Student-centered pedagogy has been widely advocated in many contexts with student active participation in learning being a central element. Vietnam has adopted innovative pedagogies including child-centered and competency-based teaching to further active learning and develop students’ full potential. This study explores Vietnamese teachers’ views about student participation and teaching roles as they implement these progressive reforms. It also examines pedagogical practices that teachers planned to use and actually employed to support student learning through meaningful participation. Drawing on qualitative analysis of interviews and classroom observations conducted over three years with 47 secondary-level literature teachers throughout Vietnam, we found that student participation as expected by teachers broadly falls into three categories: participation as attention; participation as contribution and collaboration; and participation as autonomy and engagement. Each of these modes characterizes what teachers’ envision of students’ overall engagement, but these modes coexisted in the data in classroom practices. Our analysis shows how ‘hybrid pedagogy,’ a mix of teacher-directed and student-centered approaches, was most used to support students’ active contribution and collaboration. This research contributes to the literature on student-centered learning and student participation in transitional contexts, highlighting the complex processes of how teachers perceive and enact these pedagogical reforms.