Blended Learning as Enacted Policy: Digital Inequality and IELTS Preparation in a Rural EFL Context

Abstract

Blended learning (BL), highly recommended for its flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, remains underdocumented, particularly in rural settings where digital inequality persists, especially for high-stakes learning such as IELTS preparation. Based on Policy Enactment Theory and digital capital, this qualitative study aims to explore how BL for IELTS orientation is interpreted, translated, and enacted in a rural EFL setting in Vietnam. Data collection was conducted from November 2024 to March 2025, including semi-structured interviews of 15 school leaders/administrators, 15 teachers, 30 students, and 30 parents, along with observation, documentary, and questionnaire evidence. The study reveals that BL was not enacted as a uniform pedagogical model. Administrators framed it as modernization and efficiency; teachers experienced it as compensatory pedagogical labor; parents mediated it unevenly at home; and students encountered it through differentiated forms of participation shaped by their access conditions. Material, social, and digital inequalities did not merely constrain implementation; they structured enactment and produced uneven participation, including what this study conceptualizes as silent exclusion. The study contributes to blended learning and EFL research by reframing BL as an enacted policy process and by demonstrating how digital capital mediates access, participation, and opportunity in rural, test-oriented language education.