Interpreting professional learning policy: Insights from Vietnam's primary school curriculum reform

Curriculum reform is increasingly accompanied by heightened expectations for teacher professional learning (PL), positioning PL policy as a key mechanism through which reform is expected to influence classroom practice. However, research shows that PL policy is rarely implemented in linear or uniform ways; rather, it is actively interpreted and reshaped by teachers within specific institutional contexts. This study examines how primary school teachers in Vietnam make sense of PL expectations embedded in the national curriculum reform and how these interpretations shape their reported enactment in both school and classroom practice. Drawing on sense-making and policy enactment perspectives, the study adopts a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with ten primary school teachers from public schools in a highly centralised Vietnamese education system. The findings indicate that PL policy is experienced as ambiguous and multi-layered, requiring teachers to interpret and prioritise overlapping and sometimes competing policy signals. Teachers understand PL simultaneously as a mandated obligation linked to accountability and as an opportunity for professional growth, leading to selective enactment focused on practice-based and collaborative learning. Accountability pressures foster performative compliance centred on visibility and documentation, while contextual factors such as school leadership, workload, and system-level coherence mediate teachers' engagement. The study highlights teachers’ sense-making as a key mediating process between PL policy and practice, demonstrating that teachers act as strategic policy enactors rather than passive implementers. The findings offer insights into the design of PL policies that better support meaningful curriculum reform, particularly in highly centralised education systems.