"The Inter-play of Teacher Agency and Student Agency in Enhancing Gradu" by Thi Duc Phung
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DOI

10.32674/jcihe.v14i5A.5078

Keywords

co-agency, career-oriented programs, employability, positioning theory, student agency, teacher agency, Theory of Social Practice.

Abstract

Although the Vietnamese government has launched numerous initiatives to develop employability for students, half of its university graduates are unable to find jobs in their area of specialization. In order to address this issue, the Vietnamese higher education sector has introduced international career-oriented programs (ICOPs) to position the quality of Vietnamese graduates on par with international standards. This research focuses on three ICOPs to explore the interaction between teacher and student agency in enhancing graduate employability. This research draws on Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital, and habitus to investigate how academics and students perceive and exercise their individual agency. The position theory is adopted to shed light on how academics and students either comply with or disrupt the traditional hierarchical positioning within education systems to practice their co-agency. The study employs a qualitative approach with various data collection methods, including document analysis, interviews, and focus groups on exploring the role of teacher agency, student agency, and their co-agency in enhancing graduate employability in Vietnam. The preliminary findings show that students have a more in-depth understanding of employability than academics. The research data also reveal the ICOPs provided opportunities and imposed challenges for academics and students to manifest their individual agency. This research proves the intrinsic motivation of academics and students enabled them to become agentic in developing students’ employability. However, their co-agency was not strong enough to be a push and pull factor in achieving the programs’ goals.

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