Journal Articles by Jonathan J Felix
Globsyn Management Journal, Dec 31, 2021
This case study presents an analysis of trends seen among migrant workers in Vietnam during the C... more This case study presents an analysis of trends seen among migrant workers in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on the fourth wave which occurred in the first quarter of 2021 in the epicentre of Hồ Chí Minh City. The local discourse presents this key demographic enacting shock mobilities in response to the complications brought on by the pandemic. This community is an important and sizable demographic as their value partly lies in their contributions to large-scale industrial output in a range of local sectors and subsequently the global supply chain. Interestingly, the actions of migrant workers in this instance call into question traditional conceptions of human capital theory, with implications for how this useful frame of reference might be productively employed. While pandemic-related labour shortages have been documented in other countries especially in particular sectors, the seemingly obvious reverse migration of this demographic of the Vietnamese workforce highlights implications for person's social participation in human capital development.
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EURAS Journal of Social Sciences, 2021
In this article, I engage with the notion of the COVID-19 pandemic raising more pertinent issues ... more In this article, I engage with the notion of the COVID-19 pandemic raising more pertinent issues regarding the pre-pandemic discourse on technology use in higher education, often marked by deterministic thinking. Moreover, I will comment on the implications of the social ecosystem of the university, the nature of disciplinarity and knowledge production, and the social production of teachers and learners taking into account the unstable and disruptive conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This even saw innumerable higher education institutions across the globe make a dramatic shift to online learning with very uneven and perhaps precarious results overall. Digital technology in higher education is hardly a magic bullet to address the issue of the sector in light of the realities of the post-COVID world, while it can be leveraged to ensure that some progress is made, as is the case with online teaching moving from a marginal pedagogical practice to a widespread social phenomenon. Online teaching exclusively or even in hybrid mode teaching can present practical issues in terms of how disciplinarity is practiced in addition to how teaching and learning may be conducted. While the institutional reflexivity that is characteristic of late Modernity has led constituents to the higher education system to sector-wide reconsiderations of how tertiary-level study can the best possible social outcomes, there might no longer be the several concrete possibilities or futures to envisage, but rather ambiguous situations that require greater degrees of responsiveness to new information and realities that present itself as ‘new normals’.
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The Russian Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2021
While education is often understood as a means to improve the social mobility of individuals and ... more While education is often understood as a means to improve the social mobility of individuals and decrease the measure of inequality that may be present in any modern society, this direct line of causality starting with access to education towards improved social outcomes is not always a clear case. In this article, the author explores the interrelationship between social inequalities and higher education in Vietnam by presenting a survey of existing research which indicates that increased access to education does not immediately address issues of inequality. As such, this article will look at the socio-cultural foundations of inequality in Vietnam, look at the relationship between Neoliberalism and higher education, and evaluate data on local inequalities and higher education. The author argues that a concerted approach to providing higher education access, participation, and attainment, by engaging with the socio-cultural dynamics of rural localities will better ensure that higher education can adequately meet the needs of the constituents it is meant to serve. In understanding issues related to higher education in Vietnam, a broad view of policy and practice must be complemented by a closer focus on how persons navigate the social worlds they inhabit and the ways in which their social identity is negotiated in relation to this.
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Frontiers in Communication, 2021
The disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a massive shift in instructional pract... more The disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a massive shift in instructional practices in higher education across the globe. The impact of this pandemic on education globally has led to a surge in online teaching and the use of various digital technologies and platforms to support instructional practices. However, this world-changing event has foregrounded the limitations of technology in addition to other important indications, particularly as it relates to the notion of value and by extension value creation. Within the context of the Vietnamese higher education ecosystem, what is evident is that a re-evaluation of values is worth considering, in terms of the value of local higher education institutions, in addition to the value creation produced by the same. This article will engage with pertinent implications for the post-COVID realities which offer untold challenges and opportunities in Vietnam and elsewhere. Moreover, the post-COVID realities of late modernity only serve to accentuate the importance of values and value creation in this context as higher education institutions would re-evaluate, rethink, and retool approaches to instructional practices. A focus on questions of value aids in considering the broader conditions and contexts which support some of the fruitful and situated outcomes of higher education which includes human capital development, employment, social mobility and the production of modern social identities.
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Archipelagos Journal, Dec 4, 2020
This essay serves as a written counterpart to a previously published visual case study that explo... more This essay serves as a written counterpart to a previously published visual case study that explored the cultural production of Caribbean creative Warren Le Platte and his creation of an internet meme series in 2016. In a continuation of that analysis here, Le Platte's work is again positioned as an articulation of alternative media, a concept defined by subversive, disruptive, or interrogative strategies in response to inequitable relations and power dynamics. Employed as a reflexive critique of his home island of Trinidad, Le Platte's work raises questions regarding the cultural logic of dysfunctionality underscored by his personal experience as a citizen. By employing a visual discourse analysis, this essay continues to explore alternative media in the Caribbean and how activities of "prosumption" (production + consumption) intersect with practices related to language, identity, and cultural memory in this context.
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Book Chapters by Jonathan J Felix
Vietnamese Language, Education and Change In and Outside Vietnam , 2024
Students make up the most sizeable number of persons at any educational institution. In this chap... more Students make up the most sizeable number of persons at any educational institution. In this chapter, I maintain the ‘idea’ of who or what a student might be, in the case of Vietnamese higher education, is crucial to sustainable human capital development. My aim in this chapter is not to explicitly state what the social identities of Vietnamese higher education students are at present or what they should be. In contrast, the purpose of this chapter is to make a case for the importance of human capital through higher education by considering the ways in which students are conceptualised.
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Global Citizenship Education in the Global South: Educators’ Perceptions and Practices, 2022
At the turn of the 21st century, the Global South nation of Trinidad and Tobago made lavish inves... more At the turn of the 21st century, the Global South nation of Trinidad and Tobago made lavish investments in its higher education sector, by expanding access and developing a corresponding education framework as a means of further systematising the education environment. These efforts were part of a broader state-directed project known as Vision 2020, which aimed at propelling the nation towards having a developed status. While this grand endeavour was also meant to address local inequalities and social problems through education, there was a glaring omission of any reference to values-based knowledge generation or critical capacity building, often found in conceptions of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). Several years following the initial education access expansion effort, strong evidence demonstrates the failure of this venture in both education policy and practice which might have been remedied with greater emphasis on priority areas with the GCE paradigm. In this case study, the value of GCE is foregrounded, in contrast to the dominant neoliberal discourse on higher education in Trinidad and Tobago, as it provides an avenue for the nation to address local social issues and adapt to the current post-globalised environment.
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Stagnancy Issues and Change Initiatives for Global Education in the Digital Age, 2020
A significant measure of pedagogical scholarship on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) higher ed... more A significant measure of pedagogical scholarship on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) higher education teaching and learning commonly prioritizes a 'tips and tricks' approach to achieving positive student outcomes. Such often excludes or minimizes the active use of theory, being premised on problematic assumptions that can also potentially stagnate the field itself through circular reasoning. In this chapter, the author offers three considerations as a foundation for critical approaches to language teaching and learning. Firstly, the author acknowledges the performative and discursive capacity of language in shaping teaching and learning experiences; secondly, learners are positioned in this chapter as active agents in the learning process who have the potential to reinterpret or reject teaching and learning approaches; and finally, an argument is made for audience-specific teaching and learning practices using demographic data. To exemplify the application of these three considerations, Stuart Hall's Encoding-Decoding Theory serves as a key theoretical framework in this chapter, in conceptualizing critical approaches to teaching Generation Z learners.
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Higher Education in Market-Oriented Socialist Vietnam: New Players, Discourses, and Practices, 2020
As a notable example of resilience and strength, Vietnam as a nation has made extraordinary progr... more As a notable example of resilience and strength, Vietnam as a nation has made extraordinary progress as a nation given its colonial history, in addition to its ability to overcome the ravages of war and economic turmoil within the latter half of the previous century. The higher education sector of Vietnam among other sectors has made progress which testifies to the success of the 1986 Doi Moi reforms and the political will of the State and its people to move into a progressive era in the nation’s history. However, while there have been commendable advancements which have been documented by local and international scholars, yet key issues remain as it relates to the rate and articulation of progress within the higher education sector. This chapter argues that the advancements within higher education in Vietnam is an articulation of Modernity in general, but more importantly and particularly, Asian or Vietnamese Modernity. Drawing upon the work of scholars in the previous chapters of this volume, the concluding chapter in this section presents a review of their work by further attesting the unity of their separate yet related claims in relation to the role of ideology, capacity building, learning organisation, and policy reform in higher education. The concept of a reflexivity defined here and derived from scholarship in both reflexive modernisation and governance, which is one way not only to understand past and ongoing developments within the higher education sector, but also as a means of perhaps mitigating challenges and seizing hold of potentials for advancement through reflexive policy and practice.
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Challenges and Opportunities in Global Approaches to Education, 2019
From the 1990s until the present, there has been a growing movement in the higher education secto... more From the 1990s until the present, there has been a growing movement in the higher education sector worldwide, emphasising the primacy of the natural sciences and commercial activity as an important part of 21st-century education and workforce preparation. Since then, the ongoing discourse on higher education has also systematically led to the marginalisation of humanities. This chapter explores the ways in which the statements of purpose of higher education institutions, and their subsequent activities, might contribute toward the current state of the humanities. The author argues that the self-perception of these entities, is related their organisational identity, values, and actions. Using discourse analysis, this work will also attempt to explore the mission statements of fifteen major higher education institutions in Trinidad and Tobago, and how statements regarding their core work are related to the current crisis with the humanities. From this preliminary study, higher education providers may be able to reconsider the ways in which their core internal and market-driven activities might severely compromise their ability to adequately serve students and the wider society by extension.
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Challenges and Opportunities in Global Approaches to Education, 2019
Learner autonomy and motivation have been recognised by academics, researchers and practitioners ... more Learner autonomy and motivation have been recognised by academics, researchers and practitioners as both a critical and problematic element of linguistics and language learning, among other disciplines in higher education. The ongoing challenge lies at the heart of students exercising a critical sense of agency over their acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, educational experience, and applied practice. However, rather than being understood as a socially constructed action or outcome within limited frames of reference, learner autonomy and motivation may be viewed expansively as culture. Drawing on Raymond Williams' theory of culture, and John Law's sociological concept of symmetry, this work attempts to explore how learner autonomy and motivation might be fostered and sustained, in an attempt to rethink how learner agency might be positioned as a normative practice.
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Conference Presentations by Jonathan J Felix
The 12th International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 12), 2021
Issues and opportunities related to Vietnamese higher education have never allowed for oversimpli... more Issues and opportunities related to Vietnamese higher education have never allowed for oversimplifications in terms of explanations or solutions. While these complexities have been amplified within the post-COVID world, what is clear is that a reassessment of the intersecting values of the academy is needed, in terms of the values fostered within higher education institutions, in addition to the values produced by the same. This presentation will explore the importance of negotiating foundational matters of value within the context of the Vietnamese university ecosystem. In this analysis, the importance of student identity is presented as a key consideration for better understanding the role of higher education in Vietnam as it pertains to citizenship, social mobility, and human capital development. In addressing social issues related to higher education by first engaging with notions of value, Vietnam is likely to build workforce capacity by better educating local graduates, better utilising the skills of foreign graduates, open avenues for more robust forms of socially responsible citizenship and hopefully, reduce human capital flight. The social production of student identities within the Vietnamese academy is one starting point for new discourses on the future directions of the nation both regionally and globally.
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Communication and Technology Congress – CTC 2021, 2021
This disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a large-scale scramble to translate o... more This disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a large-scale scramble to translate offline modes of instruction to online teaching. Furthermore, this massive shift in teaching and learning in general and higher education, in particular, has seen those digital technologies being used for teaching and learning offer convergent modalities for synchronous and asynchronous classroom delivery. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on education globally indicates that while the affordances of digital technologies provide interesting opportunities for teaching and learning, in no way has it definitively proven to be as emancipatory or revolutionary as some proponents of educational technology have argued before the pandemic occurred. Also, rather than merely reflect, highlight, or exacerbate inequalities, divisions, and conflicts in the real world, the social phenomenon of online teaching en masse due the pandemic serves to demonstrate the importance of multimodal communication and the very social nature of university learning and formal education more broadly. Arguably, the digital identity of both students and teachers have been in constant negotiation since the start of this pandemic has occurred, as online teaching moved from being a marginal pedagogical practice to a widespread social phenomenon. At this juncture in world history, it is worth considering the viability of higher education and the social production of teachers and learners under the unstable and disruptive conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of this critical intervention pertain to the evolving role of the social institution of the academy itself, the nature of disciplinarity, and the activity that occurs within higher education institutions.
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Hội thảo quốc tế “Quốc tế hóa Giáo dục Đại học phi Anh ngữ? ● Internationalisation of higher education beyond English?, 2019
Higher education today transcends national boundaries through various articulations of globalisat... more Higher education today transcends national boundaries through various articulations of globalisation. This is evidenced through several transnational partnerships and knowledge transfer opportunities between education-based institutions and organisations, as the world has evolved from being a mere global village to a connected society. Central to the processes of partnerships and knowledge transfer is the activity of communication which serves as the means through which productive exchanges occur in both the areas of teaching and learning, in addition to socio-political structures which provide a framework and rationale for these occurrences. Within the higher education ecosystem, both at the micro and macro levels, the importance of language cannot be overestimated, as it serves as an important construct in the discourse and ontology of the academy itself, both in terms of disciplinary knowledge as an epistemological foundation and as an institutional apparatus, with the example of the common phrase 'academic language'. Yet, with the transcendence of national boundaries and international exchange, there are challenges which often occur that are not unique to the use of language in higher education but to the general process of migration, which may transpire both materially and intellectually. One challenge is that of actual or perceived imperialism as often transnational material and intellectual exchanges manifest relations of power, though which equalities recede as relations of dominance and subordination are foregrounded. However, even with global exchanges, opportunities are present for productive resistances against occasions where unequal relations of power pose a legitimate threat to the common good of the contexts of such interactions. This paper will outline the ways in which the employment of language in transnational partnerships and knowledge transfer in higher education might offer potential imperialistic challenges and resistance opportunities as it relates to both strategic and tactical interactions in teaching and learning settings. The Vietnamese context will serve as an important focal point in this work, given the development of higher education in this space, in addition to the nation being as a post-colonial state. As a double-edged sword, language might be manoeuvred as a defensive action for the preservation of indigenous forms of knowledge production and the distinctive cultural character of educational contexts or it might be exercised as a means of reproducing unequal relations of power with unprofitable socio-political consequences.
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VietTESOL International Convention 2019, 2019
Language teaching and learning in higher education form part of a cultural communication process ... more Language teaching and learning in higher education form part of a cultural communication process just as much as it is a pedagogical process. While pedagogical literature has often broadly focused on technique and process-based teaching approaches, and language teaching and learning has underscored the importance of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning as a social construct, connected with motivation, autonomy and identity which function on both individual and collective levels, there has been limited discussion regarding the significance of audience-specific teaching and learning. Drawing on Stuart Hall's Encoding-Decoding Theory, this paper explores the role of audience-specific language teaching and learning, underscoring the importance of students as an 'active audience'. Of particular consideration would be teaching Generation Z learners and beyond who are distinct in their historical position as digital natives who possess a unique sense of socio-cultural fluency. The reflective approach taken in this theoretically-oriented paper seeks to investigate the performative space between the teleological approaches generally found in traditional pedagogical literature, and the ontological approaches specifically identified in language teaching and learning scholarship. The aim of the philosophical framing of this paper is particularly for teaching and learning practitioners within the higher education ecosystem to consider more socially engaging perspectives in teaching practice.
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NEXUS 2018 Design and Visual Communication Conference: Design in a Developing Context, 2018
Omnipresence is one of many ways in which Design can be understood in the 21st-century. People to... more Omnipresence is one of many ways in which Design can be understood in the 21st-century. People today are more aware of Design, which in part is due to a number of rapid and ongoing changes in the world in which we live. As the world has moved from being a global village to a networked society, modern life in countries across the globe has grown increasingly complex and connected. Big data, cyber-security, GPS, social media, and augmented reality, are but a few examples of this worldwide complexity and connection. However, Design - as a process, outcome, practice, approach, or pattern - is one of the cornerstones of these examples which transcend the boundaries of time, space, media, and location.
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UTT's 2nd Annual Symposium 2019 on Teaching and Learning Technologies in Education - Digital Transformation in Tertiary Education, May 28, 2019
The Digital Age presents interesting developments in all aspects of human life, particularly with... more The Digital Age presents interesting developments in all aspects of human life, particularly with digital technologies. Many colleges and universities worldwide have embraced technology integration in teaching and learning as a marker of ‘progress’ and their hope of continued societal relevance. This paper examines the assumption that technology use in the context of higher education equates to the broadly-defined notion of ‘progress’. Given the disruptive potential of digital technologies to render particular skills, occupations, or even whole institutions obsolete, it is important for higher education institutions to rethink the (often autonomous) logic of digital technology use in teaching and learning, and how these saving graces might be a damning indictment against their work and role in 21st-century societies.
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Proceedings of the International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning Today 2019: Autonomy and Motivation for Language Learning in the Interconnected World, Apr 2019
Learner autonomy and motivation have been recognised by academics, researchers and practitioners ... more Learner autonomy and motivation have been recognised by academics, researchers and practitioners as both a critical and problematic element of linguistics and language learning, among other disciplines in higher education. The ongoing challenge lies at the heart of students exercising a critical sense of agency over their acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, educational experience, and applied practice. However, rather than being understood as a socially constructed action or outcome within limited frames of reference, learner autonomy and motivation may be viewed expansively as culture. Drawing on Raymond Williams' theory of culture, and John Law's sociological concept of symmetry, this work attempts to explore how learner autonomy and motivation might be fostered and sustained, in an attempt to rethink how learner agency might be positioned as a normative practice.
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The Caribbean Digital V, 2018
Digital spaces hold potential for creative and participatory practices through expressions of Alt... more Digital spaces hold potential for creative and participatory practices through expressions of Alternative Media, as any cultural ‘prosumption’ (production + consumption) activity which serves communities of interest affected by unequal relations and articulations of power. By employing a visual discourse analysis, this brief documentary is a case study which explores the work of Caribbean creative, Warren Le Platte and his unusual creation of an Internet meme series in 2016. As both a reflexive practice and socio-cultural critique of his home country of Trinidad, Le Platte’s work raises questions regarding the cultural logic which informs the dysfunctional relationship between local institutions and the public they are expected to serve. Le Platte’s work is an example of Double Alternativity – the practice of Culture Jamming reappropriated into a new disruptive form which functions as a participatory and subversive device. Furthermore, Le Platte serves as an example of how Caribbean peoples might reinscribe their identity through reflexive counter-narratives.
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Academia Developing Alternative Pedagogical Techniques (ADAPT): Teaching and Learning Conference, Apr 6, 2017
This paper explores the importance of teacher-student feedback outside of the traditional classro... more This paper explores the importance of teacher-student feedback outside of the traditional classroom context. In today's 21st century educational environment, teaching practices outside the classroom bear upon student success as much as commonplace classroom activities. The way in which feedback is communicated and the contexts in which it is received provides opportunities for learners to enact their own agency to achieve greater personal understanding and subsequent academic success.
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Journal Articles by Jonathan J Felix
Book Chapters by Jonathan J Felix
Conference Presentations by Jonathan J Felix
Stagnancy Issues and Change Initiatives for Global Education in the Digital Age is a cutting-edge research publication that explores the complex discourse of trends, shifts, and changes happening in the field of education and to understand the implications for teaching, learning, and professional development. The book helps educators understand how to make their pedagogy and andragogy relevant in the framework of constant technological shifts and changes in order to help students thrive in a global economy. Featuring a wide range of topics such as gamification, pedagogy, and intercultural learning, this book is ideal for curriculum designers, academicians, education professionals, researchers, policymakers, and students.