Spatial (im)mobilities and aspirations: voice of a young adult learner in Vietnam

This paper continues the strand of research on educational aspirations for upward social mobility with an emphasis on physical mobilities as observed in a Vietnamese student from a less privileged background. The authors utilised qualitative methods including reflexive journaling and life history interviews to engage in conversations with the participant over the course of five months regarding her geographical movement, aspirations, higher education experiences, and the (im)mobilities she enacted or encountered in daily life. Drawing on the concept-clusters framework of aspirations, the authors demonstrate the social, cultural and familial association with the student’s aspirations for and within education, particularly higher education, which was framed by the current neoliberal social imaginary in Vietnam – the dominant imaginary of having a good (material) life. By mapping her spatial journey from her parental home and hometown to boarding middle and high schools for ethnic minority students, and then to university in the capital city, the authors argue that this journey is symbolic of a progression towards adulthood, independence, and importantly, escape for upward social mobility that is carried out alongside, and as a consequence of, the progression from school to higher education, and rural-urban migration.