Critical to the successful maintenance and survival of a transnational education partnership is the role of faculty. Our study documents the operational and social relationships between faculty teaching transnationally. Through interviews and observation, we find that informal communities of practice (CoP) spontaneously evolve, serving to improve faculty’s teaching and learning practice while in situ. The key to CoP effectiveness is members’ cultural intelligence and adoption of a reflective practice. These findings have significant implications for university internationalization practices. CoP should be nurtured and encouraged to develop organically in a transnational environment, and formally supported by university systems and processes. Furthermore, we recommend universities facilitate development of faculty cross-cultural capabilities. Our study contributes to international education and CoP literature through its rich and detailed portrayal of the development and operation of CoP, and mapped member participation, in a culturally distant situated learning environment.

教师的作用对于成功维持和维持跨国教育伙伴关系至关重要。我们的研究记录了跨国教学之间的运营和社会关系。通过访谈和观察，我们发现非正式的实践社区（CoP）会自发发展，从而有助于改善教师在原地的教学实践。CoP有效性的关键是成员的文化智慧和采用反思性做法。这些发现对大学国际化实践具有重要意义。应该培养和鼓励CoP在跨国环境中有机发展，并得到大学系统和流程的正式支持。此外，我们建议大学促进教师跨文化能力的发展。