TEACHER COGNITION AND MULTILINGUAL TEACHING PRACTICES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE JRAI ETHNIC MINORITY CONTEXT IN VIETNAM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18173/2354-1075.2026-0062Keywords:
Teacher cognition; Multilingual education; Teaching practices; Child outcomes; Sustainability; Early childhood education; PLS-SEMAbstract
This study investigates the relationship between teacher cognition, multilingual teaching practices, child outcomes, and sustainability in early childhood education within the Jrai ethnic minority context in Vietnam. Using a quantitative design, data were collected from 189 preschool teachers and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that teacher cognition is significantly associated with teaching practices, which are in turn positively associated with child outcomes and sustainability. The results further suggest that teaching practices may function as an important mediating pathway within multilingual early childhood education contexts. The model demonstrates strong explanatory power and predictive relevance, suggesting the important role of classroom enactment in multilingual education. Unlike prior studies focusing on external training inputs, this research provides a context-specific perspective that contributes to understanding multilingual teaching practices in linguistically diverse early childhood settings. These findings provide a cognition-based perspective that advances understanding of multilingual pedagogy in linguistically diverse early childhood settings.
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