“Follow your research career or choose your family”: Female language teachers’ agency in their research engagement

Abstract

Despite their growing prominence in academia, female researchers have encountered a number of challenges emerging from their household, institutional and societal obligations. More specially, studies investigating female academics’ pursuits of research and publication from a situated perspective remain relatively limited. This study aims to explore the barriers hindering female Vietnamese teachers of English, their resilience and personal efforts in their research pursuits. Agency is utilised as the key theoretical construct to shed light on teachers’ research engagement in temporal and relational contexts that call for certain actions. Biographical data from the case studies of two female language teachers working at a public university in Ho Chi Minh City (aged 45 and 34 respectively) were gathered by using critical reflection and timeline interviews. Findings reveal the critical incidents underpinning the two teachers’ research involvement within the complexity of roles, socio-cultural norms and expectations concerning gender issues that are situated in different settings and at various timescales. These elements significantly impact on the ways in which they exercised their agency in fulfilling their research commitment and other obligations. The present study provides significant implications for policy makers and stakeholders in facilitating and promoting pro-active research involvement among female academics as well as enabling them to develop strategies for tackling the obstacles in their research endeavours.