POP – Peaks of Progress: professional community of school leaders from mountainous provinces

Vietnam's diverse geography, spanning from mountainous regions to coastal plains, encompasses 63 provinces and 54 ethnicities, with the Kinh ethnicity comprising 85.4% of the population. The Central Highlands and Northern mountainous areas, characterized by rugged terrain and low population density, have the highest concentration of ethnic minorities, often facing heightened poverty levels. These rural and economically disadvantaged areas encounter challenges in accessing quality education, resulting in lower literacy rates compared to the national average, as highlighted in the Education Development Strategic Plan 2021-2030 (EDSP). To address these disparities, the government prioritizes equity in educational access, particularly for ethnic minorities, mountainous residents, coastal communities, and those in socioeconomically challenged regions with special emphasis on pedagogical training to mitigate attrition risks among children in these areas.

School leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the quality of education by creating conducive environments for effective teaching and learning. However, according to the Education Commission (2020) existing practices often prioritize administrative tasks over pedagogical leadership, limiting the capacity of school leaders to enact meaningful change in educational outcomes. As stipulated in Vietnamese legislation and professional standards, school leaders in early childhood education in Vietnam have both managerial and leadership roles to take up.  In practice however, we see that more emphasis is being placed on the management of schools and less on providing teacher professional development (TPD) for teachers. This stems from several factors described below.

Nationwide, Vietnamese school leaders are promoted from the ranks of teachers after completing a management course, but without specific training or support in pedagogical leadership practices. While they have a pedagogical background from their teaching experience, they tend to lack the specific knowledge and skills in andragogy and adult learning approaches necessary to deliver effective TPD, for example, coaching teachers to improve their classroom practices. This lack of support offered within the existing education system can result in lower levels of confidence among school leaders in providing good TPD, as their focus shifts primarily to administrative tasks.

Within the Vietnamese education system, continuous professional development for school leaders is typically centralized, focused on the managerial role, delivered in a top-down manner, without sufficient contextualization or guidance over a longer period of time or recognition of their experience and agency. This approach does not adequately address the specific needs and challenges faced by school leaders in diverse contexts, such as mountainous areas with ethnic minority populations.

Although school leaders participate in both school and district collaborative activities, these are conducted in face-to-face settings and there is currently no inter-provincial platform that focuses specifically on the needs of school leaders’ continuous professional development, a platform where school leaders from different mountainous provinces connect, leading to a lack of collaboration and contextual knowledge exchange among these professionals. As a result, valuable insights and best practices may not be shared, hindering efforts to improve educational outcomes in these areas.

Our solution is to create an online professional learning community (PLC) that builds on an ongoing school leadership capacity development trajectory focusing on pedagogical leadership to support effective teacher practices in the classroom. Effective continuous professional development (CPD) is characterised by support that is based on reflection, focused, process oriented, differentiated, collaborative, needs based, experiential and fosters a sense of ownership over one’s own professional development path. Our solution is rooted within this framework of effective CPD practices.

We will use Facebook as the primary platform for connecting and engaging school leaders across three mountainous provinces (CPD criteria: collaborative). Facebook's widespread usage in Vietnam and familiarity among educators make it an accessible and convenient tool for building PLCs (CPD criteria: sense of ownership). School leaders who have completed face-to-face training on school leadership will be invited to join, creating a network of peers for ongoing support and collaboration that taps into their knowledge, experience and agency (CPD criteria: experiential, sense of ownership, process oriented). This will both provide school leaders post training support to implement effective practices as well as demonstrate the importance and best practice in professional development as a process rather than a one-off activity (CPD criteria: process oriented).

Content development

The platform will feature bite-sized continuous professional development content selected from the school leadership training sessions, such as coaching skills and techniques that can be applied to individuals and groups, in person and remotely to reach all teachers (CPD criteria: differentiated, experiential).

This focused bite-sized content will be developed by the project team in collaboration with the school leaders participating in the PLC. This will guarantee that, in line with the principles of adult learning, the content is relevant, tailored, drawn on professional experiences and practical for this target group (CPD criteria: needs based, focused, differentiated, based on reflection).

Delivery and engagement strategies

Delivery formats and engagement strategies will include:

• Quizzes: Interactive quizzes to consolidate training content and assess comprehension.
• Webinars/Webcasts: Live or recorded sessions featuring experts and practitioners sharing insights and strategies.
• Videos of techniques: Demonstrations of effective teaching and leadership practices.
• Questions/Surveys: Opportunities for school leaders to provide feedback, share challenges, and suggest topics for discussion.
• Interviews with guest contributors: Conversations with experienced educators and school leaders to share insights and practical advice.
• Q&A sessions: Live or asynchronous sessions allowing school leaders to seek guidance among peers and exchange ideas.
• Material Sharing: Sharing resources, facilitation plans, and relevant materials.

Purpose and outcomes

Central to our approach is the promotion of reflective practice. By providing a structured and focused platform for school leaders to reflect on their experiences, share successes, and learn from one another, we will foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Through ongoing engagement and support, school leaders will be empowered to use their agency to adapt their leadership practices to better support teacher professional development(TPD) by providing contextualized, continuous and differentiated TPD, and ultimately enhance the quality of education in their schools in provinces that are currently underserved by the centralised TPD system. 

The target population consists of school leaders in three provinces located across Vietnam in mountainous areas with significant ethnic minority populations from quite diverse minorities. These school leaders are responsible for overseeing not only their own schools but also up to twelve satellite schools located within a 13km radius of the school. The initial pilot of the solution will reach 291 school leaders from 120 schools that support 2059 teachers of which 49.7% are posted in remote satellite schools in the three provinces. The second phase will expand to another 356 school leaders from 136 schools that support 1906 teachers of which 40.4% are in satellite schools. Capacitating school leaders in providing effective teacher professional development(TPD) within their unique contexts will leverage school leaders’ understanding of Ministry of Education and Training policy directives with the contextualised needs of teachers in their province, ensuring all teachers are provided with the necessary professional development. 

As part of their continuous professional development (CPD), the ministry provides annual professional development activities which mainly focus on policy changes. Although important and valuable, this CPD does not sufficiently address the specific needs of school leaders in enhancing their pedagogical leadership and capabilities to provide effective TPD.

In terms of peer support, school leaders belong to cluster professional networks consisting of 6-10 other schools within their districts which primarily serve as platforms for information exchange rather than opportunities to refine TPD practices. This lack of focus on pedagogical leadership exacerbates the gap in supporting effective teacher training initiatives.

Some school leaders are also part of needs-based education networks, which are expected to provide cascade training in classroom practices and other forms of TPD support for teachers as assigned by the Department of Education and Training for the province.

Despite the existing structured CPD system, school leaders are underserved in terms of support for their pedagogical leadership skills and providing effective TPD activities to teachers. To meet this gap, VVOB’s project team provided a capacity development trajectory in pedagogical leadership with the emphasis on fostering an enabling environment and conducting effective TPD activities for selected school leaders from the three provinces. Despite this initiative to fill the existing competency gap, there is still a need for more continuous support as they put into practice new TPD approaches.

Our solution will establish an online Professional Learning Community (PLC) centred around effective TPD practices, building upon a foundation of pedagogical leadership training. Utilizing Facebook as the primary platform, we will connect school leaders from three mountainous provinces, fostering collaboration and a sense of ownership over their professional development paths. Bite-sized content derived from face-to-face training sessions and in-school application will be shared and exchanged. This content, co-created with participating school leaders, will be delivered through various engaging formats including quizzes, webinars, videos, and interviews. By nurturing reflective practice and continuous improvement, our initiative will empower school leaders to use their agency to create enabling environments for teachers in underserved provinces to thrive and deliver classroom excellence.

The VVOB Vietnam project team that is working on this solution consists of Vietnamese and foreign education specialists who bring together rich expertise and experience in early childhood pedagogies, andragogy and blended teaching and learning within the Vietnamese education system.

The project team members are closely involved with the key stakeholders of the three mountainous provinces, and have been working hand in hand with teachers, school leaders, education officials at district and provincial level over the past two years as part of the TALK programme. The TALK programme aims to capacitate school leaders and education officials to trigger real change at classroom level in establishing a language-rich learning environment, making sure preschools offer a better preparation for children from ethnically diverse and disadvantaged districts to enter primary schools with language skills that will make them ready for learning. To realise change in classroom practice, school leaders must build the capacities to establish enabling environments for teachers’ professional development based on their specific needs in their specific context. Building capacities and changing practices of school leaders is therefore an essential component of the ongoing TALK programme, on which this solution builds.

To successfully roll out a capacity development trajectory and introduce innovative solutions to the education system the project team believes it is key to start from within the education system through a direct collaboration with the ministry of education and its provincial counterparts, based on the policy plans, priorities and specific needs that have been set and communicated.

The needs of school leaders are at the centre of the partnership which allows us to design a solution and approach that is feasible, supported and scalable within the system. The choice for a solution and approach that is fitting for the community we serve is further grounded in evidence. The solution of working via online professional learning communities (PLC) for school leaders stems from its demonstrated effectiveness in research and practical experience. 

In collaboration with school leaders of the three mountainous provinces the content, delivery and engagement strategies will be defined and modified on-the-go to make sure that the PLC builds on the ideas and strengths that originate with the school leaders. To this end a small core team of school leaders will be directly involved in all steps of the solution’s design, content development and delivery, while additional feedback will be collected from all school leaders participating in the PLC. 

PoP is phased in three stages, moving from prototyping to piloting. The first stage, April 2024 – September 2024, is setting up a collaboration with a core team of school leaders. The core team will be responsible for content development, design and feedback before agreeing on content and presentation. In preparation for roll out, the core team will select and practice delivery methods (techniques described under "What is your solution") most convenient for the content and in accordance with the timelines. The second phase will align with the start of the school year from September 2024 – August 2025. This will include school leaders from two districts in each of the three provinces who completed school leadership training from VVOB. During this phase, the core team will have the opportunity to pilot the content and further hone their delivery skills in the selected modality. Phase three, starting from December 2024 – August 2025, will further expand the online community of school leader practitioners to include school leaders from a further three districts in the same provinces. Through each phase, the core team will go through cycles of reflection and feedback in both content and modality in preparation to upscaling the professional learning community to more provinces

In 2021, we successfully worked with MIT Solve for the school leadership research framework in Rwanda, to strengthen the connection between Continuous Professional Development focusing on school leaders and the impact at learner level. This collaboration was a very positive experience for us, leading to tangible outcomes which still feed into our research work. In 2023, two colleagues from our Country team in Rwanda were involved in the review process and jury respectively and found this to be a rewarding experience that further strengthened our appreciation and links with the Solve community.

When evaluating the current call, we noticed a different approach for this year’s call and found a good match between our programming in Vietnam and the current topics focus, particularly the inclusive design. At VVOB, we design all of our projects from the outset with a perspective for scaling. Therefore, the possibility of having the award complemented with additional prizes is particularly attractive since this will allow us to take further steps towards successful scaling of the project. For example by extending the solution into another school year, developing additional content, conducting a study to assess the breadth and depth of the solution’s impact, expanding the uptake into other projects or taking the next steps to institutionalise the approach with the support of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Also, part of our organisation’s DNA is to collaborate with like-minded organisations who support, trigger, challenge and inspire us. The journey with MIT Solve presents an opportunity to exchange and learn among peers to finetune our solution model, explore options for progress monitoring and impact evaluation fitting to the model, expand our horizon regarding effective blended models and have a critical friend to discuss our strategy for institutionalisation.

This solution innovates by harnessing the widespread usage of Facebook to establish an online professional learning community (PLC) for school leaders in underserved provinces, an approach not commonly seen in traditional professional development initiatives in Vietnam. It creatively integrates bite-sized content derived from face-to-face training sessions, reflection workshops and in-school application, ensuring relevance and practicality while maximizing engagement and knowledge transfer. By utilizing various interactive formats such as quizzes, webinars, and videos, it is a dynamic and engaging method for delivering professional development content. It stimulates school leaders to act and react when receiving the bite-sized inputs, to converse with fellow school leaders on these relevant topics, and to respond with additional sharing of information (such as links, videos, examples, etc).   

This innovative approach not only fills a crucial gap in supporting pedagogical leadership but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation among school leaders, ultimately aiming to enhance the quality of education in underserved regions. Through its emphasis on collaborative learning and empowerment, it sets a new standard for scalable and impactful professional development initiatives tailored to the unique needs of diverse educational contexts. Such a community, when appreciated and relevant, can naturally grow to reach a broader group of school leaders, expanding the impact in underserved regions.

To achieve the right to quality education and reach the SDG 4 targets, governments and partners must invest in quality teachers and school leaders. Research demonstrates that next to high-quality teaching, effective school leadership is one of the biggest factors impacting student learning and well-being. Effective support from superiors increases teachers’ ability to improve learning. As it is primarily through the guidance given to teachers that school leaders achieve success, better leadership practices are a low-cost strategy for improving learning outcomes (Bloom et al., 2014; Grissom et al., 2021; Leithwood et al., 2004).

The OECD states that 'Much current and emerging national education policy rests on the assumption that increased school autonomy can play a positive role in the implementation of education reform and provision of leadership for improved learning.' (OECD, 2008), underscoring the crucial role autonomy plays in effective school leadership. Professional learning communities (PLC), defined as collaborative, experimental and reflective environments, possess key catalyst features such as collaboration, moral support, professional growth, and collective efforts (DuFour and Eaker, 1998). The PLC model assists autonomy by providing collaborative spaces for knowledge exchange and practice among educational leaders. By fostering a culture of collaboration, PLCs empower school leaders to make informed decisions aligned with their schools' specific needs, ultimately benefiting teacher and student outcomes.

Problem Statement:

In underserved provinces of Vietnam, particularly in mountainous regions with significant ethnic minority populations, school leaders lack adequate support and training in pedagogical leadership, leading to challenges in implementing effective teacher professional development and ultimately hindering educational outcomes.

Activities:

• Establish an online PLC for school leaders in underserved provinces.

• Co-create bite-sized content with a core group of participating school leaders, focusing on pedagogical leadership and effective teacher professional development.

• Provide ongoing support and engagement through various interactive formats.

Outputs:

• 1 online PLC established with approximately 600 school leaders participating in 2 phases.
• Weekly bite-sized content is posted.
• Community members are enabled to actively engage in the PLC.

Outcomes at school leader level – direct impact:

School leaders:

• have the competences to lead, capacitate and motivate teaching staff to improve teaching and learning.
• effectively engage in peer learning and knowledge exchange.

Outcomes at school leader level – longer term impact:

School leaders:

• create an enabling learning environment for teachers.
• provide contextualized, continuous and differentiated teacher professional development.
• become reflective practitioners.
• invest in their role and responsibilities as pedagogical leaders.
• are empowered to steer their own professional development building on support of peers.

Outcomes at teacher and student level - longer term impact: 

Teachers are more effective in teaching, having the competences to set up stimulating learning environments for their students, apply student-centred pedagogies and guide students’ holistic development.

Students in underserved regions receive quality education, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to succeed in further education, work and life.

Direct impact goal: School leaders in the targeted provinces have the competences to lead, capacitate and motivate their teaching staff to improve teaching and learning.

Indicators and targets measuring the outputs and outcomes/direct impact:

Facebook engagement:

• Number of school leaders participating in the online professional learning community – targeting 600 school leaders
• Post frequency of bite-sized content by VVOB and core team – targeting 15 posts per month
• Post frequency by the community members – targeting 7 posts per month
• Facebook reactions on posts – targeting an average of 40 reactions per post
• Facebook group reach – targeting a monthly average reach of 20% per post
• Quality of engagement – targeting 50% of comments per post to be of good quality

PLCs are created when members unite around a shared need, in this case pedagogical school leadership. To flourish, PLCs rely on the generation of momentum among members. This momentum is initiated by drivers (VVOB and core group members), who create relevant and accessible content, initiate discussions, moderate forums, and empower members to participate actively. As momentum builds, members gradually assume ownership of the PLC, contributing content and engaging in discussions, reducing the need for drivers to intervene. However, momentum naturally fluctuates, and when it wanes, drivers must reengage to reignite activity and foster continued growth.

Capacity development:

• Percentage of school leaders satisfied with the received bite-sized content – targeting 80% of school leaders being satisfied with the content.
• Percentage of school leaders satisfied with the engagement of their peers – targeting 80% of school leaders being satisfied with the engagement of their peers.
• Data transfer from the TALK programme: Percentage of school leaders that have acquired the capacity to lead, capacitate and motivate teachers to improve teaching and learning - targeting 80% of the school leaders participating in the PoP solution.

Facebook engagement will be measured via Meta Business Suite where all the Facebook group statistics are collected and visualised, whereas the quality of engagement will be assessed by VVOB’s staff implementing the solution. To assess the quality of engagement several criteria will be used such as responding to the reaction of a peer, asking a question about the bite-sized content, reacting by sharing a reflection or personal experience, reacting by providing additional resources, etc.

Capacity development will be measured as follows:

• Satisfaction with the bite-sized content: Via an online survey, the school leaders assess if the received content was practical, concrete and relevant to their context.
• Satisfaction with the engagement of their peers: Via an online survey, the school leaders assess if the engagement of their peers was of good quality (using the quality of engagement criteria mentioned above).
• Capacity development of school leaders: Via an online survey (base- and endline), the school leaders’ knowledge, attitudes and practices are measured. 

The indicators and targets have been set based on VVOB’s current TALK programme, to which this solution adds on, and VVOB’s organisational Facebook page. We are however eager to find inspiration within the MIT Solve community to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of our online solutions.

We will use Facebook as the primary platform for connecting and engaging school leaders across three mountainous provinces. According to a 2023 report released by the Mobile Marketing Association Vietnam (MMA), Facebook is the social media platform that is most in use in Vietnam, with a penetration rate of 95 percent. Its usage and familiarity are also widespread among educators, making it an accessible and convenient platform to purposefully connect school leaders.

In Vietnam Facebook’s primary uses are for connecting with relatives and friends, entertainment and commerce. Nevertheless, within the educator sector Facebook and other social media platforms are also being used to connect teachers to share experiences, lesson plans and other resources regarding specific pedagogies (eg. STEM education). However, a social media platform dedicated to pedagogical school leadership is not yet available. 

Full time staff: 12

Part time staff: 2

Contractors / other: 0

The project team who will be implementing the solution is working full-time on the TALK project, within which this solution is situated. The team will dedicate a percentage of their time to the implementation of the solution; and consists of a project coordinator, education advisors, a monitoring and evaluation advisor, a communication advisor and operations staff. They will be supported by a management team who will be guaranteeing a smooth implementation.

This solution was in the concept stage for a six-month period and find itself in the prototype stage as of April 2024. The solution is an add-on to the ongoing capacity development project TALK, which is in its third year of implementation.

Similar solutions utilising online platforms or blended modalities for professional learning communities have been successfully tested and implemented in other VVOB projects. In the design and implementation of blended or online solutions, we work with a guide that has been developed to effectively design a blend of in-person and remote learning for the professional development of educators.

We strongly believe that diversity is a major asset for our organisation. In VVOB’s Learning Unlimited Strategy, an explicit objective of VVOB is to be an equitable, diverse, and inclusive organisation in terms of both its project activities and organisational practices. To realise this, VVOB ensures an HR policy and practice that ensures equal opportunity for all staff members, at all levels in the organisation, without any form of discrimination.

As stipulated in VVOB’s HR handbook and VVOB’s Gender policy, the recruitment and selection procedure are held as short and transparent as possible. Objectivity and neutrality must always be ensured, and the data of all candidates are being treated confidentially. Because we value internal talent and development, all vacancies must be published internally first before being published externally. VVOB bans all types of discrimination in recruitment and selection. This includes, but is not limited to, discrimination based on age, disability, sex, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. Therefore, VVOB vacancies must be equitable and gender aware and selection teams are strived to be balanced. Furthermore, recruitment will be used as a tool to strive towards gender balance, guided by monitoring this balance in our entire staff population and act consequently.

VVOB’s General Code of Conduct stipulates that all individuals who are involved in implementing VVOB projects and programmes are expected to demonstrate respect for the dignity, value, equality, diversity and privacy of all persons, and demonstrate respect for policies and planet.

In case any team member feels that VVOB’s codes of conduct have been violated or that standards have not been met they can use VVOB’s internal (confidential counsellor, focal person integrity and managers) and/or external (health and safety advisor) reporting channels to address the issues.

Our key resources will be staff covering content development, community management, technical support and platform maintenance. Reliable internet access, access to Facebook and IT equipment for both facilitators and participants will be key as well.

Our key partners and stakeholders will be the Ministry of Education and Training, to collaborate on, support and endorse the initiative. Next, the buy-in and engagement of provincial and district education authorities will be necessary, facilitating participation from school leaders.

In terms of costs and activities, there will be staff time needed to co-create professional development content and materials for the platform as well as ongoing maintenance and management of the platform, facilitating engagement and discussions within the online professional learning community (PLC). There will be a cost to collect data to assess the effectiveness and impact of the intervention. Scaling costs might include additional content development, platform updates and personnel to support a larger participant base.

The channel used for the intervention is Facebook, this will be used to host the PLC and engage with the participants.

The primary beneficiaries are the school leaders responsible for TPD. The indirect beneficiaries are the teachers and students, since improved pedagogical leadership intends to positively impact teaching quality and student outcomes.

Our value proposition revolves around empowering school leaders by equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and support to enhance their pedagogical leadership capabilities and elevate teacher professional development practices within their schools. We strive for tangible impact, aiming for improved collaboration among school leaders and bolstered capacity to prioritize pedagogical leadership over administrative tasks. By facilitating the implementation of effective teacher professional development strategies, we envision a transformative shift towards enhanced educational outcomes in underserved regions, thereby fostering a more equitable and inclusive learning environment for all students.

There will be no monetary revenue or surplus, given the intervention is non-profit and does not aim to generate revenue.

All VVOB projects are set up from the perspective and ambition to bring our initiatives and solutions to scale, within existing government systems. To improve our own scaling strategies and to support government partners in scaling up education initiatives, VVOB joined hands with valuable stakeholders in the education sector to develop an Education Scalability Checklist, a tool for assessing the ease or difficulty of scaling specific education initiatives and planning action to facilitate scaling, and an accompanying User Guide. The Education Scalability Checklist is designed for practitioners (“implementers”), governments (“policymakers”) and funders who are interested in seeing a particular education initiative move to a larger scale.

One of the implications of scaling withing government systems, is that realising scale needs to be financially sustainable. Our strategy for financial sustainability centres on cost-effective practices and resource optimisation. We aim to minimize costs to avoid budget constraints within the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). This is achieved through multiple measures, including embedding professional development into the existing in-service system, co-creation of content which allows for a full hand-over as the solution implementation progresses, and by limiting material procurement due to the solution’s online modality. Our focus is to develop practices that reduce long-term financial burdens and dependence on external funding.