Determinants of job performance among secondary school teachers in Vietnam: evidence from a mixed-methods study

This study examined how individual and organizational factors are associated with the job performance of secondary school teachers in Vietnam, with particular attention to self-efficacy, resilience, principal support, and burnout.

An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. In the quantitative phase, survey data from 536 secondary school teachers were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. In the qualitative phase, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explain and elaborate the statistical patterns identified in the survey results.

The quantitative findings showed that self-efficacy was the strongest positive predictor of job performance, followed by resilience and principal support, whereas burnout was negatively associated with performance. The qualitative findings provided deeper insight into these relationships. Teachers linked strong performance to pedagogical competence, adaptability, and confidence in managing classroom demands. They also described supportive leadership, peer collaboration, and collegial sharing as important conditions that helped sustain professional functioning. By contrast, burnout was associated mainly with administrative workload and documentation pressures rather than with teaching itself.

Taken together, the findings suggest that improving teacher performance in Vietnam requires a dual strategy: strengthening teachers' professional capacity and restructuring school governance processes to reduce administrative overload and foster more supportive school environments.