010, the current reform is focusing on the agendas to improve the quality of public

education and the linkage between education and employment. These agendae are the

government responses to the public demand and criticism of higher educational quality

and for human resource development. The Ninth Congress of Vietnam Communist Party

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has affirmed the overall goals of the socio-economic strategic plan for 2001-2010 as

follows: "To bring our country out of an under-developed situation, to increase

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significantly the level of material, cultural and spiritual life of people, to lay down the

foundation for our country to become basically an industrialized, modernized nation by

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2020".

However, the education system in Vietnam has disparities in terms of technical

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and vocational (so called post secondary education) and academic training (so called

general higher education). In the school year 2000-2001, there were about 18 million

high school students. Subsequently, 1.4 million students attended colleges and

universities while only about 200,225 students attended technical and vocational schools.

Overall, the vocational training enrollment had almost doubled from 1997 to 2000, but

the number of students enrolled in vocational and technical education, which also known

as post secondary educational institutions, apart from the colleges and universities,

accounted for only about one percent of general higher education that include colleges

and universities (MOET, 2007a).

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 Although increasing in the quantity of students served and programs offered, the

Vietnamese education system has been criticized about its quality and performance of

public schools and the education to prepare youth for the workforce. The public has

complained that the education system does not prepare high school students and youth

with the necessary skills to help them make effective transitions to the workforce and

higher education. Recently, the issue of technical and vocational education has become a

concern in the Vietnam Education Strategy for the 21 st century. In the era with rapid

change of technology, globalization and international markets, the Vietnamese

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government acknowledges that it is an imperative for Vietnam to develop its educational

system in order to meet the demand of society for a creative, adaptable and multi-tasking

labor force (MOET, 2007b).

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Vietnam has a young population. In 2003, those aged 35 and younger accounted

for 23.2 % of the total population ((N. A. Dang, Le, & Nguyen, 2005, p. 4). With the

rapid urbanization, many young people have migrated to the urban and central areas.
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Research suggests that the growing migration of unskilled trained youth toward city and

urban areas will likely increase unemployment and society's chaos. According to

researchers, (N. A. Dang, et al., 2005, p. 6) by 2003, youth residence in the urban areas

had increased to 25 % of the total youth population. This reflects the dominance of young

adults in rural-to-urban migration flows during the 1990s. Dang et al (2005, p.6) found

that "Vietnamese young people aged 15-24 find it more difficult to get jobs than adults of

25 years of age and above." The research showed that youth unemployment accounts for

45 % of all unemployment in Vietnam. For the country as a whole, young people of

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working age in the labor force are twice as likely to be unemployed as the adult

population.

Statement of t h e p r o b l e m

In a period of constant changes in Vietnam due to the globalization that highlights

the need for a dynamic education, as well as criticism about preparation of high school

students for new demand of work, I proposed to investigate the issues that could have

impact on the Vietnamese senior high school students' decision-making. Specifically, I

examined how the students and their parents perceive the factors that contribute to their

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decision regarding the students' educational and career choices. I focused on how senior

high school students of different backgrounds make decisions about their educational and
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career plans. I explored how the contextual factors: parents' background, family and
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school support, school and community structure, family socioeconomic background; the

individual factors: students' academic achievement, students' beliefs and values; and

gender factor influence the Vietnamese senior students' educational and career choices.
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Several factors underline the decision to study this topic. First, in the growing

public debate of whether schools adequately prepare their students to make their

decisions about what they would do after high school graduation, there is a need to

understand the students' struggles, viewpoints, and perceptions. Second, there is a need to

understand the voices of parents about their children's decisions. Because students and

parents are key actors in the process of educational change, understanding the factors that

could have impact on their decision-making would be helpful for determining the

development of educational policies that will meet the needs of students. Finally, this

understanding will help educators, policymakers, family, and community members

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understand the nature of high school students' decision-making processes and their

relationship to future employment.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to investigate the factors that

influence the academic and career decision-making of 12th-grade Vietnamese students. In

particular, the study examines students and their parents' perceptions of the contextual

factors, gender, and individual factors that contribute to the students' academic and career

decision-making. The contextual factors consist of the characteristics of the larger system

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and include family and school support, school and community structure, family

socioeconomic background, and role models on students' viewpoints. The individual

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factors relate to the students' academic achievement, the beliefs and values students and
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parents have regarding occupational interests and the value of education. Last, I

examined how gender influences students' choices.

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Need and significance of the study

This research is based on the proposition that there is a need to better understand

the subjectivities, beliefs and values of Vietnamese senior high school students and their

parents on the topic of academic and career decision-making. Given criticism of the

education system in preparing students to meet new demands, the study extends the

understanding and knowledge of the role of family, and other factors that influence senior

high school students in their future plans. It will help to inform Vietnamese educators,

administrators, community members, family and policy makers about the issues and

factors that influence students' educational and occupation choices from both students'

and parent's perspectives.

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 The study of the factors that influence Vietnamese high school students' post-

graduation aspirations is important for several reasons. First, as Vietnam moves toward

globalization, a study of senior high school students' educational and career expectations

and plans will contribute to the discourse of the nation's capacity for human resources

development. Understanding these factors and their influence can help educators, families

and community members to guide their youth to make sound choices for their future.

Second, there are limited number of studies regarding the Vietnamese high school

students and their educational and career decision-making. In particular, there is no

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research that investigates how the different contextual factors of school structure

influence the Vietnamese senior high school students' educational and career choices.
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This study provides an in-depth investigation of the various factors that influenced

students' decisions regarding their educational and career plans. Third, the study gives
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Vietnamese high school students a voice in the discussion of vocational and academic

programs in the country. It is important to understand how students' awareness of the

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vocational and educational programs influences their decision about their educational and

career plans.

Finally, the study will contribute to a modest body of literature on Vietnam

educational research, especially in the K-12 educational system. The study will lay a

foundation for further exploration that will contribute to the process of educational policy

development for high school students and to help address one of the issues that surrounds

effective schooling and workforce development.

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 The conceptual model underlying this study represented a combination of the

theoretical frameworks used in previous research. First, I employed the gender model

developed by Watson, Creed and Patton (2003). As their studies (Jacobs, Chhin, &

Bleeker, 2006; Paa & McWhirter, 2000; Watson, Creed, & Patton, 2003; Watt, 2006)

suggested, gender has a pronounced influence on adolescents' career and educational

decision-making. A previous study (Khuat, 1992) showed that gender influenced the

parent's attitudes toward students' career choices, I used gender framework to explore

whether gender influence the Vietnamese senior high school students' academic and

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career choices.

Second, I employed a contextual model used by former researchers (Diemer,

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2007; Khuat, 1992; McMahon & Watson, 2005). These researchers suggested a number

of contextual factors that could influence the students' educational and career choices
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such as career maturity, perceived barriers, perceived supports, the need for information

(McMahon & Watson, 2005, p. 239), the instrumental and relational support of parents,
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the instrumental school support (Diemer, 2007), and the role of parents and family social

economic situation (Khuat, 1992).

For this study, I proposed that contextual factors consist of the characteristics

related to society and educational system such as family and school support, school and

community structure, family socioeconomic background, and role models on students'

viewpoints. The framework suggests that family and social support have considerable

influence on the adolescents' academic and career decision-making. Numerous studies

suggest that parent and school support have instrumental influences on students'

educational and career choices (Hargrove, Inman, & Crane, 2005; Jodl, Michael,

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Malanchuk, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2001; Trice & Knapp, 1992). Studies also indicate that

parents' beliefs and family socioeconomic background have considerable influences on

youth's educational and career plans.

The individual factor framework includes self-efficacy beliefs, students' academic

achievement and values. Bandura's social learning model, the Social Cognitive Career

Theory, posits that interests, goals, and performance attainment are facilitated through the

key constructs of self-efficacy (beliefs about content specific abilities) and outcome

expectations, (beliefs about the positive or negative consequences of content-specific

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outcomes) (cited in (Wettersten, et al., 2005, p. 658). Researchers report that self-efficacy

beliefs strongly influence the choice of majors and career decisions of college students.
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High self-efficacy in turn is expected to influence academic and career choices (Zeldin &

Pajares, 2000). As mentioned above, the research framework is built on the three theories
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of factors influencing the senior high school students' educational and career choices: the

contextual factors, the individual factors and the gender factor.

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Research questions

The following specific questions guided my research:

1. What factors do parents and students perceive influence the Vietnamese senior high

school students' educational and career choices?

2. What challenges do students perceive influence their educational and career plan?

As previous studies showed that gender, contextual factors and individual factors

play important roles on students' educational and career choices, I chose the a conceptual

framework that employs these three groups of factors to explore whether these factors

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 would have influence on the Vietnamese senior high school students. The reason I chose

to investigate the influence of these three factors on the Vietnamese senior high school

students' educational and career choices that is because former studies on the influence of

these three factors on students' choices had been conducted in the U.S (Jacobs, Chhin, &

Bleeker, 2006; Paa & McWhirter, 2000; Watson, Creed, & Patton, 2003); Australia

(Watt, 2006); Bahamas island in the Caribbean (Rowland, 2004); Canada (Davey, 1993);

Fiji (Nilan, Cavu, Tagicakiverata, and Hazelman, 2006); Holland (Taal, and Sampaio de

Carvalho, (1997); Thailand (Moenjak & Worswick, 2003); Turkey (Aypay, 2003); and

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Vietnam ( Khuat, 1992; Ngo, 2005). This indicates that gender, contextual and individual

factors have the likely transferability in the context of a study on factors influencing the
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Vietnamese senior high school students' educational and career choices.
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Terminology and definitions

Following are the terms used in this dissertation:

• Vocational orientation, or Vocational-Technical guidance: in this study, these

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three terms are interchangeable. They all are used to refer to vocational and technical

guidance as the same meaning of Vocational guidance (according to Webster New World

Dictionary & Thesaurus).

• Vocational guidance: the work of testing and interviewing persons in order to

guide them toward the choice of a suitable vocation or toward training for such vocation

(Webster New World Dictionary & Thesaurus, Macmillan Publishers, Version 2.0, 1998)

• Vocational schools: refers to polytechnic college, or polytechnic high school,

vocational schools.

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 Tertiary Education: in this study it refers to formal education at college and

university.

Vocational & technical schools: schools that provide vocational or technical

training programs for nine months and up to three years.

College/University: Formal Higher Education Institution that provides an

academic higher education program with specific professionals with time lasting from

four years to seven years.

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Senior high school students: Vietnamese high school students who are currently

in the 12th grade and in the final semester of their program.

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MOET: Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training.
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Center for Continuing Education and Vocational, Technical Orientation: In

Vietnam, these schools are located in local district and center of each province or city.
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They are supervised directly by the provincial department of education (DOE), and the

provincial People's Committee. This type of school is exclusively for adults who want to

pursue a high school diploma but did not pass the entrance exam for the general public

school, or for adults who are older than the general high school students' age. The

curriculum is also nationwide but it differs from the curriculum of general and tracking

high schools, as students only need 2 years to finish the high school curriculum. These

centers offer some vocational and technical training for their students with certificate of

basic vocational and technical skills.

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• Public high school: In Vietnam, the public school system includes regular public

high school, tracking high school and center for continuing education and vocational and

technical orientation. The local department of education supervises the public schools.

The provincial People's Committee also supervises centers of continuing education and

vocational technical orientation. The schools use nation-wide curriculum.

• Noble job: In the context of Vietnam, this definition refers to the jobs that

required highly skilled laborers, with a college or university diploma.

• Dirty job: In the context of Vietnam, this refers to the manual jobs that performed

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by unskilled labors.
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This dissertation is organized into six chapters. Following this introduction to the

study, Chapter Two presents a review of the relevant literature. In Chapter Three, there is
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an overview of educational system in Vietnam, including a brief history. Chapter Four

provides an overview of method used to collect and analyze the data. Chapter Five
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includes the study's findings, and the conclusions are presented in Chapter Six.

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CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Previous studies have established the foundation of understanding the factors that

influence students' educational and career decisions. This chapter presents summaries of

the key contemporary studies related to high school and college students and their future

educational and career plans. Numerous researchers have addressed the influences of

gender on students' occupational choices and preferences (Jacobs, et al., 2006; Paa &

McWhirter, 2000; Watt, 2006) the influential roles of parents and family (Hargrove, et

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al., 2005; Jodl, et al., 2001; Trice & Knapp, 1992). Other research has examined the

influence of socioeconomic status (Gaunt, 2005; Moenjak & Worswick, 2003) and self-
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efficacy (Menchaca, 1996), as predictive factors of educational and career decision-
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making. Researchers have identified contextual factors that play important roles in the

students' educational and career choices, such as career maturity, perceived barriers and

perceived supports, and the need for information (McMahon & Watson, 2005, p. 239).
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This literature review presents the previous findings related to factors and the

perceived challenges that influenced students' educational and career choices. The review

includes not only findings from international perspectives but also from some studies in

Vietnam. The literature review in this chapter is organized in to five main the sections.

The first examines the contextual factors that surround students such as the role of

parents and family, socioeconomic status, and the need for information. The second

section focuses on research about individual factors such as their beliefs, their values,

their academic achievement, and self-efficacy. The third section examines research

related to the influence of gender on students' choices about careers and education post

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high school. The fourth section presents previous findings about challenges and perceived

barriers to students' educational and career choices. Last section summarizes the previous

key findings on the topic of factors influencing students' educational and career choices.

Contextual factors

Parental, family, and role model influence

Researchers (Diemer, 2007; Jodl et al, 2001; Hargrove, Inman and Crane, 2005;

Khuat, 1992; Davey, 1993) highlighted contextual factors provided evidences that the

instrumental and relational support of parents; parental belief, values, and behaviors;

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pattern of family interactions; parents' characteristics such as their education, gender,

age, income and occupation; and the high degrees of family expressiveness and
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relationship had important influence on the students' choices of academic and career.

Previous researchers (Davey, 1993; Khuat, 1992) also suggested that the socioeconomic
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status (SES) and the diploma doctrine played important roles in the adolescents' decision-

making regarding their academic and career choices.

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For example, Diemer (2007) examined the instrumental and relational support of

parents (i.e. how often parents spend time and interact with their children) and the

instrumental school support upon work salience and vocational expectations of the poor

youth of color (PYCO). The National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) data were

used for this study. NELS is a large-scale survey of American high school students that

examines their transition into work and/or post-secondary education. The NELS survey

began in 1988 when students were in eighth grade, and followed them through senior

high school, and two years after high school.

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