Second language teachers learn to teach for social justice through community field experiences

The current study explores how pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language in Vietnam developed their belief about social justice teaching through community field experiences in their teacher education programs. Participants of the study were a cohort of 38 pre-service teachers in a TESOL program in a Vietnamese university. Based on multiple sources of data, the findings indicate that community field experiences helped the cohort of pre-service teachers discover inequalities among families, geographical areas, and ethnic groups inherent in children’s schooling opportunities and their access to English learning. The cohort therefore developed their belief about social justice teaching appropriate to the sociocultural context of Vietnam.