Teaching and learning cultures in transnational higher education: The case of Finnish–Brazilian pedagogical cooperation

Abstract

This article explores the cultural aspects of transnational education by examining a case of pedagogical development cooperation between a Finnish and a Brazilian higher education institution. Informed by scholarship on transnational education, organisational cultures and poststructuralist discourse perspectives, this study analyses teaching and learning cultures at the Brazilian organisation during its education cooperation with a Finnish university. The research dataset includes texts written by thirty-eight Brazilian university teachers during a transnational education programme organised between 2017 and 2018. Our poststructuralist discourse analysis identified four discourses: (1) integral education, (2) changing roles of students and teachers, (3) contextual forces, and (4) educating for citizenship. The study shows that the transnational programme prompted a discursive transformation of teaching and learning cultures in Brazil through processes of diversification and hybridisation.