The online educator: Beyond digitaly

Abstract

The inclusion of the online teaching in higher education has resulted in research works about the cultural characteristics of the students. However, we have not found enough research that examined the pedagogical practice in virtual and multicultural contexts. In this work, we aim to identify the characteristics of the online discourse; analyze their relationship with the teachers´ practice online and identify how the virtual environment impacts on the teachers´ practices from a multicultural perspective. This qualitative study entailed horizontal and vertical analyses of the discussion process, utilizing the micro-textual method. The findings suggest that the online environment is a fertile arena for creating an academic and multicultural learning context. In the course of the study, four types of discourse were identified: personal-autobiographical, disciplinary, professional, and ethno-cultural; as well as three teaching approaches: the personal-empathic, the academic and the professional. The work invites to rethink ways of teacher training in virtual environments, holding that this environment challenges its practice, generating a need for an approach that exceeds the digital dimension, and is installed in the multicultural practice.