Browsing by Author "Saares, Taru"

The purpose of this thesis is to study practitioners' perceptions on internationalization of teaching. The aim was especially to identify and investigate the themes inside practitioner's descriptions of international teaching. The practitioners that are considered in this study are teachers and academic developers in university context who develop and practice both teaching and internationalization. Their perceptions were studied by asking: how is international teaching described by developers of teaching? In previous literature, the meaning of internationalization is often seen as unclear. Two solutions are: trying to capture a common definition or accepting the different interpretations on internationalization. In previous studies, the internationalizing environment in universities has often been described as globalizing, which requires changes in universities and its duties. Simultaneously, universities' internationalization is considered as an original and essential characteristic of universities. According to the previous literature, I expected to obtain different descriptions of international teaching and its importance. The chosen methods were used to collect descriptions on internationalization and identify the themes that were discussed in these descriptions. Six interviews were implemented where international teaching and universities internationalization was discussed by use of predetermined themes and assistance questions. The collected data was analyzed by use of thematic analysis. As a result of the analysis, six themes were recognized from the descriptions of university teachers and academic developers on international teaching. These themes were categorized as either international interaction or international content. Both international interaction and content were described as desirable goals but were also recognized as problematic. Additionally, international teaching was described as a response to the changes in the globalizing environment and as a defining characteristic of universities. The results of this study can be used as tools for thinking and as framework for understanding international teaching and universities' internationalization.