A comparative study of Brazil, Finland and Vietnam: soft skills for adult educators

This study contributes a unique standpoint with its comparative case analysis concerning educators' soft skills. The topic is compared among three countries: Brazil, Finland and Vietnam, representing three continents with different social, economic and cultural aspects. This comparative quantitative case study aimed to examine the different attitudes and soft skills of adult educators (n = 355) through an online survey in Brazil, Finland and Vietnam. The focus was on identifying the most important soft skills from the adult educators’ points of view and the differences concerning those skills among the three countries. The study offers practical recommendations for teachers and teacher education development by which to further develop educators’ skills, in response to skill preparation for students in the fast-changing study and working environment demands. This study concluded that Brazil, Finland and Vietnam differ considerably in their views on soft skills as based on the present analysis. The participants from Finland regarded the intrapersonal skills as most important, whereas, for the respondents from Brazil and Vietnam, the socioemotional skills were regarded as most important. Furthermore, participants from Brazil and Finland regarded the socioemotional skills statistically significantly more important than did the respondents from Vietnam. At the same time, the participants from Brazil regarded the interpersonal skills statistically significantly more important than did the respondents from Vietnam, but between Finland and Vietnam statistical difference was apparent only on some components of the interpersonal skills. There is still a need for further research regarding teachers and educators´ soft skills and the reasons behind the different views of their importance.