Vietnam Education Symposium 2023

Vietnam Education Symposium (VES), organized for the first time in 2020 by the Education Network (EduNet - AVSE Global), is an annual forum for academic conversations as well as policy dialogues. Each year, VES focuses on one particular education level: while VES 2020 zoomed in on the K-12 level – with the theme “Tomorrow Schools, Future Citizens”, VES 2021 explored “Higher Education's Adaptation to Crises.” Subsequently, early childhood education (ECE) will be the main theme for the forthcoming VES. Although a foundational stage in any national education system and fundamental to individual development, ECE has suffered most severely during the pandemic, largely due to inadequate support for infrastructure and mental health of teachers and children. ECE has gradually been gaining a prominent position in education research worldwide, as well as in national education development plans (Tesar, 2016). The Asia Pacific region – with many fastest-growing economies in the world – has witnessed new trends and significant reforms in ECE policies and practices (Park et al., 2017). And Vietnam is not an exception. In this Southeast Asian developing country, with rapid changes in economic growth, urbanization, technological development, and cultural transformation, the government has set education, including the early childhood level, as the top priority for national development policies (Vietnam National Assembly, 2013). ECE has also become a market, with enormous financial investment from the private sector (Dang & Boyd, 2014). However, research on ECE in Vietnam remains an ambiguous terrain with many conflicts and discrepancies. In general, it has been primarily dominated by Western theories and approaches. Studies that systematically examine the history of Vietnam's ECE, identify past and current waves of ECE development, and analyze influences of indigenous knowledge on Vietnamese children are still scarce (Pham, 2021). Private pre-schools have grown very rapidly and diversely, in terms of ownership, curriculum, enrolment, and pedagogy etc. In general, Vietnam's ECE is a mosaic with many trajectories, waves of transformation, challenges and untapped potentials. This symposium aims to create a forum for scholars, educators, and practitioners to share their views on the advancements of ECE. VES 2023 is designed not merely as an academic conference, but also a space for policy and professional dialogues among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from both public and private ECE sectors in Vietnam and worldwide.