Vietnamese Public High School Teachers’ Perspectives on Integrating Place-Responsive Outdoor Learning into the General Education Programme

Abstract

This qualitative inquiry (Tisdell et al., 2025) explored Vietnamese public high school teachers’ perspectives on integrating place-responsive outdoor learning (PROL) into the 2018 general education programme (GEP). The theoretical frameworks guiding this research included theories of place (Casey, 2009; Massey, 1994; Relph, 1976; Tuan, 1990), pedagogy of place (Gruenewald, 2008; Wattchow & Brown, 2011), embodied and experiential learning (Dewey, 1938, 1916/2012; Merleau-Ponty, 2012), and sociocultural and professional practice theories (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Schön, 1994; Vygotsky, 1978; Wenger, 1998). The study involved nine homeroom teachers from a public high school in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. Data collection comprised four main components: nine face-to-face interviews with teachers before the workshops, five professional development workshops, three teachers’ group reflections following the workshops, and nine online interviews via Microsoft Teams or email conducted four months after the final workshop to revisit teachers' perspectives of place-responsive outdoor learning, collaborative lesson planning (CLP), and their actual outdoor learning practices with students. The researcher maintained reflexivity through analytic memo writing throughout data collection and analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) was the primary method of data analysis. NVivo R1 was utilised for data management and analysis (Beekhuyzen & Bazeley, 2025). Theoretically, the research contributes to understanding the possibilities and challenges of integrating PROL within the 2018 GEP, illuminating the tensions between competency-based objectives and their practical application. It equips the participant-teachers with the requisite knowledge, skills, and dispositions for PROL implementation in an urbanised, non-Western, and centralised educational context that is currently underrepresented in the literature. Empirically, the findings reveal that professional development workshops enhance the teachers’ confidence and capacity to deliver PROL through CLP. The study presents practical recommendations for sustainable curriculum integration, underscoring PROL’s potential to strengthen teachers’ engagement with local environments and to cultivate a culture of care and wellbeing. Finally, it delineates the conditions necessary for the contextual relevance and long-term viability of PROL within the Vietnamese educational system.