Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The establishment of the Confucius Institutes at Australian universities has contributed to the promotion of teaching Chinese language and culture, while some controversial issues of political and cultural concerns have raised in terms of relationship between the host Australian universities and Confucius Institutes located on their campus. The political concerns are whether the academic freedom at Australian universities would be affected by the Confucius Institutes. The cultural and education concerns are in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and organization. This paper reports on a case study of two Australian universities. In spite of the limitation of two participate universities, there are three important conclusions drawn from this research. The initial results of this research have confirmed an urgent need of a comprehensive and interdisciplinary research to investigate the performance of existing Confucius Institutes in Australia. In addition, the contradictory findings amply demonstrate that Australian academics are deeply divided on Confucius Institutes and their roles and functions. Moreover, a systematic analytical framework should be established to investigate the Confucius Institutes’ linguistic, pedagogical, organizational, political and economic impacts in a nation-wide scope.