Perspectives on Transnational Teaching Teams

Australia and Vietnam

This paper reports on part of a larger research project funded by the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching which explored the professional development needs of transnational teaching teams across a range of academic disciplines in two Australian universities and their offshore partners. The paper provides an overview of the process and activity undertaken to understand the key determinants of successful transnational teaching teams and to develop a support mechanism for the induction of team members. Data was obtained through interviews with faculty in two campuses of an Australian university, in Australia and Vietnam. The research adopted an interpretivist paradigm to provide a better understanding of issues affecting faculty across both campuses, including relationship management; approaches to academic equivalence, contextualisation and customisation; the identification of quality-related issues for regular discussion and the establishment of professional practices to support student learning.