Discrepancy between Rural and Urban Areas in Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education in Viet Nam

• In Event: Publication mentoring workshop session
  In Special Session: Early Childhood Edu / Assessment & Outcomes

Proposal

Discrepancy between Rural and Urban Areas in Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education in Viet Nam

Huyen Thi Thanh Nguyen
Kobe University
Email: brikaxxa1234@gmail.com

Abstract

Key words: Early Childhood Education, Family Involvement, Rural and Urban

Recent research of multiple disciplines have drawn attention of international organizations and NGOs to early childhood interventions including education as the foundation for life-long development of children; and since the launch of Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, governments of the low- and middle-in-come countries (LMICs) have focused more on supplying access and quality early childhood education (ECE). Although a number of studies have shown the significance of family involvement (FI) in enhancing access and quality of ECE (Christenson 2000; Mantzicopoulos, 2003) as well as positive effects of family involvement on children’s learning outcomes in the future (Henrich & Gadaire, 2008; Weiss, Caspe, & Lopez, 2006), most of the studies were conducted in developed countries such as US, UK, Canada or the similar; very little research can be found in LMICs, especially in Southeast Asia.
The Vietnamese culture has long emphasized education in attaining a better future (Hamano, 2010 and Ngo, 2012); especially, with its steadfast economic growth in the last few decades, the socio-economic context of the country has changed dramatically, resulting in higher commitment of both the government and households to early childhood education (ECE). Since parents play an important role in ECE and in education in general, but no research has been conducted so far to investigate this issue, this study aims to fill this research gap.
The study focuses on parents’ expectation of early childhood education and care at kindergartens and their perception of family involvement in early childhood education as well as the current practice of family involvement in ECE in rural and urban areas.
Parents were recruited from one central urban district in Ha Noi (Hoan Kiem) and one rural districts in Nam Dinh (Y Yen). The interviews were based on a semi-structured protocol and the questions focused on kindergarten issues and family involvement in educating the children. The selected group is parents of children aged 3 to 5.
Key findings of the study show increasing awareness of parents on the importance of ECCE thanks to the government’s campaigns as well as social media and better education background of the young parents. Concerning the current practice of family involvement, while parents in the big city, especially parents with high income tend to spend more money on their children, families in rural areas are likely to spend more time with their children. If urban children go to more extra classes, rural children engage in more social communication. For example, while the children in the cities are taking English classes, swimming classes or art classes – in some case, they spend more time watching TVs and iPad, children in villages are playing with their siblings, taking care of by their grandparents, learning to count or learning to sing a song with their relatives.

Author

• Huyen Thi Thanh Nguyen, Kobe University