Empowering STEM educators in cross-cultural higher education contexts: professional development strategies for sustainable workforce readiness

In the context of the internationalization of higher education, the development of STEM education increasingly relies on teachers' adaptability and professional competence in cross-cultural environments. This study aimed to empower STEM educators in cross-cultural settings and improve the sustainability of teachers' professional development (PD) by exploring how STEM teachers in Sino-Overseas Joint Education Programs (SOJEPs) experience PD within multicultural teaching contexts, exploring their integration of local educational needs with international pedagogical frameworks to enable sustainable teaching transformation. Grounded in Guskey's PD model and Hofstede's cultural theory, this qualitative study adopted grounded theory analysis for data collected by semi-structured interviews, institutional documents, and classroom observations from six STEM teachers in SOJEPs at an internationalized Chinese university. The findings reveal that STEM teachers in SOJEPs encounter challenges such as language barriers, pedagogical conflicts, and limited intercultural sensitivity. Although most teachers engage positively in PD activities, the transformation of training into classroom practice is hindered by factors like institutional constraints and student learning cultures. However, some teachers develop effective strategies, such as bilingual project-based learning, curriculum standard integration, and reflective teaching practices, demonstrating their evolving roles as cultural mediators and curriculum co-designers. A conceptual model—the Teacher Cross-Cultural Growth Pathway—is proposed to illustrate the dynamic process between PD engagement and cross-cultural adaptation. The study underscores that effective PD must be context-sensitive, culturally responsive, and career-oriented to truly support pedagogical transformation in SOJEPs, calling for the construction of integrated support systems that link PD to sustainable cross-cultural teaching, global competence, and employment outcomes.