Ni Nguyen

Profile

Background

I have got a BA in Psychology and Education and an MA in Pedagogy. Prior to my study at University of Leeds, I worked as a lecturer at Vietnam Naval Academy for eight years. Much of my professional experience is in teaching disciplines such as Introduction to Education, Educational Psychology in higher education.

What motivated me to undertake PhD study?

Personally, I have had aspirations to contribute something to my home country’s education since I began teaching as a profession. In the pursuit of PhD degree, my first priority is to achieve academic objectives. I expect to acquire useful research skills and believe that undertaking PhD study will not only bring about challenges but give me chances to accumulate valuable academic and multicultural experiences.

What makes me passionate about my subject?

The whole work experience in higher education settings stimulates my interest in educational management. One of core issues set out in Vietnam education reforms, in my view, is the necessity of training teachers in order that they will be capable of meeting requisite requirements of their career in a fast-changing world. In that sense, how to effectively manage teacher training quality is an interesting question.

Teacher training quality has long been a matter of concern, particularly in recent years when many radical changes have been made with the purpose of renovating the education system. Among several problems identified by academia and practitioners, the weaknesses of state management and university management are deemed to cause most of systematic shortcomings of Vietnam education. With regard to the relationship between higher education and  school system, pre-service teacher training provision of universities of education has a strong influence on quality of school teachers. However, whilst there have been plenty of initiatives of teacher training development, delving into quality of pre-service teacher training from the angle of quality management remains a gap in practice. I therefore hope my research will shed light on how quality of pre-service teacher training is practically managed and how the training quality can be improved in Vietnamese context.

What are my plans once I have completed my PhD?

After the completion of my PhD, I would like to carry on working in higher education institutions where my knowledge and experience in educational management and teacher training can be utilized. I also wish to combine teaching and research throughout my future career.

Research interests

Submission Date: September 2019

For the purpose of enhancing quality of teacher training, my research explores issues around quality management of pre-service teacher training provided by a leading university of education in Vietnam. The research aims to investigate the perceptions of key stakeholders about quality of the pre-service teacher training and the implementation of quality management in three dimensions including quality control, quality assurance, quality enhancement. In other words, the research attempts to give a real picture of the process of management of teacher training quality which universities of education specialise in.

It is envisaged that the research will make a contribution to the body of knowledge relating to quality management of teacher training in Vietnam. By providing evidence of pre-service teacher training quality and yielding information about quality management in practice, the research is intended to provide the implications that help to improve teacher training quality in higher education institutions, especially universities of education which are expected to be the providers of well-qualified teachers for the country.