Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective

This paper examines how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is transmitted in the context of geography education by investigating the extent to which geography textbooks in Vietnam promote ESD principles. At the same time, the paper helps clarify how ESD is anchored in formal education and h...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Thao Phuong Nguyen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-04-01
Series:Sustainability
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2466
id doaj-3f175586c86a4e4da5387eb3d4a5d52a
record_format Article
spelling doaj-3f175586c86a4e4da5387eb3d4a5d52a2020-11-25T01:14:00ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502019-04-01119246610.3390/su11092466su11092466Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD PerspectiveThao Phuong Nguyen0Institute of Didactics in Geography, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149 Münster, GermanyThis paper examines how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is transmitted in the context of geography education by investigating the extent to which geography textbooks in Vietnam promote ESD principles. At the same time, the paper helps clarify how ESD is anchored in formal education and how ESD is contextualized in the specific context of Vietnam. This study involved a qualitative analysis supported by MAXQDA software (VERBI, Berlin, Germany), where geography textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12 in Vietnam were analysed to determine (1) how sustainable development (SD) issues are integrated into the content of the textbooks and (2) the extent to which questions and tasks in the textbooks promote competencies regarding the demands of ESD. The findings show that the textbooks somewhat promote ESD through their content and didactic approach. However, there are still some drawbacks. In terms of content, the textbooks’ main approaches to both SD content and geography core knowledge are description and indoctrination. In terms of their didactic approach, almost all questions/tasks ask students to memorize and reproduce information and rote learning rather than helping them promote ESD competencies. This reconfirms that ESD remains an add-on issue to an overcrowded curriculum, and the geography textbooks reflect an instrumental approach to ESD.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2466Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)Vietnamgeography textbooktextbook analysis
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Thao Phuong Nguyen
spellingShingle Thao Phuong Nguyen
Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective
Sustainability
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Vietnam
geography textbook
textbook analysis
author_facet Thao Phuong Nguyen
author_sort Thao Phuong Nguyen
title Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective
title_short Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective
title_full Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective
title_fullStr Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Reviewing Vietnam Geography Textbooks from an ESD Perspective
title_sort reviewing vietnam geography textbooks from an esd perspective
publisher MDPI AG
series Sustainability
issn 2071-1050
publishDate 2019-04-01
description This paper examines how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is transmitted in the context of geography education by investigating the extent to which geography textbooks in Vietnam promote ESD principles. At the same time, the paper helps clarify how ESD is anchored in formal education and how ESD is contextualized in the specific context of Vietnam. This study involved a qualitative analysis supported by MAXQDA software (VERBI, Berlin, Germany), where geography textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12 in Vietnam were analysed to determine (1) how sustainable development (SD) issues are integrated into the content of the textbooks and (2) the extent to which questions and tasks in the textbooks promote competencies regarding the demands of ESD. The findings show that the textbooks somewhat promote ESD through their content and didactic approach. However, there are still some drawbacks. In terms of content, the textbooks’ main approaches to both SD content and geography core knowledge are description and indoctrination. In terms of their didactic approach, almost all questions/tasks ask students to memorize and reproduce information and rote learning rather than helping them promote ESD competencies. This reconfirms that ESD remains an add-on issue to an overcrowded curriculum, and the geography textbooks reflect an instrumental approach to ESD.
topic Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Vietnam
geography textbook
textbook analysis
url https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2466
work_keys_str_mv AT thaophuongnguyen reviewingvietnamgeographytextbooksfromanesdperspective
_version_ 1725159403668111360