Chinese Educators Returning from a Finnish Education Program: Perceived Impact on Professional Development and Experiences of Educational Borrowing

In recent years, Finnish education programs are exported to China for the professional development of local educators, but little is known about how Finnish experience has contributed to Chinese education. By addressing this research gap, this study aims to examine the perceptions of a sample of Chinese educators regarding the impact of a Finnish education program on their professional development, as well as their experiences of borrowing Finnish pedagogical approaches in the Chinese educational context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with five Chinese school educators who had completed a Finnish special education program. The interviews were analyzed using inductive content analysis through the lens of Holliday’s Grammar of Culture. The findings show that interviewees’ professional trajectories influenced which Finnish educational approaches they deemed meaningful and suitable for borrowing. Professional authority, curricular regulation, available resources, and stakeholder negotiation then influence the scale, location, form, and local recognition of the adapted approaches. Instead of directly transferring Finnish pedagogical models, participants reinterpreted and reconstructed them within their Chinese school contexts. These findings can inform the design and follow-up support of similar Finnish education programs and deepen understanding of how foreign pedagogical ideas are negotiated and localized in Chinese schools.