Vietnamese educational morality and the discursive construction of english language teacher identity

Vietnamese Educational Morality and the Discursive Construction of English Language Teacher Identity Phan Le Ha Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia Phan Van Que Hanoi Open University, Hanoi, Vietnam While recent debates on morality in English language teaching (ELT) tend to focus on how certain Western ethical and moral issues are related to other cultures, how non-Western teachers negotiate their identity with regard to morality has hardly been examined This paper explores processes of identity formation of Vietnamese teachers of English and aims to offer a qualitative analysis of the nature of Vietnamese teacher identity constructions and the relations between the various (personal, professional and moral) identity discourses More generally, the paper seeks to achieve a culturally grounded understanding of teacher identity discourse The study indicates that the Vietnamese participants’ understanding of the role of morality persists despite being teachers of English, a foreign language It also shows how deeply rooted this commitment to being a moral guide as teachers is in Vietnamese society and how it both puts pressures on teachers and simultaneously makes them feel proud and compelled to demonstrate morality It further demonstrates how these teachers’ attachment to this moral role is related to their negotiation and reconstitution of values and identities, particularly in the teaching of international English doi: 10.2167/md038.0 Keywords: identity, negotiation, morality, moral education, teacher identity Introduction The aim of education in Vietnam is to educate people to become good citizens in both knowledge and morality Teachers themselves are thus automatically assumed to be moral guides or role models (The Constitution of Vietnam, The Education Law of Vietnam) It is often believed that teachers tend to develop themselves both in knowledge and morality to meet the social, cultural and educational expectations as moral guides As such, teachers in Vietnam often find it necessary and important to educate students morally, no matter what subject they teach They care for personal development as well as knowledge achievement, and the former is closely associated with moral education Baurain (2004: 35) draws on a Vietnamese saying: ‘first learn the behaviour, then learn the lesson’ (tien hoc le, hau hoc van ) to acknowledge the essential role of morality and values in teaching, particularly in the field of English language teaching (ELT) He regards ‘teaching as a moral enterprise’ (p 35) and relates this to Johnston (2003) Johnston’s (2003) discussion of the role of 1744-7143/06/02 136-16 $20.00/0 Journal of Multicultural Discourses – 2006 Phan Le Ha and Phan Van Que Vol 1, No 2, 2006 136 Vietnamese Educational Morality 137 teachers as moral guides is in part similar to the role of teachers perceived in Vietnam Like Miller (2003), we find Johnston’s arguments on the role of morality in what it means to be a teacher significant, particularly when he teases out the complex and often contradictory moral dimensions of the language classroom when teachers must make a moral decision as they interact with students and how teachers’ beliefs influence their moral choices Edge (2003) and Pennycook and Coutand-Marin (2004) also strongly argue for the role of morality and ethics in ELT, urging teachers of English to take into serious consideration their jobs as teachers of English, who need to have morality and ethics in teaching as well As these authors observe that morality is often left out in ELT, it is important to explore it further and in a comprehensive manner This paper, hence, hopes to contribute to the ongoing and ‘quite recent’ discussion of morality and ELT and, more broadly, on the cultural diversity, peculiarity and complexity of foreign language teaching discourse, especially in a non-Western context as well as a culturalist approach to such issues On the one hand, exploring the role of morality in teacher identity and the teaching profession in Vietnam reflects its local relevance, as demonstrating morality has long been an indispensable and inseparable part of education in Vietnam Particularly in the context of globalisation, when many of the local educational values tend to be challenged by dominant Western values, demonstrating morality has become an even more daunting but important task On the other hand, the investigation of the role of morality specifically in Vietnamese education is useful for the understanding of localÁglobal interactions As seen in Edge (2003), Johnston (2003) and Pennycook and CoutandMarin (2004), much of the recently published debate on morality in ELT is concerned with how certain ethical and moral issues related to ‘the West’ are harmful and threatening to other cultures, such as doing missionary work through and incorporating Western values with the teaching of English However, almost nothing related to the role of morality in English education and how teachers of English negotiate their tensions in teaching English in non-Western contexts has been examined We, hence, find this lack of studies a big gap in the literature and a cause for the misunderstanding of teaching practices in diverse contexts Without knowledge of the local, global generalisation does not make sense To respond to the gap in the literature, this paper documents the role of morality in teacher identity and the teaching profession in Vietnam, and demonstrates how Vietnamese teachers of English resolve tensions between the social and professional moral pressure and the foreign values they encounter in teaching English This paper explores in particular how the processes of identity formation of a group of Vietnamese teachers of English took place with regard to how their role as moral guide was negotiated, constructed and reconstructed alongside the personal and/or the professional It also investigates their perceptions of their role as moral guides in their teaching of English The discussion of these teachers’ identity formation is based on the notions of identity as ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ (Phan, 1998; N.T Tran, 1999, 2001; Q.V Tran, 2000) and identity fastening and unfastening discussed by Reed (2001) 138 Journal of Multicultural Discourses Morality in the Teaching Profession Before discussing the role of morality in teacher development and the teaching profession in Vietnam, we acknowledge that morality is a complex concept Although we use the term ‘morality’ throughout the paper, we by no means treat it as a unified notion on which all Vietnamese agree Rather, we refer to it, in many cases, as socially acceptable and proper behaviour and manners, and in other cases, as dominant ethical values that are generally shared by the society Also, we are aware of a large body of research on morality in education in the field of general education (for example, Lu & Gao, 2004), but within the scope of this paper, we only draw on the literature that is specifically related to the paper’s aim and focus, that is the role of morality in teacher identity formation of Vietnamese teachers, especially those of English Historically, according to Duong (2002), the philosophies of the ancient Vietnamese education (Lac Viet) (around 2000 BC to AD), highlighted and advocated the sense of caring for and supporting each other and the sense of living in harmony with others as well as nature These philosophies aimed at nurturing individuals who are moral, ethical and live for others Duong (2002: 66) argues that the ancient Vietnamese education was developed on the basis of ‘realistic humanism’, which focused on the representation of and appreciation for values of individuals, families and the society These philosophies also offered teachers a very high and noble status in the society As the Lac Viet education was the education entirely dedicated to the people, which placed emphasis on moral education and took responsibilities for educating morally good individuals, the teachers in society were expected to demonstrate morality in all aspects of their lives This educational emphasis on morality was maintained among Vietnamese villages and communal societies during the 1000 years under Chinese colonisation (approximately from 111 BC to 938) Duong demonstrates that the Lac Viet educational philosophies had been developed and practised in Vietnam for at least a thousand years before Vietnam had contacts with China and emphasises that Confucian education was never the only education in Vietnam during the one-thousand-year Chinese colonisation and neither was it implemented everywhere in the country Taoism, for example, had entered and influenced the local philosophies before Confucianism Importantly, both Taoism and Buddhism blossomed in ancient Vietnam because these philosophies complemented the local philosophies and culture well Buddhist education was also considered the ‘national education’ during that time and it had significant influence on Vietnamese cultural identity (Duong, 2002: 62) While Confucian education was for the ‘elites’, those who worked for the colonial government, Buddhist education was for everyone Both Duong (2002) and Phan (1998) argue that monks and Buddhist devotees played a vital role in educating the masses The status of those Buddhist teachers was very high in the society, and through those teachers, the Lac Viet educational philosophies and Buddhism were maintained and enhanced, and the role of morality in education was consistently strengthened As Confucianism also put great emphasis on morality education, particularly highlighting the moral role of the teacher and the learner, it was not in conflict with the Lac Viet and Buddhism Vietnamese Educational Morality 139 education in ancient Vietnam Rather, these philosophies enhanced one another They all melded together to contribute to the values and morality of Vietnamese education This integrated educational philosophy continued to be maintained during feudal times (938Á1945) Duong (2002) indicates that teachers in feudal Vietnamese society did not differentiate between their responsibilities for the education of their students, the education of their families and the education of society All of these responsibilities were part of educating individuals with knowledge and morality The teachers in those days also presented themselves as morally good examples for students and for the society in every way Duong demonstrates that since the 15th century, the requirement that intellectuals also be moral models in Vietnamese society was formalised in Vietnamese feudal law, known as the Hong Duc Law In modern times, being a teacher in Vietnam always involves demonstrating morality by both behaving morally as individuals and giving students moral education Teacher morality and their roles regarding moral education are encoded in rules and regulations For example, the Constitution of Vietnam clearly states that: the aim of education is to form and nurture the personality, moral qualities to imbue [people] with good morality (Article 35) The Education Law clearly identifies the role, tasks and rights of the teacher in Articles 14, 61 and 63, in which the teacher: must constantly learn and train in order to set a good example for the learners discharge[s] their task, preserve[s] and develop[s] the tradition of respecting the teacher and glorifying the teaching job must have good moral qualities, ethics and ideology [is] to educate and teach according to the objective, principles and programs of education; to be exemplary in fulfilling the citizen’s duties, and observing the regulations of law and the statute of the school; to preserve the quality, prestige and honour of the teacher, respect the dignity of the learners, to behave justly with learners, and protect their legitimate rights and interests; to constantly study and train in order to raise their quality, ethics, professional and specialty standard and set good examples to the learners In terms of folklore and popular culture, this moral role of teachers in Vietnamese educational philosophies is reflected in Vietnamese proverbs, sayings, expressions and quotations (Breach, 2004, 2005; Duong, 2000; Mai, 1999) and music and poetry Breach’s (2004, 2005) findings on the Vietnamese notion of ‘a good teacher’ captures and reflects quite thoughtfully the culturally situated notions of the teacher embedded in Vietnamese society Below is the translated version of the 10 most commonly listed proverbs Breach (2004: 32) culled from lists suggested by her students in Vietnam 140 Journal of Multicultural Discourses (1) Without teachers, one can’t anything (2) He who teaches you one word is a teacher, he who teaches you half a word is also a teacher (3) If one wants to cross the water, build a bridge If one wants his child to be educated, respect the teacher (4) The first day of the Tet [Lunar New Year] holiday celebrates the father, the second day the mother, the third day the teacher (5) A teacher is like a fond mother (6) Like teacher, like student (7) Respect teachers, respect morality (8) Rice father, clothes mother, knowledge teacher (9) Teaching is the most noble profession among other noble professions (10) A teacher is an engineer of the soul Besides historical and folklore references, empirical studies about education in Vietnam also indicate the significant role of morality in teachers’ perceptions and enactments of their profession (for example, Kramsch & Sullivan, 1996; Le, 2001; Phan, 2004) These studies show that teachers of English in Vietnam incorporate their teaching of English with the need to demonstrate morality or good behaviour They enact their roles as both knowledge expert and moral guide and harmonise the seemingly contradictory roles of a ‘facilitator’ in teaching English and a moral guide as expected by Vietnamese society and their professional values Identity as ‘Being’ and ‘Becoming’ To make better sense of the processes of identity formation of the teachers in this study, it is important to understand how identity is viewed by Vietnamese scholars Their viewpoints are positioned within their discourses, which signal differences, similarities as well as uniqueness But this is not to say that their Vietnamese and personal discourses are static Rather, these are changing over time but hold on together to maintain the sense of connectedness and continuity Many Vietnamese authors argue that identity is about both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ This suggests stability within changes or changes that take place along the lines of continuity The ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ of identity tends to put emphasis on identity as national/cultural and the sense of belonging The ‘being’ of identity is understood as the constituents of Vietnamese cultural identity Tran (1999) offers a number of Vietnamese cultural constants, which determine the feature and development of the culture For example, in terms of natural condition: high level of rain and humidity ; in terms of geographical location: Vietnam being at the crossroad of civilisations ; in terms of traditional economy: water-based rice crops He argues that these Vietnamese distinctive values had been formed before cultural contacts with China occurred, and they are still present in the modern times Nevertheless, he states that these values are not absolutely everlasting and unchanged They change in appearance and content, but at the same time, remain relatively stable in content, developing alongside and sticking to a common thread, Vietnamese Educational Morality 141 which is composed of these above distinctive appearances His viewpoint suggests a degree of stability within dynamic change in understanding identity Phan (1998) also supports this Q.V Tran (2000), apart from sharing his perspectives with N.T Tran (1999, 2001) and Phan (1998), looks at Vietnamese culture from the angle of life experiences, values and traditions He remarks that the distinctiveness of Vietnamese culture is its non-refusing characteristic (Q.V Tran, 2000: 44) It only refuses forced assimilation; otherwise it is able to harmonise and integrate every cultural aspect Moreover, he observes that Vietnamese people pay most attention to their manner of behaviour These contribute to the formation of Vietnamese cultural identity In his opinion, the most important factor in sustaining the on-going development of a nation is to maintain its nationalness of its cultural identity (p 108) However, he also argues that traditions and values change Whether a behaviour or a cultural tradition is considered good or bad depends on historical circumstances Tradition embodies both stability and changeability (p 28) In light of these authors’ perspectives, it can be argued that cultural national identity is the platform on which all other multiple identities are mediated This gives a sense of belonging and highlights the sense of continuity and connectedness This is the very sense of continuity and connectedness that the teacher participants in this study strongly felt about their identity Identity Fastening and Unfastening To help better understand the identity formation of the teacher participants in this study, it is necessary to refer to other concepts of identity that signify identity formation as processes We find Reed’s (2001) notions of identity fastening and unfastening particularly relevant to the aim of this paper, as these notions operate efficiently in the contexts applying to the participants and help make clearer the fluidity as well as continuity in the processes of Vietnamese identity formation Identity fastening is referred to as ‘the work that individuals to claim insider status for themselves and for others’ (Reed, 2001: 329) Meanwhile, ‘identity unfastening often happens when individuals move from one cultural context into another where the norms and rules for membership are different’ (p 329) As Reed argues, ‘identities are fastened by the categories that we have available and by the ways that we submit to those categories and subject others to them’ (p 329) He also argues that individuals sometimes fasten identity so as to build a way to belong This suggests that an act of identity fastening somehow secures a sense of belonging for individuals But identities are always subject to being unfastened as individuals are in constant contact with new cultural values and norms as they move from one place to another Thus, identity fastening and unfastening take place side-by-side As Reed asserts, they ‘usually occur simultaneously and in multidimensional ways’ (p 329) Identity fastening and unfastening are part of the ongoing process of identity formation and identity negotiation However, all of the above arguments not suggest that the processes of identity fastening and unfastening are fixed Rather, they are progressive processes Reed argues that ‘identity fastening, unfastening and 142 Journal of Multicultural Discourses refastening are continuously done to us and by us’ (p 337) We understand his perception of refastening as reconstitution, in which refastening is not simply remaking a new identity after constantly unfastening identities Instead, it should be seen as part of ‘the ongoing identity formation process’ (p 337), which takes into account a sense of belonging and a sense of continuity, maintained by a fluid process, despite fragmentation and/or contradiction in the course of identity formation The Study What is presented in this paper is part of the findings from a doctoral study, which looks at the formation of professional identities of Vietnamese teachers in their teaching of global English The study adopted a qualitative case study approach, and had seven cases who were Vietnamese teachers of English (six females and one male) studying TESOL in different Australian universities at the time the research was being conducted These teachers were tertiary teachers from different parts of Vietnam: the North, the Centre and the South Their teaching experience ranged from three to ten years Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews, group focus interviews and guided reflective writing Pseudonyms are used The questions asked include ‘How you find your course in Australia?’, ‘How you find studying in Australia?’ and ‘Could you please tell me about your teaching in Vietnam?’ All the interviews were conducted mainly in Vietnamese, and occasionally a mixture of both English and Vietnamese was used by the participants and the researcher to express certain notions such as workshops, tutorials and lectures The focuses of this study and the way the participants identified themselves suggested dichotomies (for example, the personal versus the professional, and the professional versus the moral) that were later used as tools of inquiry for data analysis and interpretation It should be noted that dichotomies were not created in the questions but the participants used dichotomies to express different roles and selves It is important to note that ‘dichotomy/dichotomies’ were used more as a tool of inquiry, a means to interpret the data, rather than the meaning underlying the word(s) In this way, dichotomy/dichotomies serve as a way to understand and identify variation in identification rather than a way of characterising the world In this paper, the processes of identity formation are explored with a specific focus on the two dichotomies: the professional and/or the personal; and the moral guide and/or the teacher of English These dichotomies were suggested by the way the participants identified themselves These dichotomies worked well with one another to provide a comprehensive picture of how the participants identified themselves given their apparently contradictory roles and selves in their teaching of English Also, the dichotomies assisted the understanding of different processes of identity formation, in which the teacher as the main identity had to negotiate with other related identities to guarantee his/her optimal status at personal, local and global levels Vietnamese Educational Morality 143 Negotiating Identities: How Teacher Identities Are Formed In the group interviews, the participants discussed how their teacher identity was formed and factors that influenced their identity formation According to them, teacher identity was mainly formed by ideologies and social norms Below is a thematic representation of what they said, as in all subsequent examples The words and expressions in italics are my emphasis (1) Lien: In the Vietnamese moral traditions , the images of teachers are closely associated with morality and standard and decent performance Vietnamese people also have a long tradition of respecting teachers, so I think once we’ve chosen to become teachers we’ll always try to achieve what the society expects from us and not to things that have bad impact on our long tradition (2) Trang: I think my teacher self is influenced by the tradition of pedagogy in Vietnam As teachers, we’re viewed differently from others in the society Thus, we need to be aware and conscious of whatever we (3) Thu: [Teachers need to have many good qualities to be role models for students], such as sense of responsibility, enthusiasm in whatever circumstance, empathy with students because we used to be students (4) Chi: There are three bases for the formation of teacher identity Firstly, we look at our teachers teaching us, of course excluding bad teachers They always gave advice to poorly-performed students, warning them that if they didn’t concentrate on their study, how they could survive later These teachers gave moral lessons to students and I tended to copy it in my teaching later Secondly, we observe our own family, how our fathers teach us and how we teach our children I realise everybody needs both knowledge and moral education, and thus I bring this idea into my teacher self Thirdly, I think teacher identity is also based on our conscience I want to educate students morally because I care for the future of Vietnam Many teachers never care about low or high pay What they care is students’ morality because they see it as their job and what they should (5) Linh: I think values attached to teaching are related to many things Firstly, for example, when I was a pupil, I observed my teachers and I wanted to learn good things from them, like a good sense of responsibility, generosity with and kindness to pupils Secondly what called social norms, they also influence teacher identity formation We should follow them and I think it’s right to so Thirdly, teacher values are influenced by our colleagues’ performance, and we tend to follow their positive acts From these it can be seen that their identities were influenced by traditions, social norms, good examples from other teachers and self-awareness of developing oneself to be morally acceptable These elements define teachers and teachers tend to form their identity on the basis of these definitions Particularly, the expressions and concepts in italics clearly show that their professional identity in relation to morality overrides other properties, such as self as personal or self as individual 144 Journal of Multicultural Discourses Assuming a shared teacher identity in relation to morality From the participants’ remarks, it can be seen that a shared teacher identity was first assumed and then explicitly formulated It seems that teacher identity is ‘out there’ and ‘available’ and the participants tended to group themselves under this identity From their viewpoints, teacher morality and conscience played an essential role in how they defined teachers in Vietnam These had seemed to hold them together and give them an identity Á teacher identity, which the society had clearly coded in sets of teacher behaviour, performance and lifestyles They all started with ‘I’ but continued their discussion with ‘we’ For example, ‘so I think once we ’ve chosen to become a teacher we ’ll always try to achieve what the society expects from us ’(Lien); ‘I think my teacher self is As teachers, we ’re viewed differently from others in the society Thus, we need to be aware and conscious of whatever we do’ (Trang); ‘I find that we look at our teachers teaching us I think teacher identity is also based on our conscience’ (Chi); and ‘I think We should follow them [social norms] Teacher values are influenced by our colleagues’ performance, for example we tend to follow their positive acts’ (Linh) These perceptions also seemed to act as guiding factors that would influence how they tended to see themselves as teachers in the future Submitting to moral norms Together with assuming, taking on and conforming to the identities the society and others constructed for them, the participants also contributed to building teacher identities by asserting their teacher identities and by excluding those who were not teachers in general and were not considered ‘good’ teachers in particular in the light of the morality norms constructed in the society Their arguments suggested that they [teachers] were different because of their own professional values and their efforts in pursuing teaching As the society viewed them differently from others, they tended to create their self-images, which were different accordingly Not only were they different because of social expectations, but they were also different because of how they submitted to those ‘available’ norms, particularly the codes of teacher morality, which have been discussed in the previous sections These ‘available’ codes of morality are thus conformed to and constantly consolidated This supports the work of Phan (1998), N.T Tran (1999, 2001) and Q.V Tran (2000) This also strengthens Reed’s (2001: 329) argument that ‘identities are fastened by the categories that we have available and by the ways that we submit to those categories and subject others to them.’ Negotiating Identities: How the Professional Shapes the Personal On the surface, there seemed to be few tensions between the personal and the professional, as the participants appeared to make voluntary compromises in their personal practices to harmonise with socially constructed images of teachers The personal seemed to meld with the professional and let it come to Vietnamese Educational Morality 145 the foreground Likewise, the professional seemed to represent the personal and make it an internal and integral part of the former The participants’ behaviour was guided by their professional norms and their personal was thus closely attached to such norms and tended to develop in harmony with them In other words, the professional largely acted as a guiding force, contributing to the formation of teacher identity The personal, in the same manner, was shaped and reshaped by the professional’s values Morality again plays an important role in how the professional shapes the personal A closer look at the relationship between the professional and the personal, however, suggests subtle tensions For example, Linh simply did not want to behave as a teacher everywhere, but she was somehow forced to so, because people looked at her and expected her to behave that way Also, because she saw herself as a teacher, she needed to behave as a teacher Both external and internal factors caused her to behave a certain way Although it was her choice and will to so, the fact that she was watched everywhere implied certain tensions in her negotiation It also suggested that she felt compelled to follow the norms, as both herself and the society constructed her image as a teacher Although Linh and the other participants spelt out the personal, they all seemed to let the professional shape the personal and spared a very small space for the personal to speak for itself The examples below elaborate these points Fastening the personal to the professional The participants’ proactive act of conforming to social norms of teacher values was agreed upon among them because this act was considered ‘constructive’ Examples were found in their debate of how the professional shaped the personal The participants’ descriptions of these constructive acts embedded morality-laden messages, as shown particularly in the italic expressions below Linh admitted that she always saw herself as a teacher, as she met her students everywhere She clearly described how her personal was influenced by her teaching profession Not only does my personal influence my profession, but also the other way around I always think that I’m a teacher so I should this and that, and this gradually becomes part of me Wherever I am, I feel that people look at me the way they look at a teacher I tend to be maturer in conversations with others and behave more properly But I think because I’m myself already a serious person , so I don’t find it’s changed me into a serious one, but it certainly influences my behaviour It’s made me a calmer person , not as aggressive as I used to be I also become more patient Truly it’s how the professional influences the personal Vy at first claimed that it was not because she was a teacher she had to force herself to act certain ways However, after having listened to Linh and Kien’s points, she realised that her behaviour was also influenced by her profession Journal of Multicultural Discourses 146 Like Linh, I feel that thanks to my profession I can control myself better in dealing with people I tend to be calmer And I also tell myself that I’m a teacher I shouldn’t talk without thinking I should behave like a teacher Identity unfastening as destructive Reed (2001: 329) argues that ‘identity unfastening might be perceived as either constructive or destructive from the standpoint of the individual.’ This proves to be true when the participants judged each other and other teachers based on how the others unfastened their identities It was clear that those teachers who did not teach students how to behave or wanted to something against the norms were not viewed as ‘standard’ or ‘good’ teachers by the participants In other words, they were thought of as lacking teacher morality or conscience or as ‘out-of-track’ teachers This is evident in the participants’ expressions, in which they placed a clear emphasis on the notions of ‘bad’ and ‘good’ teachers Thus, together with employing morality and conscience as ‘identity filters’ (Reed, 2001: 330) to group themselves and exclude those who were not teachers, the participants also used these concepts to marginalise ‘bad’ teachers Those ‘bad teachers’ cannot be seen as role models or good examples for other teachers and students They are seen as unfastening their professional identities in a wrong or destructive way Another example was found in the group interview with Linh, Vy and Kien When Kien said he wanted to learn English swear words, Linh and Vy were against him, asking him the rhetorical question ‘is it how a teacher should be?’ They seemed to assume that Kien had unfastened his teacher identities improperly Also, they seemed to question his identity unfastening: a teacher of English needed to possess rich vocabulary, but swear words should not be learnt, as those words represented a bad image of Vietnamese teachers, who were expected to teach students how to behave They seemed to treat knowing swear words and using them as one single act They tended to view each other as teachers and judged each other’s acts based on assumed norms of teachers Their teacher selves appeared dominant even in such a nonprofessional situation This partly helps strengthen and promote the images of teachers in the society Perceptions of the ‘Moral Guide’ Role This section does not focus on analysing the resolutions of tensions between the ‘moral guide’ role and the teacher of English enacted by Vietnamese teachers of English, as Phan (2004) has already looked at this issue in depth Instead, it particularly investigates the participants’ perceptions of ‘moral guide’ and their descriptions of how they invested in this role in relation to morality When the participants expressed their opinions about teacher roles, the role of ‘moral guide’ appeared equal to the role of the knowledgeable person and knowledge facilitator, and in certain cases the former even played a more important part Being a teacher includes being a moral educator For the participants, being teachers of English did not stop them from performing Vietnamese Educational Morality 147 their ‘moral guide’ role, the role that made them Vietnamese teachers, as they tended to believe However, this did not suggest that they performed these two roles separately or they divided themselves into two different parts to fulfil their duties as both teachers of English and Vietnamese teachers Instead, their constant identity fastening, unfastening and refastening allowed them to harmoniously and efficiently integrate these dual roles, as they expressed The participants taught English, a foreign language accompanied by a foreign culture, but they seemed to develop their teacher identities along the lines of the Vietnamese pedagogical culture They fastened their identities to find a way to belong, as argued by Reed (2001) The participants unfastened their identities by making their English lessons a means of conveying moral messages They perceived themselves as good teachers of English and good Vietnamese teachers They fastened their identities by confirming their ‘moral guide’ role They refastened their identities as they invented their own ways of incorporating both English and moral lessons in one We will now look at the participants’ perceptions of ‘moral guide’ As Reed (2001) argues, identity fastening occurs as individuals submit to available categories We will show that the participants defined themselves by both adopting the ‘moral guide’ role Á the identity available to them in Vietnam Á and constructing it The notion of identity as ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ as advocated by many Vietnamese authors appears very useful for understanding why and how these teachers’ sense of their role as ‘moral guide’ persisted despite being teachers of English In the individual interviews, the participants either directed their answers to this matter or developed their answers based on the interview questions about a teacher’s role They expressed various ways of performing the ‘moral guide’ role Linh saw teachers’ ‘moral guide’ role as showing students what ‘proper behaviour’ was When my students don’t behave properly, I’ll tell them what proper behaviour is I was quite easy when they had group work, ‘no problem’, but when someone in the class spoke, others should listen These students, they didn’t listen, and in such a situation, I normally interfere I told them gently that when someone spoke, you should listen to him or her and you should show that you knew how to listen I used English to tell them that ‘if you want to be a good speaker, be a good listener first’ Normally I only educate my students when they don’t behave properly When they behave badly I’m willing to tell them that they’re wrong and they should this or that Vy and Thu perceived their ‘moral guide’ role as introducing students to literary works or reading passages that carried moral lessons, and from those lessons, students would be directed to ‘good behaviour’ We tend to select works that have moral or ethical lessons [for example, Hamlet] to teach students In my subject, after each lesson, I often draw some values or my students and I all draw good things from every work 148 Journal of Multicultural Discourses we study Sometimes we also choose works full of negative images but the purpose of it is to highlight works with positive moral lessons I mean we introduce both ‘bad ’ and ‘good ’ characters to our students but through the introduction of ‘bad’ characters, we direct our students to ‘good ’ behaviour in life I think it’s good to so (Vy) Conveying a somewhat like an ethics message to students often occurs in teaching languages because when we teach them reading or teach them a story, there is always a moral lesson embedded in the reading or in the story, and students draw their own lessons and I give them some feedback (Thu) Chi explicitly defined herself as a moral educator, who consciously directed students towards good behaviour and proper personality development Since I started teaching, I’ve always been aware of my role as somewhat like a moral educator I often spend my break time to talk with students, listen to them and try to understand their problems and why they behave in such a way I also tell them stories about how to become a good person I don’t know whether they think of me as a young teacher who likes to teach morality, but I believe that those who listen to me will become better I tell them such stories to make them realise that besides learning English well, they also need to know many other things, like how to behave properly in different social situations I often teach them such things through the teaching of English Through my teaching, I also concentrate on moral education and teach them how to become a person with good morality and personality There are so many opportunities to so through teaching Lien clearly defined a teacher as someone who should both ‘teach’ and ‘educate’ students (as she used Vietnamese to express this idea ‘day’ and ‘do’, we tried to convey it in English although it is not completely equivalent to the original meaning) ‘Day’ and ‘do’ embed the society’s expectation of the teacher and the education to educate students to be morally good citizens These notions also embody the love, care, responsibility and good will that teachers have for students Thus, Lien reported that she developed her teacher self in light of this definition She emphasised the necessity and importance of educating morality to teachers-to-be, as morality was the very quality that could make them good teachers later I know that university students are grownups but many of them still need advice from someone older on how to behave or what to And I want to become one of those older people who can giv e them advice I always think that a teacher should both teach and educate students, especially those who would later become teachers They need to be directe d When they’re students, they need to follow standard s and moral norm s This will make them good teachers in the future Trang talked about teacher morality and in her perception, the ‘moral guide’ role could also involve setting a good example for students Vietnamese Educational Morality 149 For me teacher morality is very important, morality towards my university, students and myself I want to become a good example for my students The participants discussed their roles in their own ways but all were based on shared concepts of morality They took on the available identity the society and others constructed for them, the ‘moral guide’, but they also enriched the notion by submitting their own interpretations and enactments to it Morality was taught through examples, works, experiences and incidents that embodied moral lessons Teaching morality, as the participants’ perceptions suggested, served two main purposes, fulfilling their role as teachers and making their students morally good individuals They did not teach morality by imposing on students or forcing them to learn it through ‘dry’ norms Neither did they feel forced to it Instead, they did it as it was a felt responsibility coming from a teacher’s morality and conscience Conclusion This study of Vietnamese teachers of English has indicated that despite being teachers of English, their morality-related identities remained persistent Morality was an identity filter, through which the teachers grouped themselves and others They negotiated their identities alongside morality and moral values embedded in their cultural and professional practices They presented a strong sense of self as teacher in relation to morality and the cultural model of the moral guide role This integral part of their identities was consciously maintained and fostered The processes of identity formation of these teachers confirm and further consolidate the understanding of identity as cultural identity, as both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ and as the sense of belonging, as demonstrated by Phan (1998), N.T Tran (1999, 2001) and Q.V Tran (2000) This study suggests that these teachers’ perceptions of teacher morality and ethics showed the human side of the concepts Morality and ethics may be thought of as strict rules, regulations and inflexible sets of behaviour, and teachers may be forced to follow them But in their expressions, these concepts appeared to be attached to the heart, come from the heart and be different from ‘dry’ norms They included a good sense of responsibility, love and kindness to students, enthusiasm for the profession, and awareness of moral responsibility to young generations This is the meaning and value of the Vietnamese educational practices, which the West often misread as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘imposing’ (Breach, 2004, 2005; Phan, 2004) It is the close association of morality and ethics with teachers’ images that gives them a sense of identity and of belonging as well as connectedness and continuity That was why the teachers emphasised these icons in their discussion about teacher identity The society ‘pictures’ them as teachers by expecting them to practise teachers’ values, and they themselves make them teachers by conforming to these values and making them their own properties Á teachers’ properties Both the society and the participants fastened their identities and thus gave them an insider status 150 Journal of Multicultural Discourses The participants showed their obvious compromise to become good teachers, as pictured and expected by the society and their own wish They fastened, unfastened and refastened their identities to reshape their teacher identities and make this an ongoing process (Reed, 2001) This study has also indicated that these Vietnamese teachers of English had always been well aware of the necessity and responsibility to address morality in their teaching This supports Johnston’s (2003), Edge’s (2003) and Pennycook and Coutand-Marin’s (2004) arguments for the role of morality and values in ELT, which, as they have shown, has been neglected and left out in the field Particularly, for English to become an international language that serves its users effectively and morally, teachers as moral agents are vital to the negotiations, mediations, appropriation, resistance and reconstitutions of values and identities Moreover, this study has shown that the role of teachers as moral guides is a powerful element in teacher identity formation that holds firm the Vietnameseness and gives these Vietnamese teachers a sense of belonging, continuity and connectedness This role operates as the moral foundation on which other elements are interpreted, negotiated, resisted and reconstituted Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Phan Le Ha, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia (ha.phan@education.monash.edu.au) References Baurain, B (2004) Teaching as a moral enterprise Teacher’s Edition 15, 35 Breach, D (2004) What makes a good teacher? (Part I) Teacher’s Edition 16, 30Á37 Breach, D (2005) What makes a good teacher? (Part II) Teacher’s Edition 17, 28Á35 Duong, K.D (2000) Tan man xung quanh mot chu thay Ngon ngu va doi song 11 (61), 1Á2 Duong, T.T (2002) Suy nghi ve van hoa giao duc Vietnam TP HCM: NXB Tre Edge, J (2003) Imperial troopers and servants of the Lord: A vision of TESOL for the 21st century TESOL Quarterly 37 (4), 701Á709 Johnston, B (2003) Values in English Language Teaching Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Kramsch, C and Sullivan, P (1996) Appropriate pedagogies ELT Journal 50 (3), 199Á212 Le, V.C (2001) Language and Vietnamese pedagogical contexts Teacher’s Edition 7, 34Á40 Lu, J and Gao, D (2004) New directions in the moral education curriculum in Chinese primary schools Journal of Moral Education 33 (4), 495Á510 Mai, X.H (1999) Thay do, thay giao, giao vien Ngon ngu va doi song (41), 25Á26 Miller, P.C (2003) Review of ‘Values in English Language Teaching’ by Bill Johnston TESL-EJ (2), 1Á3 On WWW at http://www-writingberkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej26/ r3.html Accessed 11.2.05 Pennycook, A and Coutand-Marin, S (2004) Teaching English as a missionary language Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 24 (3), 337Á353 Phan, L.H (2004) University classrooms in Vietnam: Contesting the stereotypes ELT Journal 58 (1), 50Á57 Phan, N (1998) Ban sac van hoa Vietnam Hanoi: NXB Van Hoa Thong Tin Reed, G (2001) Fastening and unfastening identities: Negotiating identity in Hawai’i Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 22 (3), 327Á339 Vietnamese Educational Morality 151 Tran, N.T (1999) Tu nghi quyet trung uong 5, nghi ve ban sac van hoa dan toc Vietnam Bai trinh bay tai Hoi thao ve van hoa Viet Nam tai Hoc vien chinh tri quoc gia Ho Chi Minh , phan vien phia Nam Tran, N.T (2001) Tim Ve Ban Sac Van Hoa Viet Nam (3rd edn) Ho Chi Minh City: NXB TP Ho Chi Minh Tran, Q.V (2000) Van hoa Viet Nam: tim toi va suy ngam Hanoi: Nha xuat ban van hoa dan toc, Tap chi van hoa nghe thuat  ... maintained and fostered The processes of identity formation of these teachers confirm and further consolidate the understanding of identity as cultural identity, as both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ and as the. .. respect the teacher (4) The first day of the Tet [Lunar New Year] holiday celebrates the father, the second day the mother, the third day the teacher (5) A teacher is like a fond mother (6) Like teacher, ... dichotomies: the professional and/ or the personal; and the moral guide and/ or the teacher of English These dichotomies were suggested by the way the participants identified themselves These dichotomies