About
Research Interests
Individual research Interests
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Bio
I was born in a rural farming village in Kampong Speu province, Cambodia. I grew up there until the age of seven, when my family moved to a town in the provincial centre to escape frequent armed clashes between the remaining Khmer Rouge soldiers and the Cambodian government army. I lived in the provincial town until I completed high school in 1998, after which I moved to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to pursue a B.Ed. in TEFL at the Department of English, Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). I completed the program in 2002 and subsequently worked as a lecturer in the Department.
From 2002 to 2012, between periods spent overseas for my graduate studies, I was a lecturer at RUPP and a researcher at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, a Phnom Penh-based think tank. In 2013, I moved to Canada to pursue a Ph.D. in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, where I currently teach as a sessional lecturer. My doctoral research explored my own journey of social mobility through higher education—alongside those of my contemporaries in Cambodia—within the context of postcolonial Cambodia.
My scholarship is deeply shaped by my personal biography, as well as my transnational and interdisciplinary educational background.
Research and Education
Education
Ph.D. (Educational Studies), 2020, University of British Columbia, Canada
M.A. (International Peace Studies), 2009, University for Peace, Costa Rica
M.Ed. (Curriculum and Instruction), 2008, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Postgraduate Diploma (Applied Linguistics), 2005, Regional Language Centre, Singapore
B.Ed. (TEFL), 2002, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Research Projects
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Selected Publications
Books
Poole, W., Sen, V., & Fallon, G. (2022). Neoliberalism and public education finance policy in Canada: Reframing educational leadership as entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Journal articles
Sen, V., & Walter, P. (2020). Community-based ecotourism and the transformative learning of homestay hosts in Cambodia. Tourism Recreation Research, 45(3), 323-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2019.1692171
Poole, W., Fallon, G., & Sen, V. (2019). Privatized sources of funding and the spatiality of inequities in public education. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 52(1), 124-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2019.1689105
Walter, P., & Sen, V. (2018). A geography of ecotourism in Cambodia: Regions, patterns and potentials. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 23(3), 297-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2017.1422771
Sen, V. (2017). Hybrid governmentality: Higher education policymaking in post-conflict Cambodia. Studies in Higher Education, 44(3), 513-525. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1379985
Poole, W., Sen, V., & Fallon, G. (2016). Manufacturing consent for privatization in public education: The rise of a social finance network in Canada. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 180, 14-46.
Sen, V. (2016). Towards customized privatization in public education in British Columbia: The provincial education plan and personalized learning. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 180, 135-168.
Book chapters
Sen, V. (2022). Higher education in Cambodia: The constraining effects of traditional values. In V. McNamara, & M. Hayden (Eds.), Education in Cambodia: From year zero towards international standards (pp. 97-112). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8213-1_6
Breitschwerdt, L., & Sen, V. (2018). Implementing national qualifications frameworks: Difficulties in Cambodia and Germany. In R. Egetenmeyer, & M. Fedeli (Eds.), Adult education and work contexts: International perspectives and challenges (pp. 101-121). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
EDST Activity
Courses taught
ADHE 327 Teaching Adults
ADHE 328 Institutions of Adult Education
ADHE 329 Developing Short Courses, Workshops, and Seminars
EDST 401 Education, School, and Social Institutions
EDST 403 Education, Knowledge, and Curriculum
EDST 404 Ethics and Teaching
EDST 575 Work and Learning