Institutional Barriers and Policy Opportunities for Mindfulness Education in Vietnam: A Stakeholder-Based Analysis

Mindfulness education has gained increasing international attention as a strategy for promoting student well-being, social-emotional learning, and mental health. Despite growing evidence regarding its educational benefits and its apparent cultural compatibility with Vietnamese society, mindfulness education has not been systematically institutionalized within Vietnam’s formal education system. This study investigates the institutional barriers and policy opportunities affecting the integration of mindfulness education in Vietnamese schools through a stakeholder-based analysis. Employing a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design, the study reanalyzes data collected from 312 students, 120 parents, and 56 teachers, school leaders, and educational experts. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis supported by descriptive survey findings. The results reveal that the primary obstacles to mindfulness education are not cultural resistance but institutional factors, including the absence of formal policy recognition, curriculum overload, insufficient teacher preparation, and limited implementation capacity. At the same time, stakeholders generally express positive attitudes toward mindfulness and perceive it as compatible with Vietnamese cultural values related to self-discipline, compassion, emotional balance, and moral development. The study argues that future policy efforts should prioritize institutional support, teacher training, pilot implementation programs, and integration into existing social-emotional learning frameworks. These findings contribute to the emerging literature on educational innovation and provide one of the first stakeholder-oriented analyses of mindfulness education policy in Vietnam.