Vietnamese Educational Morality andthe Discursive Construction of EnglishLanguage Teacher Identity

Phan Le HaFaculty of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia

Phan Van QueHanoi Open University, Hanoi, Vietnam

While recent debates on morality in English language teaching (ELT) tend to focuson how certain Western ethical and moral issues are related to other cultures, hownon-Western teachers negotiate their identity with regard to morality has hardlybeen examined. This paper explores processes of identity formation of Vietnameseteachers of English and aims to offer a qualitative analysis of the nature ofVietnamese teacher identity constructions and the relations between the various(personal, professional and moral) identity discourses. More generally, the paperseeks to achieve a culturally grounded understanding of teacher identity discourse.The study indicates that the Vietnamese participants’ understanding of the role ofmorality persists despite being teachers of English, a foreign language. It also showshow deeply rooted this commitment to being a moral guide as teachers is inVietnamese society and how it both puts pressures on teachers and simultaneouslymakes them feel proud and compelled to demonstrate morality. It furtherdemonstrates how these teachers’ attachment to this moral role is related to theirnegotiation and reconstitution of values and identities, particularly in the teachingof international English.

doi: 10.2167/md038.0

Keywords: identity, negotiation, morality, moral education, teacher identity

IntroductionThe aim of education in Vietnam is to educate people to become good citizens

in both knowledge and morality. Teachers themselves are thus automaticallyassumed to be moral guides or role models (The Constitution of Vietnam, TheEducation Law of Vietnam). It is often believed that teachers tend to developthemselves both in knowledge and morality to meet the social, cultural andeducational expectations as moral guides. As such, teachers in Vietnam oftenfind it necessary and important to educate students morally, no matter whatsubject they teach. They care for personal development as well as knowledgeachievement, 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 roleof morality and values in teaching, particularly in the field of English languageteaching (ELT). He regards ‘teaching as a moral enterprise’ (p. 35) andrelates this to Johnston (2003). Johnston’s (2003) discussion of the role of

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teachers as moral guides is in part similar to the role of teachers perceived inVietnam. Like Miller (2003), we find Johnston’s arguments on the role ofmorality in what it means to be a teacher significant, particularly when heteases out the complex and often contradictory moral dimensions of thelanguage classroom when teachers must make a moral decision as theyinteract with students and how teachers’ beliefs influence their moral choices.Edge (2003) and Pennycook and Coutand-Marin (2004) also strongly argue forthe role of morality and ethics in ELT, urging teachers of English to take intoserious consideration their jobs as teachers of English, who need to havemorality and ethics in teaching as well. As these authors observe that moralityis often left out in ELT, it is important to explore it further and in acomprehensive manner. This paper, hence, hopes to contribute to the on-going and ‘quite recent’ discussion of morality and ELT and, more broadly, onthe cultural diversity, peculiarity and complexity of foreign language teachingdiscourse, especially in a non-Western context as well as a culturalist approachto such issues.

On the one hand, exploring the role of morality in teacher identity and theteaching profession in Vietnam reflects its local relevance, as demonstratingmorality has long been an indispensable and inseparable part of education inVietnam. Particularly in the context of globalisation, when many of the localeducational values tend to be challenged by dominant Western values,demonstrating morality has become an even more daunting but importanttask. On the other hand, the investigation of the role of morality specifically inVietnamese education is useful for the understanding of local�global interac-tions. As seen in Edge (2003), Johnston (2003) and Pennycook and Coutand-Marin (2004), much of the recently published debate on morality in ELT isconcerned with how certain ethical and moral issues related to ‘the West’ areharmful and threatening to other cultures, such as doing missionary workthrough and incorporating Western values with the teaching of English.However, almost nothing related to the role of morality in English educationand how teachers of English negotiate their tensions in teaching English innon-Western contexts has been examined. We, hence, find this lack of studies abig gap in the literature and a cause for the misunderstanding of teachingpractices in diverse contexts. Without knowledge of the local, global general-isation does not make sense. To respond to the gap in the literature, this paperdocuments the role of morality in teacher identity and the teaching professionin Vietnam, and demonstrates how Vietnamese teachers of English resolvetensions between the social and professional moral pressure and the foreignvalues they encounter in teaching English.

This paper explores in particular how the processes of identity formation ofa group of Vietnamese teachers of English took place with regard to how theirrole as moral guide was negotiated, constructed and reconstructed alongsidethe personal and/or the professional. It also investigates their perceptions oftheir role as moral guides in their teaching of English. The discussion of theseteachers’ 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 identityfastening and unfastening discussed by Reed (2001).

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Morality in the Teaching ProfessionBefore discussing the role of morality in teacher development and the

teaching profession in Vietnam, we acknowledge that morality is a complexconcept. Although we use the term ‘morality’ throughout the paper, we by nomeans treat it as a unified notion on which all Vietnamese agree. Rather, werefer to it, in many cases, as socially acceptable and proper behaviour andmanners, and in other cases, as dominant ethical values that are generallyshared by the society. Also, we are aware of a large body of research onmorality 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 isspecifically related to the paper’s aim and focus, that is the role of morality inteacher identity formation of Vietnamese teachers, especially those of English.

Historically, according to Duong (2002), the philosophies of the ancientVietnamese education (Lac Viet) (around 2000 BC to 1 AD), highlighted andadvocated the sense of caring for and supporting each other and the sense ofliving in harmony with others as well as nature. These philosophies aimed atnurturing individuals who are moral, ethical and live for others. Duong (2002:66) argues that the ancient Vietnamese education was developed on the basisof ‘realistic humanism’, which focused on the representation of and apprecia-tion for values of individuals, families and the society. These philosophies alsooffered teachers a very high and noble status in the society. As the Lac Vieteducation was the education entirely dedicated to the people, which placedemphasis on moral education and took responsibilities for educating morallygood individuals, the teachers in society were expected to demonstratemorality in all aspects of their lives. This educational emphasis on moralitywas maintained among Vietnamese villages and communal societies duringthe 1000 years under Chinese colonisation (approximately from 111 BC to 938).Duong demonstrates that the Lac Viet educational philosophies had beendeveloped and practised in Vietnam for at least a thousand years beforeVietnam had contacts with China and emphasises that Confucian educationwas never the only education in Vietnam during the one-thousand-yearChinese colonisation and neither was it implemented everywhere in thecountry. Taoism, for example, had entered and influenced the local philoso-phies before Confucianism. Importantly, both Taoism and Buddhism blos-somed in ancient Vietnam because these philosophies complemented the localphilosophies and culture well. Buddhist education was also considered the‘national education’ during that time and it had significant influence onVietnamese cultural identity (Duong, 2002: 62). While Confucian educationwas for the ‘elites’, those who worked for the colonial government, Buddhisteducation was for everyone. Both Duong (2002) and Phan (1998) argue thatmonks and Buddhist devotees played a vital role in educating the masses. Thestatus of those Buddhist teachers was very high in the society, and throughthose teachers, the Lac Viet educational philosophies and Buddhism weremaintained and enhanced, and the role of morality in education wasconsistently strengthened. As Confucianism also put great emphasis onmorality education, particularly highlighting the moral role of the teacherand the learner, it was not in conflict with the Lac Viet and Buddhism

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education in ancient Vietnam. Rather, these philosophies enhanced oneanother. They all melded together to contribute to the values and moralityof Vietnamese education.

This integrated educational philosophy continued to be maintained duringfeudal times (938�1945). Duong (2002) indicates that teachers in feudalVietnamese society did not differentiate between their responsibilities for theeducation of their students, the education of their families and the education ofsociety. All of these responsibilities were part of educating individuals withknowledge and morality. The teachers in those days also presented themselvesas morally good examples for students and for the society in every way.Duong demonstrates that since the 15th century, the requirement thatintellectuals also be moral models in Vietnamese society was formalised inVietnamese feudal law, known as the Hong Duc Law.

In modern times, being a teacher in Vietnam always involves demonstratingmorality by both behaving morally as individuals and giving students moraleducation. Teacher morality and their roles regarding moral education areencoded in rules and regulations. For example, the Constitution of Vietnamclearly states that:

the aim of education is to form and nurture the personality, moralqualities . . . to imbue [people] with . . . good morality . . . (Article 35)

The Education Law clearly identifies the role, tasks and rights of the teacherin Articles 14, 61 and 63, in which the teacher:

must constantly learn and train in order to set a good example for thelearners.

. . . discharge[s] their task, preserve[s] and develop[s] the tradition ofrespecting the teacher and glorifying the teaching job.

must have good moral qualities, ethics and ideology

[is] 1. to educate and teach according to the objective, principles andprograms of education; 2. to be exemplary in fulfilling the citizen’sduties, and observing the regulations of law and the statute of theschool; 3. to preserve the quality, prestige and honour of the teacher,respect the dignity of the learners, to behave justly with learners, andprotect their legitimate rights and interests; 4. to constantly study andtrain in order to raise their quality, ethics, professional and specialtystandard and set good examples to the learners.

In terms of folklore and popular culture, this moral role of teachers inVietnamese 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 Vietnamesenotion of ‘a good teacher’ captures and reflects quite thoughtfully theculturally situated notions of the teacher embedded in Vietnamese society.Below is the translated version of the 10 most commonly listed proverbsBreach (2004: 32) culled from lists suggested by her students in Vietnam.

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(1) Without teachers, one can’t do 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 educationin Vietnam also indicate the significant role of morality in teachers’ percep-tions and enactments of their profession (for example, Kramsch & Sullivan,1996; Le, 2001; Phan, 2004). These studies show that teachers of English inVietnam incorporate their teaching of English with the need to demonstratemorality or good behaviour. They enact their roles as both knowledge expertand moral guide and harmonise the seemingly contradictory roles of a‘facilitator’ in teaching English and a moral guide as expected by Vietnamesesociety 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 Vietnamesescholars. Their viewpoints are positioned within their discourses, which signaldifferences, similarities as well as uniqueness. But this is not to say that theirVietnamese and personal discourses are static. Rather, these are changing overtime but hold on together to maintain the sense of connectedness andcontinuity.

Many Vietnamese authors argue that identity is about both ‘being’ and‘becoming’. This suggests stability within changes or changes that take placealong the lines of continuity. The ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ of identity tends toput emphasis on identity as national/cultural and the sense of belonging.

The ‘being’ of identity is understood as the constituents of Vietnamesecultural identity. Tran (1999) offers a number of Vietnamese cultural constants,which determine the feature and development of the culture. For example, interms of natural condition: high level of rain and humidity ; in terms ofgeographical location: Vietnam being at the crossroad of civilisations ; in termsof traditional economy: water-based rice crops . He argues that these Vietnamesedistinctive values had been formed before cultural contacts with Chinaoccurred, and they are still present in the modern times. Nevertheless, hestates that these values are not absolutely everlasting and unchanged. They dochange in appearance and content, but at the same time, remain relativelystable in content, developing alongside and sticking to a common thread,

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which is composed of these above distinctive appearances. His viewpointsuggests a degree of stability within dynamic change in understandingidentity. 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 lifeexperiences, values and traditions. He remarks that the distinctiveness ofVietnamese culture is its non-refusing characteristic (Q.V. Tran, 2000: 44). Itonly refuses forced assimilation; otherwise it is able to harmonise andintegrate every cultural aspect. Moreover, he observes that Vietnamese peoplepay most attention to their manner of behaviour. These contribute to theformation of Vietnamese cultural identity. In his opinion, the most importantfactor in sustaining the on-going development of a nation is to maintain itsnationalness of its cultural identity (p. 108). However, he also argues thattraditions and values do change. Whether a behaviour or a cultural tradition isconsidered good or bad depends on historical circumstances. Traditionembodies both stability and changeability (p. 28). In light of these authors’perspectives, it can be argued that cultural national identity is the platform onwhich all other multiple identities are mediated. This gives a sense ofbelonging and highlights the sense of continuity and connectedness. This isthe very sense of continuity and connectedness that the teacher participants inthis study strongly felt about their identity.

Identity Fastening and UnfasteningTo help better understand the identity formation of the teacher participants

in this study, it is necessary to refer to other concepts of identity that signifyidentity formation as processes. We find Reed’s (2001) notions of identityfastening and unfastening particularly relevant to the aim of this paper, asthese notions operate efficiently in the contexts applying to the participantsand help make clearer the fluidity as well as continuity in the processes ofVietnamese identity formation. Identity fastening is referred to as ‘the workthat individuals do to claim insider status for themselves and for others’(Reed, 2001: 329). Meanwhile, ‘identity unfastening often happens whenindividuals move from one cultural context into another where the norms andrules for membership are different’ (p. 329). As Reed argues, ‘identities arefastened by the categories that we have available and by the ways that wesubmit to those categories and subject others to them’ (p. 329). He also arguesthat individuals sometimes fasten identity so as to build a way to belong. Thissuggests that an act of identity fastening somehow secures a sense ofbelonging for individuals. But identities are always subject to being unfas-tened as individuals are in constant contact with new cultural values andnorms as they move from one place to another. Thus, identity fastening andunfastening take place side-by-side. As Reed asserts, they ‘usually occursimultaneously and in multidimensional ways’ (p. 329). Identity fastening andunfastening are part of the ongoing process of identity formation and identitynegotiation. However, all of the above arguments do not suggest that theprocesses of identity fastening and unfastening are fixed. Rather, they areprogressive processes. Reed argues that ‘identity fastening, unfastening and

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refastening are continuously done to us and by us’ (p. 337). We understand hisperception of refastening as reconstitution, in which refastening is not simplyremaking a new identity after constantly unfastening identities. Instead, itshould 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 inthe course of identity formation.

The StudyWhat is presented in this paper is part of the findings from a doctoral study,

which looks at the formation of professional identities of Vietnamese teachersin their teaching of global English. The study adopted a qualitative case studyapproach, and had seven cases who were Vietnamese teachers of English (sixfemales and one male) studying TESOL in different Australian universities atthe time the research was being conducted. These teachers were tertiaryteachers 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 focusinterviews and guided reflective writing. Pseudonyms are used. The questionsasked include ‘How do you find your course in Australia?’, ‘How do you findstudying in Australia?’ and ‘Could you please tell me about your teaching inVietnam?’ All the interviews were conducted mainly in Vietnamese, andoccasionally a mixture of both English and Vietnamese was used by theparticipants and the researcher to express certain notions such as workshops,tutorials and lectures. The focuses of this study and the way the participantsidentified themselves suggested dichotomies (for example, the personal versusthe professional, and the professional versus the moral) that were later used astools of inquiry for data analysis and interpretation. It should be noted thatdichotomies were not created in the questions but the participants useddichotomies to express different roles and selves. It is important to note that‘dichotomy/dichotomies’ were used more as a tool of inquiry, a means tointerpret the data, rather than the meaning underlying the word(s). In thisway, dichotomy/dichotomies serve as a way to understand and identifyvariation in identification rather than a way of characterising the world.

In this paper, the processes of identity formation are explored with aspecific focus on the two dichotomies: the professional and/or the personal;and the moral guide and/or the teacher of English. These dichotomies weresuggested by the way the participants identified themselves. These dichoto-mies worked well with one another to provide a comprehensive picture ofhow the participants identified themselves given their apparently contra-dictory roles and selves in their teaching of English. Also, the dichotomiesassisted the understanding of different processes of identity formation, inwhich the teacher as the main identity had to negotiate with other relatedidentities to guarantee his/her optimal status at personal, local and globallevels.

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Negotiating Identities: How Teacher Identities Are FormedIn 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 andsocial norms. Below is a thematic representation of what they said, as in allsubsequent examples. The words and expressions in italics are myemphasis.

(1) Lien: In the Vietnamese moral traditions , the images of teachers areclosely associated with morality and standard and decent performance . Vietna-mese people also have a long tradition of respecting teachers, so I think oncewe’ve chosen to become teachers we’ll always try to achieve what the societyexpects from us and not to do things that have bad impact on our longtradition.

(2) Trang: I think my teacher self is influenced by the tradition of pedagogyin Vietnam. As teachers, we’re viewed differently from others in the society.Thus, we need to be aware and conscious of whatever we do.

(3) Thu: [Teachers need to have many good qualities to be role models forstudents], 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 . . . Theyalways gave advice to poorly-performed students, warning them that if theydidn’t concentrate on their study, how they could survive later. These teachersgave 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 weteach our children. I realise everybody needs both knowledge and moraleducation , and thus I bring this idea into my teacher self. Thirdly, I thinkteacher identity is also based on our conscience . . . I want to educate studentsmorally because I care for the future of Vietnam. Many teachers never careabout low or high pay. What they care is students’ morality because they see itas their job and what they should do.

(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 wantedto learn good things from them, like a good sense of responsibility, generosity withand kindness to pupils. Secondly what called social norms, they also influenceteacher identity formation. We should follow them and I think it’s right to doso. Thirdly, teacher values are influenced by our colleagues’ performance, andwe 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 ofdeveloping oneself to be morally acceptable. These elements define teachersand teachers tend to form their identity on the basis of these definitions.Particularly, the expressions and concepts in italics clearly show that theirprofessional identity in relation to morality overrides other properties, such asself as personal or self as individual.

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Assuming a shared teacher identity in relation to morality

From the participants’ remarks, it can be seen that a shared teacher identitywas first assumed and then explicitly formulated. It seems that teacheridentity is ‘out there’ and ‘available’ and the participants tended to groupthemselves under this identity. From their viewpoints, teacher morality andconscience played an essential role in how they defined teachers in Vietnam.These had seemed to hold them together and give them an identity � teacheridentity, which the society had clearly coded in sets of teacher behaviour,performance and lifestyles. They all started with ‘I’ but continued theirdiscussion with ‘we’. For example, ‘so I think once we ’ve chosen to become ateacher 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 othersin 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 teacheridentity is also based on our conscience’ (Chi); and ‘I think . . . We shouldfollow them [social norms] . . . Teacher values are influenced by our colleagues’performance, for example we tend to follow their positive acts’ (Linh). Theseperceptions also seemed to act as guiding factors that would influence howthey tended to see themselves as teachers in the future.

Submitting to moral norms

Together with assuming, taking on and conforming to the identities thesociety and others constructed for them, the participants also contributed tobuilding teacher identities by asserting their teacher identities and byexcluding those who were not teachers in general and were not considered‘good’ teachers in particular in the light of the morality norms constructed inthe society. Their arguments suggested that they [teachers] were differentbecause of their own professional values and their efforts in pursuingteaching. As the society viewed them differently from others, they tended tocreate their self-images, which were different accordingly. Not only werethey different because of social expectations, but they were also differentbecause of how they submitted to those ‘available’ norms, particularly thecodes of teacher morality, which have been discussed in the previoussections. These ‘available’ codes of morality are thus conformed to andconstantly 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 haveavailable and by the ways that we submit to those categories and subjectothers to them.’

Negotiating Identities: How the Professional Shapes thePersonal

On the surface, there seemed to be few tensions between the personal andthe professional, as the participants appeared to make voluntary compromisesin their personal practices to harmonise with socially constructed images ofteachers. The personal seemed to meld with the professional and let it come to

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the foreground. Likewise, the professional seemed to represent the personaland make it an internal and integral part of the former. The participants’behaviour was guided by their professional norms and their personal was thusclosely attached to such norms and tended to develop in harmony with them.In other words, the professional largely acted as a guiding force, contributingto the formation of teacher identity. The personal, in the same manner, wasshaped and reshaped by the professional’s values. Morality again plays animportant 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 tobehave as a teacher everywhere, but she was somehow forced to do 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. Bothexternal and internal factors caused her to behave a certain way. Although itwas her choice and will to do so, the fact that she was watched everywhereimplied certain tensions in her negotiation. It also suggested that she feltcompelled to follow the norms, as both herself and the society constructed herimage as a teacher.

Although Linh and the other participants spelt out the personal, they allseemed to let the professional shape the personal and spared a very smallspace for the personal to speak for itself. The examples below elaborate thesepoints.

Fastening the personal to the professional

The participants’ proactive act of conforming to social norms of teachervalues was agreed upon among them because this act was considered‘constructive’. Examples were found in their debate of how the professionalshaped the personal. The participants’ descriptions of these constructive actsembedded morality-laden messages, as shown particularly in the italicexpressions below.

Linh admitted that she always saw herself as a teacher, as she met herstudents everywhere. She clearly described how her personal was influencedby her teaching profession.

Not only does my personal influence my profession, but also the otherway around. . . I always think that I’m a teacher so I should do this andthat, and this gradually becomes part of me . . . Wherever I am, I feel thatpeople look at me the way they look at a teacher . . . I tend to be maturer inconversations with others and behave more properly. But I think becauseI’m myself already a serious person , so I don’t find it’s changed me into aserious one, but it certainly influences my behaviour . . . It’s made me acalmer 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 forceherself to act certain ways. However, after having listened to Linh and Kien’spoints, she realised that her behaviour was also influenced by her profession.

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Like Linh, I feel that thanks to my profession I can control myself better indealing with people. I tend to be calmer . . . And I also tell myself that I’ma 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 aseither constructive or destructive from the standpoint of the individual.’ Thisproves to be true when the participants judged each other and other teachersbased on how the others unfastened their identities. It was clear that thoseteachers who did not teach students how to behave or wanted to do somethingagainst the norms were not viewed as ‘standard’ or ‘good’ teachers by theparticipants. In other words, they were thought of as lacking teacher moralityor 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 whowere not teachers, the participants also used these concepts to marginalise‘bad’ teachers. Those ‘bad teachers’ cannot be seen as role models or goodexamples for other teachers and students. They are seen as unfastening theirprofessional 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 wereagainst him, asking him the rhetorical question ‘is it how a teacher should be?’.They seemed to assume that Kien had unfastened his teacher identitiesimproperly. Also, they seemed to question his identity unfastening: a teacherof English needed to possess rich vocabulary, but swear words should not belearnt, as those words represented a bad image of Vietnamese teachers, whowere expected to teach students how to behave. They seemed to treat knowingswear words and using them as one single act. They tended to view each otheras teachers and judged each other’s acts based on assumed norms of teachers.Their teacher selves appeared dominant even in such a nonprofessionalsituation. This partly helps strengthen and promote the images of teachers inthe society.

Perceptions of the ‘Moral Guide’ RoleThis section does not focus on analysing the resolutions of tensions between

the ‘moral guide’ role and the teacher of English enacted by Vietnameseteachers of English, as Phan (2004) has already looked at this issue in depth.Instead, it particularly investigates the participants’ perceptions of ‘moralguide’ and their descriptions of how they invested in this role in relation tomorality.

When the participants expressed their opinions about teacher roles, the roleof ‘moral guide’ appeared equal to the role of the knowledgeable person andknowledge facilitator, and in certain cases the former even played a moreimportant part. Being a teacher includes being a moral educator. For theparticipants, being teachers of English did not stop them from performing

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their ‘moral guide’ role, the role that made them Vietnamese teachers, as theytended to believe. However, this did not suggest that they performed thesetwo roles separately or they divided themselves into two different parts tofulfil their duties as both teachers of English and Vietnamese teachers. Instead,their constant identity fastening, unfastening and refastening allowed them toharmoniously and efficiently integrate these dual roles, as they expressed. Theparticipants taught English, a foreign language accompanied by a foreignculture, but they seemed to develop their teacher identities along the lines ofthe Vietnamese pedagogical culture. They fastened their identities to find away to belong, as argued by Reed (2001).

The participants unfastened their identities by making their English lessonsa means of conveying moral messages. They perceived themselves as goodteachers of English and good Vietnamese teachers. They fastened theiridentities by confirming their ‘moral guide’ role. They refastened theiridentities as they invented their own ways of incorporating both Englishand 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 availablecategories. We will show that the participants defined themselves by bothadopting the ‘moral guide’ role � the identity available to them in Vietnam �and constructing it. The notion of identity as ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ asadvocated by many Vietnamese authors appears very useful for under-standing 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 answersto this matter or developed their answers based on the interview questionsabout a teacher’s role. They expressed various ways of performing the ‘moralguide’ role.

Linh saw teachers’ ‘moral guide’ role as showing students what ‘properbehaviour’ was.

When my students don’t behave properly, I’ll tell them what properbehaviour is. . . . I was quite easy when they had group work, ‘noproblem’, but when someone in the class spoke, others should listen.These students, they didn’t listen, and in such a situation, I normallyinterfere . I told them gently that when someone spoke, you should listento him or her and you should show that you knew how to listen. I usedEnglish to tell them that ‘if you want to be a good speaker, be a goodlistener first’. Normally I only educate my students when they don’tbehave properly. . . .. When they behave badly I’m willing to tell themthat they’re wrong and they should do this or that.

Vy and Thu perceived their ‘moral guide’ role as introducing students toliterary works or reading passages that carried moral lessons, and from thoselessons, 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 drawsome values or my students and I all draw good things from every work

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we study. Sometimes we also choose works full of negative images butthe purpose of it is to highlight works with positive moral lessons . I meanwe introduce both ‘bad ’ and ‘good ’ characters to our students butthrough the introduction of ‘bad’ characters, we direct our students to‘good ’ behaviour in life. I think it’s good to do so. (Vy)

Conveying a somewhat like an ethics message to students often occurs inteaching languages because when we teach them reading or teach thema story, there is always a moral lesson embedded in the reading or in thestory, and students draw their own lessons and I give them somefeedback. . . . (Thu)

Chi explicitly defined herself as a moral educator, who consciously directedstudents towards good behaviour and proper personality development.

Since I started teaching, I’ve always been aware of my role as somewhatlike a moral educator. I often spend my break time to talk with students,listen to them and try to understand their problems and why theybehave in such a way. . . I also tell them stories about how to become agood person . I don’t know whether they think of me as a young teacherwho likes to teach morality, but I believe that those who listen to me willbecome better. I tell them such stories to make them realise that besideslearning English well, they also need to know many other things, likehow to behave properly in different social situations. I often teach themsuch things through the teaching of English. Through my teaching, I alsoconcentrate on moral education and teach them how to become a personwith good morality and personality . . . There are so many opportunitiesto do 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 theoriginal meaning). ‘Day’ and ‘do’ embed the society’s expectation of theteacher and the education to educate students to be morally good citizens.These notions also embody the love, care, responsibility and good will thatteachers have for students. Thus, Lien reported that she developed her teacherself in light of this definition. She emphasised the necessity and importance ofeducating morality to teachers-to-be, as morality was the very quality thatcould make them good teachers later.

I know that university students are grownups but many of them stillneed advice from someone older on how to behave or what to do. AndI want to become one of those older people who can give themadvice . . . I always think that a teacher should both teach and educatestudents, especially those who would later become teachers. They needto be directed. When they’re students, they need to follow standards andmoral norms. 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.

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For me teacher morality is very important, morality towards myuniversity, students and myself. . . I want to become a good example formy students.

The participants discussed their roles in their own ways but all were basedon shared concepts of morality. They took on the available identity the societyand others constructed for them, the ‘moral guide’, but they also enriched thenotion by submitting their own interpretations and enactments to it. Moralitywas taught through examples, works, experiences and incidents that embo-died moral lessons. Teaching morality, as the participants’ perceptionssuggested, served two main purposes, fulfilling their role as teachers andmaking their students morally good individuals. They did not teach moralityby imposing on students or forcing them to learn it through ‘dry’ norms.Neither did they feel forced to do it. Instead, they did it as it was a feltresponsibility coming from a teacher’s morality and conscience.

ConclusionThis 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 them-selves and others. They negotiated their identities alongside morality andmoral values embedded in their cultural and professional practices. Theypresented a strong sense of self as teacher in relation to morality and thecultural model of the moral guide role. This integral part of their identities wasconsciously maintained and fostered. The processes of identity formation ofthese teachers confirm and further consolidate the understanding of identityas cultural identity, as both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ and as the senseof belonging, as demonstrated by Phan (1998), N.T. Tran (1999, 2001) andQ.V. Tran (2000).

This study suggests that these teachers’ perceptions of teacher morality andethics showed the human side of the concepts. Morality and ethics may bethought of as strict rules, regulations and inflexible sets of behaviour, andteachers may be forced to follow them. But in their expressions, these conceptsappeared 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 kindnessto students, enthusiasm for the profession, and awareness of moral respon-sibility to young generations. This is the meaning and value of the Vietnameseeducational practices, which the West often misread as ‘authoritarian’ and‘imposing’ (Breach, 2004, 2005; Phan, 2004). It is the close association ofmorality and ethics with teachers’ images that gives them a sense of identityand of belonging as well as connectedness and continuity. That was why theteachers 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 thesevalues and making them their own properties � teachers’ properties. Both thesociety and the participants fastened their identities and thus gave them aninsider status.

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The participants showed their obvious compromise to become goodteachers, as pictured and expected by the society and their own wish. Theyfastened, unfastened and refastened their identities to reshape their teacheridentities and make this an ongoing process (Reed, 2001).

This study has also indicated that these Vietnamese teachers of English hadalways been well aware of the necessity and responsibility to address moralityin their teaching. This supports Johnston’s (2003), Edge’s (2003) andPennycook and Coutand-Marin’s (2004) arguments for the role of moralityand values in ELT, which, as they have shown, has been neglected and left outin the field. Particularly, for English to become an international languagethat serves its users effectively and morally, teachers as moral agents are vitalto the negotiations, mediations, appropriation, resistance and reconstitutionsof values and identities. Moreover, this study has shown that the role ofteachers as moral guides is a powerful element in teacher identity formationthat holds firm the Vietnameseness and gives these Vietnamese teachers asense of belonging, continuity and connectedness. This role operates as themoral foundation on which other elements are interpreted, negotiated, resistedand reconstituted.

CorrespondenceAny correspondence should be directed to Dr Phan Le Ha, Faculty of Arts,

Monash University, Clayton, Vic. 3800, Australia (ha.phan@education.mona-sh.edu.au).

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