HANOI UNIVERSITY (HANU) FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ----------oOo---------- BACHELOR THESIS *** Homeschooling - an emerging tendency for family's choices in Vietnam Supervisor: Luong Minh Phuong, Ph. Student: Trieu Hoan Thang Class: 3Q-17 Date: 17th May, 2021 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Graduation thesis of a bachelor program is an important milestone in one’s life. When one accomplishes it, there are numerous people to thank. First, of course, both my father – Colonel Trieu Hoan Hao and my mother – Dress-maker Nguyen Thi Hai Duong, who gave birth to me, deserve more thanks than I could ever give.
They have known how significant the accomplishment of this degree of International Studies is to me. Also, seeing me complete this work overnight, they were extremely nervous about my health status, but they never cease encouraging me to do my best towards higher destinations in my life. With sincere gratitude I would like to thank my instructor - PhD Luong Minh Phuong - one of the best lecturers in my faculty, who excels in teaching numerous areas such as Cultural Anthropology, Human Rights & National Policies and Research Methodology for many years with her own experiences. Thanks to her devoted and enthusiastic dedication, I was brave enough to challenge myself and exceed my limit to explore homeschooling - one of the least common issues in Vietnam, and my study was done flawlessly.
Furthermore, I was extraordinarily inspired by her life experience, her academic talents and her own working styles, which urges me to make my dream of pursuing postgraduate study as a professional researcher come true in the near future. Besides, I thank my lucky stars for having two sisters - also my teachers - Nguyen Ngoc Ninh and Trieu Thu Hang - both of who are working as a lecturer at ULIS- VNU. By their own experiences, they also gave me good counsel to improve my study. I am so proud of being their little brother and having two exceptional sisters.
Also, I am so grateful to several relatives consisting of my aunt Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh, my aunt Nguyen Binh Quyen and my cousins Nguyen Hong Nhat, Nguyen Thu Ha, my adorable nephews Luong Quang Minh, Luong Quang Khanh, and my adopted mother Nguyen Hong Loan for helping me to achieve a greater sense of confidence. Several dear friends have provided encouragement at just the right time. Their rapport, advocate and companionships will be permanently cherished. 2 Last but not least, I never have the words to adequately thank all the participants for their own valuable contributions to my research paper.
3 ABSTRACT The purpose of my research paper was to explore homeschooling - an emerging tendency for families’ choice and its legal conditions in Vietnam. Within the study, three key questions have been put forward: (1) What is the current situation of homeschooling in Vietnam?; (2) How are the social competence and well-being of children of these homeschooling families?; (3) Should homeschooling be promoted and integrated in the legal framework of Vietnam? If so, what are the necessary supports for its effectiveness under Vietnam’s educational context?. In order to address these research questions, a qualitative method was conducted to examine the common features amongst homeschool families in Vietnam (including overseas homeschooling their offspring in my country), the dynamics for parents to homeschool their kids, the pros and cons of this method of education for them and their kids. However, unlike previous research, which focused only on the parents’ standpoint, my work also covered the perceptions of homeschooled kids in order to explore what factors influence their social competence and their satisfactions when being homeschooled (along with their allowance).
The paper shows that homeschooled children in Vietnam are less socialized than traditionally-educated ones due to the small size of the homeschool community in Vietnam. Subsequently, there are four main factors influencing a homeschooled child: Peer relationships, family background, mass media and homeschool environment. Currently, homeschooling in Vietnam is neither legally banned nor recognized, so homeschooled children have troubles in taking part in higher levels of education. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………….
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………. 5 LIST OF FIGURES/TABLES…………………………. 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………. Purposes of study………………………………………… 11 1.
Research questions and hypothesis………………………. 12 Chapter 2 Literature Review………………………………………. Landscape of homeschooling worldwide………………… 14 2. The impact of homeschooling on child’s socialization and 16 development…………………………………………….
Challenges and Policies to support HS in Vietnam……… 18 Chapter 3 Research Methodology…………………………………. Rationale for the qualitative study………………………. Target group, population, participants……………………. Qualitative data collection & analysis…………………….
Potential Ethical Issues…………………………………… 24 Chapter 4 Research Results………………………………………… 25 4. The current situation of homeschooling in Vietnam……. Social competence and development of homeschooled 41 children…………………………………………………. Possibilities of homeschooling integrated in the legal 52 system of Vietnam……………………………………….
Summary of findings……………………………………. 55 Chapter 5 Discussion of findings…………………………………… 60 5. Recommendations for future research…………………… 64 5. 66 APPENDIX A…………………………………………… 73 APPENDIX B…………………………………………… 74 APPENDIX C…………………………………………… 75 6 APPENDIX D…………………………………………….
83 7 LIST OF FIGURES/TABLES Figure 1.1 Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory…………. Challenges for Homeschooling in Vietnam……………. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model applied to the 63 study of the development of students in the homeschool setting…………………………………………………. Levels of Education of homeschooling parents………… 30 Table 2.
Years of homeschooling experience until the year 2021, 31 family size and the number of homeschooled kids……… Table 3. Keywords for the demographic information on HS 31 families living in Vietnam………………………………. Keywords for monthly income and how much HS parents 32 spend on homeschooling their children per year………. People taking main responsibility for homeschooling the 33 kids and federal/provincial guidelines that those families are following…………………………………………….
The groups/organizations/curricula HS parents consult 34 about homeschooling information and the teaching methodologies applied …………………………………. Keywords for incentives for parents to homeschool their 36 children…………………………………………………. Keywords for the pros and cons of HS for parents ……… 38 Table 9. Keywords for the pros and cons of HS for kids under 39 parents’ standpoint……………………………………….
41 Parents’ attitudes towards impacts of HS on their children’s relationships and physical development……. 43 Parents’ attitudes towards impacts of HS on their children’s creativity and well-being……………………. Parents’ assessment for technological impacts on their 44 child’s communication capacity…………………………. Keywords for the most and least favourite things for HS 46 kids at home under HS kids’ view……………………… Table 14.
Keywords for HS kids’ attitudes towards formal schools 47 Table 15. Keywords for HS kids’ attitudes towards their physical 49 activities and interpersonal skills when learning at home/ The things that they want parents to add in the homeschooling curriculum…………………………… Table 16. HS kids’ preferences for physical book or e-book/The 50 way of Internet exploitation for learning………………. Keywords for HS kids’ friend-making on the Internet….
Parents and experts’ attitudes towards legal recognition 52 for HS in Vietnam……………………………………… Table 19. 55 The impacts of HS on three different levels of a homeschooled child……………………………………. Keywords for types of friends HS kids choose and the 57 distinction they found between themselves and others…. 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATION HS: Homeschool, Homeschooling, Homeschooled AP: Academic performance VN: Vietnam HN: Hanoi HCMC: Ho Chi Minh City LA: Long An province 10 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.
Research problems: It is irrefutable that a good education system is of vital importance to the development of a country, with educational institutes such as schools, colleges, universities bearing the obligation for the quality of future generations of the labor force. However, numerous parents in today’s society prefer educating their children at home in different ways to sending them to conventional private or public schools. Not until in 1993 did all 50 states in the U. make homeschooling a legal decision (Bales, 2018).
To be in detail, the number of homeschool individuals in the U.5 million students in the year of 2019 (Ray, 2021). In spite of being legalized in comparative a few countries, and being a debatable educational issue, Lauzon’s research in 2014 (as cited in Mincu, C., 2018) noted that homeschooling continued to show an upward tendency not only in the U., but also other nations throughout the world. Surrounding this topic, there are many heated debates. To exemplify, some maintain the view that this educational approach diminishes human’s socialization and there is a common conception that children only educated at home are totally socially deprived (Romanowsky, as Mincu, C.
That is, several scholars (Kunzman, Gaither, 2013) conducted a research “Homeschooling: A Comprehensive Survey of the Research” to argue the queries about socializing homeschooled individuals on a frequent basis appear with a concern that homeschooling prevents them from social interaction amongst formative groups and the achievement of social norms, beliefs and values. Supporters of education at home challenge these questions, while they doubt whether institutional education provides students with relevant forms of socialization (Mincu, C. Thus, the controversy arises. In Vietnam, the parents whose modern thoughts are paying attention to homeschooling methods.
In some municipalities, thanks to the advent of technological development, homeschool parents in different regions in Vietnam are able to connect to each other via closed Facebook groups such as Homeschooling in Vietnam, Pre-HSC 4.o in order to shape a community in which their offspring could seize the opportunities to develop themselves. Also, the content of these groups focuses on the exchange of homeschooling experiences and methods. According to Long (2020), there are three direct advantages 11 of this option: (1) improve child’s individualization, (2) address the formal education’s workload and (3) develop the bonds between children and their parents. However, Duong (2017) argued that homeschooling might possibly diminish a child’s socialization and development due to the lack of peer influences (p.
Besides, in terms of legal aspects, there are no rules that regulate homeschooling activities in Vietnam. According to the law, universalizing primary and secondary education is obligatory, which must take place within public/private schools by Vietnamese based on the common learning program established by the Ministry of Education and Training. That is, individuals who are homeschooled might have challenges in taking part in higher levels of education because of the lack of equivalent test results system. Furthermore, learning at home is different from homeschooling, so the parents’ fallacy not only prevents their children from participating in higher degrees, but also violates the children's rights' education (Duong, 2017).
The fight is not over. Purposes of study My research paper aims at generating different perceptions of homeschooling in Vietnam by homeschooling parents and three education specialists, exploring an emerging tendency of homeschooling and legal framework conditions in my country. Research questions and hypothesis: In order to fulfill all the purposes mentioned above and to make distribution the best results for audiences, I came up with these primary research questions as following: 1. What is the current situation of homeschooling in Vietnam? Probing: 1.
What are the features of homeschooling families living in Vietnam? 1. What are the reasons for adopting homeschooling for families living in Vietnam? 1. What are the pros and cons of homeschooling? 2. How are the socialization and/or development of children of these homeschooling families? Probing: 2.
What are the factors that influence homeschooled children’s socialization? 12 3. Should homeschooling be promoted and integrated in the legal framework of Vietnam? Why? If so, what are the necessary supports for its effectiveness under Vietnam’s educational context? Therefore, these are hypothesis that shall need further verification: 1. Homeschooled children have poor socialization competence. Parents of Vietnamese homeschooling families influence children’s socialization competence.
Home-schooled children are acquiring the rules of behaviour, and a system of beliefs and attitudes from different cultures (not only Vietnam’s culture) that are essentially important to them. 13 Chapter 2: Literature Review 2. Homeschooling “Home” is defined as the house, apartment, etc. where you live, especially with your family.
“School” is regarded as a place where children go to be educated. Thus, “homeschooling” is the teaching of children at home, usually by parents (dictionary. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries defines the term “homeschooling” as the practice of educating children at home, not in schools. Ray (2017) considered “homeschooling” as a form of private education that is parent led and home based which has taken place through history (p.