Recent findings reveal a significant achievement gap between native Finnish students and first- and second-generation immigrant students in Finnish education systems (Jahnukainen et al., 2019). This underscores an urgency for targeted research focusing on Finnish teachers’ intercultural competences. Intercultural competences refer to the attitudes, knowledge and skills that enable teachers to effectively interact within intercultural contexts (Perry & Southwell, 2011). Research in psychology on implicit beliefs has shed new light to the study of teachers' intercultural competences. Individuals with orientation towards incremental theory (i.e. growth mindset) believe that qualities and traits can be altered, while individuals oriented towards entity theory (i.e. fixed mindset) believe they remain stagnant (Dweck, 2010). As these orientations have been found to impact stereotyping, prejudice, and intergroup relations (Carr et al., 2012; Rattan & Georgeac, 2017), they are increasingly being found to be useful for examining intercultural competences as well. Research focused on in-service teachers in Finland shows how orientations towards these different theories strongly influence teaching practices and interactions with students as well as are associated with their intercultural competences (Rissanen & Kuusisto, 2023; Rissanen et al., 2023). However, currently the link between mindsets and development of intercultural competences remains unexplored within the territory of teacher education. This study addresses this gap by utilizing mixed-methods research to explore Finnish student teachers’ malleability beliefs and intercultural competences. Survey data from student teachers (n=232) as well as semi-structured interviews (n=13) utilizing vignettes, was gathered to gain a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between implicit beliefs of malleability and intercultural competences. Findings based on statistical analysis of survey data found that student teachers were more oriented towards incremental theory mindsets which also correlated significantly with social justice beliefs. Enthusiasm for teaching culturally diverse groups was moderate, but those with more experience with diversity were more enthusiastic for teaching culturally diverse groups. Preliminary findings from qualitative analysis of interview data seem to indicate that student teachers are in fact more oriented toward growth mindset, and that these orientations may make them more inclined to favor teaching practices that align with culturally responsive pedagogical practices. Implications of findings will be discussed for intercultural competence research as well as teaching and teacher education.

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