A CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS OF PRESCHOOL TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES IN A MEKONG DELTA PROVINCE

Vietnam has a long history of education, and traditionally the Vietnamese people highly respect learning. However, preschool education in Vietnam started to be concerned in the early 1945 and it has made remarkable progress since the early 2000s. The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) commits to improving access to preschool education across the country. The MOET has also attempted to enhance the quality of preschool education by revising the curriculum and upskilling its teaching workforce. According to Vietnam Education Law 2019, preschool education teachers are required to obtain a university degree. This paper aimed to explore the professional development activities of the preschool teachers in a Mekong delta province, Vietnam. The research findings indicated that the preschool teachers in this studied province had great hardships, burdens, and pressures about their teaching jobs, their individuals’ and families’ financial supports and their mastery and upgrading of their academic qualifications to meet the qualification requirements of the Vietnam Education Law 2019. The paper ended with some considerable recommendations for the preschool educational managers and preschool teachers in this province to reduce their difficulties in developing their preschool teaching workforce and helping them to overcome their financial hardships and burdens and upgrade their required qualifications.