Patterns of Teaching and Professional Development Practices in Brazilian-Finnish Transnational Education

This study investigates teachers’ professional practices during the delivery of a transnational professional development programme by one Finnish university for a cluster of Brazilian private universities. The objective is to identify local instructors’ patterns of teaching (teachers’ personal-professional qualities), which are conceptualised as approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs, as well as participation in professional development practices (professional cultures and professional development activities). An online questionnaire was sent to the teaching staff of five universities and 201 responses were received and analysed. The most important explanatory aspect was self-efficacy beliefs, which formed the basis for categorising teachers into meaningful clusters. The findings illuminated significant disparities among these clusters concerning their teaching approaches and engagement in professional development activities. Additionally, the results indicated that teachers who had participated in the transnational pedagogical programme were more committed to experimenting in teaching and participating in research-focused and formal professional development activities than those who had not. Plausible explanations for these results and directions for future research are discussed.