Phuong came from her hometown of Hanoi, Viet Nam, to Wellington with her husband and two children, and began her PhD in 2019.
Prior to her PhD she was a lecturer in the Faculty of English at the Hanoi National University of Education Viet Nam. She completed her undergraduate degree in education at Vietnam National University and a Master’s in Teaching English. She later won an ASEAN scholarship for her second Master’s in TESOL through a Victoria University of Wellington collaboration with the SouthEast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Language Centre (RELC) in Singapore.
“I thought I’ve got my degrees, my scholarships, especially my Victoria Doctoral scholarship, and I’ve travelled a lot. I was confident enough, heading into my PhD. But it was not enough.”
Phuong is familiar with challenge: she is the mother of a daughter with a severe disability.
In her second year at VUW Covid hit, her daughter was ill, other difficulties arrived, and suddenly her studies felt unachievable. She shared her challenges with her supervisor, and re-set her approach to data collection, because she could not fly back home for this stage of her research.
“My PhD looked at teacher assessment practices in academic language programmes. I come from an educational system that focuses dominantly on testing practices.
“For my whole teaching career, I used testing practices before I understood and started to employ formative assessment practices. I thought could I do something meaningful and raise my voice so that we could draw other people’s attention to how important it is if teachers employ suitable, effective assessment practices in their classroom to help students move closer to the intended goals.
“Formative assessment practices break down goals into smaller steps so the students and teachers can see progress and can reflect. We as teachers can help students to see where they are at and what more needs to be achieved along the way.”
Completing her PhD brought together what Phuong had learned throughout her career and personally as a mother of a disabled child.
“When I reflect, my whole life of being a parent and being a teacher trainer, it all connects.
“I looked at formative assessment practices from individual, social justice, and educational perspectives. I think the PhD helped me not only grow professionally, but also personally.”
She’s now passing the tools she learnt through her studies and her experiences in Wellington to incoming Vietnamese Master’s and PhD students about to embark on overseas studies.
Phuong started the Pathway to Research Success programme with fellow alumni Hang Nguyen and Thuy Bui, under the consultation of Associate Professor Newton at VUW and Dr Nguyen from Otago University. The programme focuses on what students need to do to succeed in postgraduate academic study taught in English—covering topics such as critical reading, critical writing, undertaking a literature review, collecting data or analysing data. It also covers the non-academic challenges they will need to overcome.
“When I submitted my thesis, I wanted to do something meaningful for the community. I can be useful, and I can help younger people to achieve their dreams.
“New student life and a new environment can be so overwhelming, and you’re there to do a tough intellectual job. My advice is talk to other people, seek advice, make use of the support available. From talking and sharing, you won’t feel alone. And don’t worry that you’re not speaking ‘good English’.”
Phuong is looking forward to applying what she’s learnt from her PhD back at her local university, for the benefit of Viet Nam’s future teachers and their students.
She will return to Wellington to celebrate her PhD at May graduation later this year.