Journal of Education for Teaching, 2015

Vol. 41, No. 2, 203–214, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2015.1031542

The influence of traditional beliefs on Vietnamese college lecturers’

perceptions of face
Thi Quynh Trang Nguyen*

Faculty of Social Sciences, Nha Trang Teacher Training College, Nha Trang City, Vietnam
(Received 13 May 2014; accepted 25 February 2015)

In an East Asian context heavily influenced by Confucian ideas on principles for

living and behaving, ‘face’ plays a significant role in Vietnamese people’s
thinking and behaviour. In the context of education, Vietnamese teachers’
concerns of saving face in classrooms have been implicitly taken for granted but
not yet seriously examined in academic research. The paper addresses this gap
in the research literature by presenting the results of interviews with 15 lecturers
in a Vietnamese Teacher Training College. It is argued that the concepts of face
and saving face are significant to the participants and their ideas of saving face
are largely influenced by traditional Confucian standards in education. In particu-
lar, teachers are believed to save face by upholding the belief that they represent
an unquestionable source of knowledge, maintaining a ‘noble distant image’ in
relations with their students, and receiving respectful behaviours from their stu-
dents. These beliefs could be one source of resistance to educational reforms
regarding interactive pedagogies in Vietnamese higher education. It is argued
that teachers’ concerns of saving face in Vietnamese classrooms deserve more
attention from educational planners and researchers.
Keywords: face; saving face; Confucian influence; Vietnamese college lecturers;
traditional beliefs

Introduction
The concept of face is generally viewed as a presentation of self, ‘delineated in
terms of approved social attributes’ (Goffman 1967, 5). As a culture within is ter-
med East Asia’s ‘face culture’ (a term used by Kim and Cohen 2010), Vietnam has
often been seen associated with the concept of face. Face and the fear of losing face
have often been mentioned as an important Vietnamese cultural feature in various
interactional contexts (Borton 2000; Chew 2009; Nguyen 2015; Truong and Nguyen
2002; Vu and Napier 2000). This is evidenced through the fact that the Vietnamese
are more articulate about the concept (i.e. they mention more about face saving, face
losing) than Western people, for example Australians, in their daily life (Tran and
Harding 2009). Borton (2000, 24) once noted: ‘Loss of face is painful in any soci-
ety, but unbearable in Vietnam. The Vietnamese have an expression: “Better to die
than to lose face”’.
In education, face has long been identified as one of the major obstacles prevent-
ing the introduction of interactive learning modes among Vietnamese students. In
particular, Vietnamese students’ reluctance to participate in university classroom

*Email: qtrang254@gmail.com

© 2015 Taylor & Francis

204 T.Q.T. Nguyen

activities is largely attributed to their fear of face loss for both themselves and teach-
ers (Nguyen 2009; Phan 2007; T. H. T. Pham 2010; Watson 1999; Yates and
Nguyen 2012). Yet while the effect of face on learners’ behaviours in classrooms
has been discussed, there seems to be a lack of attention of the relevance of face for
teachers. This paper aims to address this gap in the literature by arguing that in a
context where face plays a significant role in people’s thinking patterns and beha-
viours (such as in the Vietnamese culture), understanding face-needs and face-related
behaviours of Vietnamese teachers is important and worthwhile. This study of a
group of Vietnamese college lecturers’ perceptions of face shows that face is a very
important concept to the participants, and the maintenance of face of teachers in
classrooms involves the preservation of three main factors: students’ respect of
teachers’ knowledge, an appropriate distance between teachers and students, and
students’ respectful behaviours to teachers in their interactions. These suggest that
the lecturers are still significantly influenced by traditional Confucian teachings to
maintain their face, which can be one source of resistance to educational reforms,
especially those aimed at the increased use of interactive pedagogies in Vietnamese
higher education.

The Vietnamese concept of face

H. N. Pham (2007, 2011, 2014) and T. Q. T. Nguyen (2014) have made considerable
contributions to the exploration of the Vietnamese concept of face in recent years.
Pham (2007) points out the major difference between Vietnamese and Western con-
cepts of face. Accordingly, while the Western concept of face explained via Brown
and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) politeness theory includes two aspects: the want to be
approved of (positive face) and the want to be free from imposition (negative face),
the Vietnamese only consider the former, but not the latter desire, to be a concern
for face. That is, they do not consider autonomy in actions a constituent of face
(Pham 2007). In addition, the Vietnamese concept of face tends to rely heavily on
social expectations and public opinions (T. Q. T. Nguyen 2014; H. N. Pham 2011),
a distinct feature from common Western perceptions where self-awareness of intrin-
sic individual values seems to be more important (Kim and Cohen 2010). H. N.
Pham (2011, 34) states: ‘the existence of one’s Face [originally capitalised and itali-
cised] is dependent on public judgment and/or evaluation of one’s behaviour. … In
particular, a person can hardly lose his (sic) Face to himself, but rather he loses
Face to other people’. While H. N. Pham tends to consider the Vietnamese concept
of face as a motivational concern in real time interactional contexts and face has
been pretty much investigated in contrast with politeness theories such as Brown
and Levinson’s (1978, 1987), T. Q. T. Nguyen (2014) also looks at the concept as a
wider philosophical life-underpinning notion. According to T. Q. T. Nguyen (2014),
although the Vietnamese concept, as formally realised in the concept of thể diện
(face), can be interactive and contextual dependent as it is constantly changed and
tested in situational face-to-face interactions, it is also viewed as an overarching con-
cept that represents a person’s perceptions of their own important moral and social
values and living principles as expected by society, which is quite stable and perva-
sive across interactions. This concept of face reflects an enduring sense of self
through one’s perceptions of one’s role and position in society and the relationships
surrounding them, and therefore can be used to evaluate oneself or others without
reference to any other specific contexts.
 Journal of Education for Teaching 205

Face in Vietnamese culture is closely linked to social roles and positions, a

feature which originated from the influence of Confucianism, which is also the
important foundation of face in the culture. Pham (2007) found that the Vietnamese
concept of face possesses two main components: (1) individual positive qualities
and competence, and (2) individual social roles and characteristics that the roles are
associated with. However in reality, these two components often intermingle since
many individual positive qualities and competences of a person are based on the
person’s social roles and position in society. People lose face when they fail to show
that they possess certain competence or qualities that their roles require. This largely
comes from the influence of Confucianism, which emphasises one’s role and posi-
tion in society, and the importance of fulfilling the obligations and duties set by this
role and position (Cheng 1986; King and Bond 1985; Nguyen 1998). Therefore, the
greater and the more important the position and role one possesses, the larger
amount of face one is entitled to maintain. The close association between face and
social role and position, which is otherwise neglected in the Western concept of
face, has also been pointed out as an outstanding aspect of face in cultures that share
the common profound influence of Confucianism with Vietnam, such as China
(Cheng 1986; Ho 1976; Hwang 2006; Mao 1994), Japan (Haugh 2007; Lin and
Yamaguchi 2007; Yabuuchi 2004) and Korea (Choi and Kim 2004; Lim 2009).
Nevertheless, there seems a lack of research on face in relation to its specific role
and position in many societies. Specifically, there have been few studies about what
and how people of certain professional areas view face and what behaviours they
engage in to maintain and enhance their face in their working contexts. This is a
fertile yet neglected area that if researched carefully could help make clearer the
practical function and impact of face in daily life in concrete contexts and so help
explore further many aspects of face such as its components.
In terms of the Vietnamese face components, T. Q. T. Nguyen’s (2014) explora-
tory study of Vietnamese thể diện suggests that face to the Vietnamese seems to be
more comprehensive and inclusive than face as described in other nearby cultures,
such as those in China or Korea. Chinese face is comprised of two important
components: lien/lian as moral face and mientzu/mianzi as social reputational face
(Cheng 1986; Hu 1944). Similarly, the Korea concept of face (chemyeon) is found
to include two dimensions: morality and ability (Choi and Kim 2004). Meanwhile,
the Vietnamese concept (thể diện) not only embraces these serious notions, but also
involves less serious concerns such as appearance, clothing and trivial personal pos-
sessions (T. Q. T. Nguyen 2014). In other words, any factor that contributes to a
desirable image of a person, either a significant internal moral quality or a minor
external expression such as a shirt one wears, is considered as contributing to one’s
face. Vietnamese people can lose face from the extreme of a major moral transgres-
sion to a minor violation of social etiquette, such as being seen dressing in a dowdy
outfit in a formal setting.
Since the study examines face in educational context, it is necessary to review
the Vietnamese educational setting that is relevant to the study.

The Vietnamese educational context

Vietnamese higher education has undergone reform since 1986, the starting year of
the đổi mới (renovation) period when the government decided on an open-door
policy with the world. In order to produce a labour force that meet the demand of
206 T.Q.T. Nguyen

global markets, the Vietnamese education tried to change its traditional teacher-
centred teaching and learning styles to catch up with the Western interactive student-
centred approach (Hamano 2008; Pham 2013; T. N. Pham 2010). Teacher training
programmes were reformed so as to equip teachers with knowledge and skills for
implementing this student-centred pedagogy (Harman and Nguyen 2010).
However, the reform’s results are still far from desirable. Although there have
been some reported changes in the teachers’ perceptions as well as their practice
toward the more interactive pedagogy (e.g. B. H. Nguyen 2014) and the application
of new methods was acknowledged to bring about certain positive results on lear-
ners’ performance (Tran 2014), Vietnamese tertiary classrooms are still dominated
by traditional teaching and learning approaches (Nguyen 2013; T. N. Pham 2010).
Several studies have pointed out that the application of the teaching methods
borrowed from the West in Vietnamese tertiary classrooms failed partly, or largely,
due to their contrast with the Confucian educational beliefs embedded in the tea-
chers’ minds. For instance, scholars such as Nguyen, Terlouw, and Pilot (2005,
2006), T. N. Nguyen (2014) and T. H. T. Pham (2008, 2010, 2011) reported that the
belief that the teachers’ role in classrooms is to be the most reliable source of
knowledge and the one responsible for constructing knowledge for their students,
caused either the misapplication of student-centred pedagogy concepts such as
learner autonomy, group work and cooperative learning, or teachers’ reluctance to
adopt these approaches in their teaching practice. Pham (2013) states: ‘it is not easy
for CHC [Confucian Heritage Culture] peoples to replace Confucian values by new
values. If any change that conflicts with CHC values is imposed on CHC teachers
and students, it is likely that they only accept changes at the surface level’.
Consequently, scholars (such as Nguyen, Terlouw, and Pilot 2005, 2006; T. H. T.
Pham 2008, 2010, 2013) have argued for a culturally appropriate pedagogy, so
advocating a serious consideration of Vietnamese cultural characteristics when
applying Western-based pedagogy.
Although the influence of Vietnamese teachers’ traditional beliefs on their pro-
fessional perceptions and practice has been discussed, it has never been seriously
examined from the perspective of face. Face as a feature of the Vietnamese culture
rooted in traditional Confucian values could be a channel to understand the impact
of traditional values on Vietnamese teachers’ views in their profession. This paper
aims to contribute to the research on this topic by highlighting the importance of
studying teachers’ face needs in Vietnamese education.

Information about the study

The interviews came from a larger project, an exploratory study about the
Vietnamese emic concept of face (thể diện). The first stage of the project involved a
corpus study, in which the researcher collected internet language materials contain-
ing the term thể diện and related terms. Analysis of the language corpus suggested
social cultural issues about the concept should be explored further. The second stage
involved individual in-depth semi-structured interviews with a group of 15
Vietnamese teachers about the topics elicited from the corpus analysis. The partici-
pants were asked to discuss face in three areas: face as a general concept, face in
relation to gender, and face in relation to the participants’ profession. Questions for
the third part of the interviews were built upon the language corpus analysis, the
 Journal of Education for Teaching 207

Table 1. Participants’ information.

Participant code BC CH DN HN HQ KL PT QH TA TC TH VA VD VT VTh
Gender F M M M F F F F M F F F M M M
Age 27 34 31 26 30 37 31 28 32 28 27 34 27 31 30

researchers’ own teaching experience and consultations with several Vietnamese

tertiary teachers.
The fifteen participants included seven male and eight female lecturers under
40 years old in a Teacher Training College of a province in the South Central Coast
area of Vietnam. The participants’ age range, as compared to older age groups, was
considered advantageous for the interviews since it created the minimum hierarchi-
cal difference between the participants and the interviewer (also the researcher) who
was in her early 30s at the time, considering that the openness of the Vietnamese in
interviews depends largely on the social distance between the two parties (Nguyen
2015). The main task of the interviewees’ Teacher Training College is to provide a
source of primary and secondary teachers for the province in which it is established.
The participants’ teaching experience ranged from 2 to 12 years. Their teaching sub-
jects were selected to be as varied as possible and the number of people teaching
science subjects and the number of people teaching social science subjects were
virtually equal. Table 1 provides information regarding the participants’ age and
gender (M: male; F: female).
The interviews were conducted in Vietnamese and lasted approximately one
hour. In the first part of the discussion about face and the participants’ position as
teachers, the participants were asked to discuss in general terms teachers’ face and
the maintenance of teachers’ face. Then several situations that were likely to cause
face loss to teachers were raised and participants were asked about their opinions of
whether or not they thought these situations would cause face loss to teachers and if
so, how teachers should act to avoid face loss. Among the situations, those involv-
ing the maintenance of teachers’ face in their classrooms in interactions with
students were: (a) teachers are unable to answer students’ questions in class; and (b)
students point out to teachers some mistake in the teachers’ lessons in class.
In the data presented below, brackets next to interview quotations contain
information of pseudonyms of the interviewees and locations of the quotations
assigned by the researcher in the transcriptions.

The lecturers’ perceptions

Face – an important concern of teachers
All of the participants indicated their strongly held belief that being a teacher in gen-
eral meant having a particularly significant amount of face in society. Maintaining
face was perceived as very important in their profession because the interviewees
believed they held a significant and honourable role and position in society. Teachers
were associated with qualities such as being ‘mature’ (chín chắn), ‘knowledgeable’
(hiểu biết), ‘educated’ (có học), and ‘trustworthy’ (đáng tin cậy) (VD, 1). Teachers
were considered the centre of the national tradition ‘tôn sư trọng đạo’ (respecting
teachers respecting morality) (KL, 6). Being a teacher was seen not as simply a job;
rather teachers needed to be ‘an example’ (tấm gương) of both impeccable morals
and professional knowledge (QH, 4). The idea that teachers should set ‘good
208 T.Q.T. Nguyen

examples’ (tấm gương sáng) for their students was popular among the interviewees.
More than an example, teachers were even described as ‘idols’ (thần tượng) for their
students (HN, 2; KL, 7).
This pride was even extended to the degree that some of the participants believed
that their teaching career was ‘nobler than other careers’ (KL, 6; VD, 1). Some
hinted at the superiority of their teaching job over other jobs, which they labelled
‘normal’. For instance, the participant VTh (5) said that in public teachers them-
selves should show via their upright, polite manner and formal communication style
that they were different from people in other careers if they did not want to be the
object of comments such as, ‘You don’t look like a teacher; you look like a seller in
a market or something else, not a teacher’. He also stated that the face of a teacher
was bigger and more ‘standardised’ (chuẩn) than the face of people in other jobs
(VTh, 8), and teachers were not as ‘easy’ (dễ dãi) on themselves as people in ‘other
careers’ (VTh, 10). All of the interviewees believed that teachers were more likely
to lose face, since people tended to judge teachers more harshly than people in other
‘normal’ jobs, therefore the need to maintain their face was felt to be greater.
It is noticeable that although the participants were ‘lecturers’, or ‘giảng viên’ in
Vietnamese (those who teach at the tertiary level), none of them used the term even
when talking about their own role and position; rather they used the generic term
‘giáo viên’ (a person who teaches, or ‘teacher’) for both themselves and in every
discussion about teachers in general. The participants seemed to view all people
who teach in all educational levels as one homogenous group sharing the same title,
role and position, obligations and duties in society. Likewise, teachers in general in
the participants’ perceptions seemed to share the same concern regarding the mainte-
nance of face and the same amount and content of this concept of face.
Analyses of other data in the interviews revealed the following factors to be the
most important in establishing and maintaining teachers’ face: teachers’ knowledge
and the maintenance of respect for greater knowledge, respect for traditional differ-
ences in status, the preservation of an appropriate distance between teachers and
students, and acceptance of the legitimacy of demands for respectful behaviour from
students. These will be examined in turn.

Knowledge – an important factor of teachers’ face

All of the participants considered knowledge a very important component of a tea-
cher’s face. The view that teachers are the absolute source of knowledge was
believed to be prevalent among Vietnamese teachers and in society. KL (14) recalled
an incident in which one of her colleagues (a college lecturer) was upset when a stu-
dent on an occasion said that it was necessary for students to develop an indepen-
dent learning ability, to seek and learn from other sources beside their teachers,
since their teachers were not always correct. KL reported that the lecturer said the
face of teachers in general, and hers in particular, was offended because the student
dared to doubt their knowledge. KL believed that the majority of Vietnamese stu-
dents had an absolute trust in their teachers’ understanding. Every information or
explanation provided by their teachers was correct ‘because their teachers said so’
(KL, 15).
Due to the importance of knowledge for teachers’ face, any failure to maintain a
high quality display of teachers’ knowledge in front of students was viewed as face
loss to teachers. The most typical examples came from the two situations discussed
 Journal of Education for Teaching 209

in the interviews: (a) teachers are unable to answer students’ questions in class, and
(b) students’ pointing out to teachers some mistake in the teachers’ lessons in class.
These classroom situations were agreed by seven participants to be extremely chal-
lenging to teachers’ face in front of their students. VA (27) described that if she was
in the situations, she would feel apprehensive, embarrassed, incompetent, no longer
a ‘decent’ (đường hoàng) teacher, and not be able to talk ‘eloquently’ (dõng dạc) in
class as before. She believed that the public in general and students in particular
expected teachers to be ‘never wrong’, and to ‘know everything’ (VA, 28, 29).
Therefore failure to meet those expectations would lead to face loss for teachers.
As a result, teachers were described as tending to hide their knowledge limita-
tions from their students. When asked how they would react in the situations above
to save face, eight participants revealed that they would avoid face loss by avoiding
an admission of their knowledge limitation. Three of them (KL, 13; TC, 11; TH, 22)
suggested solutions. For example, they would either blame the error on a slip of the
tongue or an inadvertent written mistake, or assign questions to students for home-
work, pretending that they knew the answers but they wanted to encourage students’
independent learning. Interestingly even at this higher education level, working
towards a student-centred approach became a mask to conceal teachers’ academic
shortcomings and to protect the knowledge aspect of teachers’ face. Two participants
CH (4) and VT (5) did not even agree with the hypothetical situation that there
could be something wrong in their lessons. They believed that if a mistake occurred,
it was due to some accidental error in their presentation on the board rather than a
result of their knowledge deficiency. The participant PT (19) said: ‘If at that time we
confirm to the students that we don’t know about the issue, it is apparent that … we
suddenly make our face in front of the students decrease remarkably’.
In particular, knowledge was mentioned with greater frequency compared to
another part of professional ability, namely teaching skill. Although it was also
acknowledged as a part of teachers’ face, teaching skill, or ‘the ability to transfer
knowledge to others’ (VD, 4), or ‘the ability to attract students into lessons’ (HQ, 3)
was only briefly mentioned and then by only three participants.

Preserving distance and difference from students through teachers’ manner and
behaviours
One of the outstanding face-saving issues mentioned in the interviews was how
teachers could maintain a distance from their students. The term ‘giữ khoảng cách’
(keep the distance) was articulated by three participants. The rest of the participants
referred to this idea in different ways. For instance, BC (32) explained that teachers
should not be viewed and treated by their students as ‘fish in the same school’ (cá
mè một lứa). KL (6) believed that ‘in students’ eyes, teachers have to be different
from students’. Therefore she disapproved of teachers’ drinking beer with their stu-
dents since this was considered too intimate to maintain the necessary gap between
them (KL, 5). CH (1) said teachers should be ‘strict’ (nghiêm khắc) and adopt a
‘serious’ (nghiêm túc) attitude in interaction with students. He said: ‘no matter how
close we are with students, we have to maintain seriousness … We have to be seri-
ous to have their respect’, because losing students’ respect would be to lose face.
Teachers and students should not be placed at the same level, at least in students’
eyes, as it would be very threatening to the face of the teachers.
210 T.Q.T. Nguyen

This different, distant image of teachers was described and elaborated in various
ways. In particular, a teacher should be seen by students as possessing a serious, for-
mal image. In terms of manner and behaviours in general, KL (5) said that teachers
should have ‘tác phong uy nghiêm’ (a solemn style), so that she described a teacher
who was seen by her students ‘squatting, picking and eating jackfruit in her home’
(7) as losing face. TC (32) compared her acceptable behaviours with those expected
in her previous job as an office worker; now, as a teacher, she had to be ‘more care-
ful to maintain good manners’, and ‘in general, we have to be cautious whatever we
do’. In terms of speaking style, teachers were expected to use ‘formal’ language (no
slang, and use grammatically ‘proper’ sentences) in any communication (VTh, 2, 5).
Particularly, in terms of appearance, BC (6) and HQ (2) believed that teachers’ out-
fits should be ‘kín đáo’ (discreet) and ‘nghiêm chỉnh’ (serious-looking) so that ‘the
students could see the teacher as teacher’. Hair should not be dyed, shorts or other
short clothes should not be worn, and skirts should be about knee-length or longer
(TC, 32). These ideas are reminiscent of an incident in a study conducted by Pham
(2014) in which she asked participants to report on the occasions that they thought
had caused them a face loss. A high school female teacher participant reported an
incident in which she was at her home wearing a worn t-shirt and short jeans when
suddenly her students appeared at her door. She felt a face loss because her students
saw her in what she called ‘casual, shabby clothes’, an image she thought contrasted
with that of a ‘proper, exemplary teacher’ who should ‘always dress properly’ in
front of her students (Pham 2014, 226). Apparently, appearance contributes
considerably to face of teachers.
However, teachers could still lose face not because they fail to display impecca-
ble knowledge or preserve distance by behaving and appearing ‘appropriately’ in
front of their students. Sometimes teachers lose face because they do not receive
expected behaviours from their students in their face-to-face interactions, as
presented next.

Demand for respectful behaviours from students

Three interviewees expressed their belief that teachers should be treated with defer-
ence by their students through certain verbal and non-verbal behaviours, otherwise
teachers would lose face. According to these participants, there were certain address
terms, speaking styles and manners that students should comply with in interactions
with their teachers to uphold the teachers’ face. For example, students were expected
to use words such as ‘dạ’, or ‘thưa’ (Vietnamese function-words often put at the
beginning of responses to show respect to a superior) with their teachers (BC, 32).
BC felt a face loss when her students talked to her as if she was their peer: ‘Many
times they even said ờ instead of dạ to me’ (32) (ờ is a word used in response to
people of a same social rank; both dạ and ờ are often translated as ‘yes’ in English).
In another incident, QH (19) said she was displeased and sensed a face loss when
some of her students did not greet her appropriately. In particular, they did not stand
up when she walked into class. A familiar ritual in Vietnamese classrooms at all
levels is that students rise from their chairs the moment their teacher walks in to
show their respect to the teacher; and only after the teacher sits down (and often
with a sign of permission such as nodding or waving) are the students allowed to
resume their seats. QH (19) said she had to give a mild reproach to correct their
behaviour. Similar to QH, BC also often reminded her students of appropriate
 Journal of Education for Teaching 211

behaviours when they spoke to her. The third lecturer, HQ (4), showed displeasure
towards what she called expressions of ‘lờn mặt’ (too close/intimate to be respect-
ful) from students to their teachers, which she deemed a result of modern society.
For example, sometimes meeting me on streets, they just passed by, or just said one
word ‘cô’ [personal pronoun for female teacher]. They did not seem to respect me as a
teacher. I was a bit upset. For instance if they saw me they folded their arms, bowed
and greeted me properly, I would feel better.
It is clear that some Vietnamese lecturers are not ready yet to be at a more equal
level of social interaction with their students. They still expect to be respected in
traditional ways with bowing, appropriate terms of address and an obedient manner
from their students, assuring a superior position to them and an inferior position to
the students. It is very hard for these lecturers to alter this image and adapt their
position to be close to their students, since this may create a threat to their face.

Discussion
It can be seen that face holds a strong position in these Vietnamese lecturers’ minds,
as a consequence of their belief that their profession holds a honourable and very
important role and position in society. This seems to be a continuation of the tradi-
tional Confucian ideas about the social status of teachers. The Confucian motto ‘the
king, the teacher, the father’ that underpinned the Vietnamese feudalism framework
in the past signifies that teachers are among the top three respectful roles and posi-
tions in society, only after the King and even higher than one’s parents (T. H. T.
Pham 2010). Although this order is no longer applicable in modern Vietnamese, its
spirit is still preserved. The Vietnamese nowadays, as reflected in the interviewee’s
perceptions, still view teaching career as ‘the most honourable career among honour-
able careers’ (nghề cao quý nhất trong những nghề cao quý) (Thuy Huong 2011).
As indicated earlier, in a Confucian heritage culture like Vietnam, the higher role
and position entails a higher sense of face.
The lecturers’ consciousness of saving face was so important and strong that it
governed much of their thinking and behaviours in classrooms. In fact, it determines
the manner in which the teachers manage their classes and form relationships with
their students, which are almost all of the important functions and relations in class-
room reality. Since saving face to the teachers means maintaining students’ absolute
trust in their knowledge, any signs of their knowledge imperfection need to be con-
cealed, even if they have to lie, because any sign of knowledge deficiency would
degrade this trust and therefore would equate to a serious face loss. It can be seen that
a teacher’s knowledge set fits into the competence component of their face.
Noticeably, among elements that possibly show the competence of a teacher (e.g. in
addition to their subject knowledge, elements such as teaching skills, classroom man-
agement skills), the participants only emphasised knowledge for teachers’ face sav-
ing. This perhaps is an indication of a Confucian educational belief that only requires
teachers merely to transfer knowledge to passive listening learners rather than
employing techniques to guide, encourage learners to explore knowledge themselves.
In addition, since saving face to teachers means maintaining a serious, formal,
distant image to their students, they have to abstain from showing their natural self
in front of their students. They have to mould themselves to fit certain norms of
accepted behaviours in order to secure students’ respectful view of them. In general,
212 T.Q.T. Nguyen

the concept of face to the teachers covers a holistic image of themselves in terms of
social expectations, from external appearance such as clothing and gestures to inner
competence perceived in terms of their knowledge base. What is more, saving face
also depends on how the teachers are treated by their students, reinforcing the
feature that the Vietnamese concept of face relies on the external force of social
opinions, on the reactions one receives from others rather than rests on themselves
alone. The participants’ perceptions demonstrate important natures of the concept in
Vietnamese culture. It is the whole image of a ‘proper teacher’ that they have to
maintain.
The paper has argued that lecturers based their perceptions of face on what
they thought were the social expectations of their profession and these expecta-
tions, in turn, are largely based on traditional Confucian standards. Confucian
pedagogy associated teachers with ancient wisdom, or unquestionable source of
human knowledge (Hu 2002; Scollon 1999). Confucius also specified that teach-
ers and students should behave to the other in a manner that suits their role
and position and that of the other: teachers should be benevolent and a role
model for their students and students should show deference and obedience to
their teachers (Cartwright 2012).
This perception of face could be a considerable hindrance to the efforts to
change teaching and learning approaches in Vietnamese education. The teachers’
perceptions of saving face imply that they should maintain their image of supreme
authority or power, the most important, respectable figure, the master or king of their
classrooms, the most important source of knowledge. These perspectives somewhat
contrast with the student-centred mode encouraged by national education reform in
recent decades. The student-centred approach views students as the most important
in classrooms, around whom teaching and learning activities are designed and
organised to help them explore knowledge, and in which teachers play the role of
facilitators who assist students in this learning process, not to transfer knowledge
directly as a whole package to their students (T. N. Pham 2010). This new role
seems diametrically opposed to the teachers’ need to maintain face. It is considered
a threat to teachers’ face if they are to be questioned or argued with by their students
and the encouragement of students’ discussion and involvement in the knowledge
discovery process seems to lower the role and image of the teachers. T. H. T Pham
(2010) comments: ‘It seems really hard for Vietnamese teachers to lower their role
from a “king” to a facilitator’. In an education that has been under the powerful
influence of Confucianism for a very long time in the history of Vietnam (Nguyen
1998), the concept of saving face for teachers is so persistent that it is understand-
able why Vietnamese teachers appear reluctant to adopt new teaching methods that
are likely to threaten their face in front of their students.
It seems that strongly entrenched traditional beliefs cannot be changed merely by
demonstrating new teaching techniques. Perhaps in this aspect, it is appropriate to
recall the points put forward by Nguyen, Terlouw, and Pilot (2005, 2006) and T. H.
T. Pham (2008, 2010, 2013) that Vietnamese cultural educational characteristics
need to be seriously considered before implementing any modern teaching and
learning approach borrowed from the West. As T. H. T. Pham advises: ‘pedagogy
developers should take into account both the global impact and local culture’ (2013,
175). Changing teachers’ perceptions of face to include an appreciation of student-
centred learning, and teacher-student joint production of knowledge, should be
among the preconditions for any educational reform movement in Vietnam.
 Journal of Education for Teaching 213

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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