Secondary Unit 4 - VIETNAM: A NATION IN CHANGE

---

Major Themes
Place and space, Resources, Natural and social systems
Students explore the impact of changes in contemporary Vietnam: economic, social and political.

Outcomes

• describing how culture, belief systems and social organisation contribute to the identity of the Vietnamese people;
• describing features of the economic and political systems;
• analysing the impact of change on society and individuals.

To explore additional ideas and resources for using this unit from Vietnam - Young People, Old Country: Secondary, click on the following:

Teaching Ideas | WWW Links | Annotated Bibliography

Teaching Ideas
Here are some additional ideas for using the Resource sheets contained in this unit.

Resource Sheet 1 Images of Vietnam today

• Students speculate on what part of Vietnam these images depict using a map.
• Students develop hypotheses: for each image, ask what extra knowledge or what implications it conveys about Vietnam. For example, what might the existence of modern buildings signify; what else can we deduce about that nation from this piece of evidence.
• Record and test these ideas as students work through the unit. Certain themes will emerge in this way: technology, culture, distribution of wealth, etc.

Resource Sheet 3 Vietnam's Economy
Students can be helped to gather information from the interview by some simple strategies:

• Ask students to underline the key words/phrases in each paragraph.
• Remove the margin headings before distributing the document to students, and ask them to create a summary for each paragraph.
• Have students create a diagram or a mental map from the information which shows the impacts of particular features identified.
• Have students create a simple 'dialogue' with the old system and the new system 'talking' to each other.

Resource Sheet 5 Development and change - today's youth

• Ask students to give a heading to each dot point situation.
• Create a summary grid for the information, to compare the ways Vietnamese and Australian youth are acting in each given situation, as a basis for class discussion:

Situation

Young People in Vietnam

Young People in Australia

Resource Sheet 6 Development and change

• Ask students to underline key words/phrases in each paragraph.
• Remove the margin headings before distributing the documents to students and have them create headings.
• Have students create a diagram or mental map to demonstrate how the information is connected- ie, the various implications of events.

Resource Sheet 7 Extracts from Vietnam's Constitution
Have students underline the key word or phrase in each article which best summarises it.
Summarise the information in a grid.

Right/Duty

Vietnamese Constitution

Australian Constitution

Explain that even when a right / duty in the Australian column is identified, that right / duty may not actually exist in the Constitution, but be embodied in either an Act of Parliament or as a common law precedent. Discuss the notion of constitutional change, or a Bill of Rights for Australia.

Resource Sheet 8 What is a good Vietnamese citizen?
Have students list what they think are the characteristics of good citizenship, then examine and discuss the characteristics identified in the material about Vietnam.

WWW Links

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vm.html
The World Factbook, published by the CIA in the USA, provides the best statistical information on Vietnam.

http://www.viettouch.com/
This site offers a wide range of general information on Vietnam.

http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/vietnam.html
An excellent collection of images of Vietnam.

http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?form=simple&collection=abcall&query=vietnam
News about Vietnam from the ABC.

Bibliography
Buttinger, J 1967, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, Praeger, New York
A good overview of Vietnam's historical development.

Dowling, David and Hooper, Beverley 1996, Contemporary Asia - A Research Guide, School of Asian Studies, The University of Western Australia
A comprehensive guide to sources of academic information on Vietnam.

Downie, Sue 1993, Down Highway One - journeys through Vietnam and Cambodia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney
A family's journey through modern (early 1990s) Vietnam. Good stories, descriptions and musings on the meaning of their experiences.

Forbes, D K et al (eds) 1991, Doi Moi: Vietnam's renovation policy and performance, ANU, Canberra
An academic explanation and commentary on this aspect of modern Vietnam.

Jamieson, Neil J 1995, Understanding Vietnam, University of California Press, Berkeley
A useful general overview of Vietnam's history, concentrating on the modern period.

Kamm, Henry 1996, Dragon Ascending, Arcade Publishing, New York
A useful general overview of Vietnam's history, concentrating on the modern period.

Nguyen Khac Vien 1993, Vietnam: A Long History (Revised Edition), The Gioi Publishers, Hanoi
This is the official party history of Vietnam. There are 6 chapters (135 pages) on traditional Vietnam, and 11 chapters on the period 1858 - 1975. A good representation of history from the Communist Party viewpoint.

Nguyen Phu Trong, Tran Dinh Nghiem, and Vu Hien 1995,Vietnam From 1986,The Gioi Publishers, Hanoi
An official party line view, and looking particularly at the policy of doi moi, and Vietnam and the world.

Passage To Vietnam 1996, Against All Odds, New York
This CD ROM production includes over 400 photographs of life in Vietnam today, able to be accessed by theme or location. An excellent visual record of the country. Available for Macintosh and Windows.

Sheehan, Neil 1992, Two Cities: Hanoi and Saigon, Jonathan Cape, London
A perceptive study of the different characters of Vietnam's two main cities.

The Far East and Australasia, 1996, Europa Publications, London
A useful source of statistical information.

Wier, Nevada and Yogerst, Joseph R 1992, Land Of Nine Dragons, Abbeville Press, New York
A general history of Vietnam.