The Divergent Trajectories of Confucius Institutes in Sub-Saharan Africa and North America: A Constructivist Perspective on China's Higher Education Internationalization

• In Event: Examining internationalization and regionalization in higher education

Proposal

Confucius Institutes (CIs), initiated by the Chinese government to promote Chinese language and culture globally, have experienced rapid growth but faced extensive skepticism in Western democratic nations since their establishment. In recent years, numerous CIs in North America and Europe have been closed. However, in other regions like Africa, Asia, and South America, CIs continue to sustain stable development (Lo & Pan, 2016; Paradise, 2009; Pan, 2013; Sahlins, 2015; Starr, 2009; Yang, 2010; Zhou & Luk, 2016).

Past research on CIs primarily viewed them as tools for the Chinese Communist Party to exert soft power, aiming to enhance China's national image through the allure of Chinese language and culture (Hartig, 2015; Huang & Xiang, 2019; Lahtinen, 2015; Lien & Miao, 2018; Pan, 2013; Paradise, 2009; Yang, 2010). Despite achieving some success, they have been perceived as propaganda machines or even Trojan horses by democratic nations due to issues of self-censorship and communist ideological penetration, leading to resistance (Hartig, 2015; Jil, 2015; Liu, 2019; Repnikova, 2022; Sahlins, 2013; Zanardi, 2016; Zhou & Luk, 2016).

However, the soft power theoretical framework alone fails to explain why CIs experience divergent fates in different regions. This study proposes an alternative perspective by incorporating constructivism from international relations theory as the conceptual framework to address the following question: Why do these international language and cultural educational institutions with similar goals (promoting Chinese language and culture) and comparable structures (comprising a Chinese government organization, a host institution, and a Chinese university) receive different treatment across the world?

To explore this issue, the research focuses on a comparative study between North America, specifically the United States and Canada, and Sub-Saharan Africa. North America, once hosting the most CIs (many of which have been recently closed), provides a significant contrast to Sub-Saharan Africa, where CIs have developed slowly but maintained positive growth. This comparative approach allows for an in-depth analysis of the differences in CIs' institutional operation and social perception at both the organizational and national levels.

Through the lens of constructivism, this research provides new insights into the starkly different organizational operations and social perceptions of CIs in these two regions. Constructivism contends that actors' relationships on the international stage are mutually constructed by shared understanding and knowledge of their nature and that of others (Checkel, 1998; Hopf, 1998; Wendt, 1995). Therefore, historical, cultural, and social contexts play a decisive role in shaping domestic and international systems (Hopf, 1998), including the environment for higher education internationalization.

The methodology employed in this research is qualitative, involving documentary data from academic literature, CI annual reports, and media reports pertaining to the research topic, as well as semi-structured interviews with 22 teachers, volunteers, and students who have worked or studied at CIs in North America and Sub-Saharan Africa within the past five years. The interviews cover their personal educational and academic backgrounds, the nature of their work at the CIs, their interactions with surrounding communities, and the level of support received from their respective countries.

The study reveals significant disparities between CIs in these two regions despite sharing the same brand. In North America, host universities hold primary decision-making power, with local directors, colleagues, and even native students enjoying advantages in power dynamics and accessing local external resources. Any potential ideological infiltration from China faces strong resistance at the local level. In contrast, CIs in Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrate the opposite scenario, with Chinese stakeholders having advantages in power dynamics and serving as the primary suppliers of external resources. At the national level, North American governments adopt a passive approach due to potential national security risks, while Sub-Saharan African governments actively participate, viewing CIs as part of strategic cooperation with China.

The study's findings shed light on the diverse higher education landscapes, the status of internationalization, and academic relations with China in these two regions, leading to fundamental differences in CIs' internal operations and interactions with external communities. North America boasts a well-established higher education system, characterized by decentralization, high autonomy, and a commitment to academic independence. It is also a major hub for higher education internationalization and has played a long-standing role in hosting international students (de Wit, 2002; Eckel & King, 2006; Jones, 2006). Although higher education institutions in the region may seek Chinese funding to enhance Chinese language instruction and promote diversity, the academic community and society as a whole remain sensitive to non-democratic ideologies and academic censorship. There is also a wariness of attempts to integrate an authoritarian-led higher education cooperation project into the local higher education system. Sub-Saharan Africa lags in higher education development. The legacy of colonialism results in heavy reliance on external resources, and governments exercise substantial control over universities, leading to limited academic independence (Collins, 2013; Teferra, 2008; Sehoole, 2008). Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has provided aid to the region to gain political support (King, 2010). This region is more receptive to cooperative assistance models like CIs and, at the national level, willingly leverages the economic and academic resources obtained through these projects to establish Chinese-related disciplines and enhance research capabilities in relevant fields. Hence, despite appearing to be the same China-promoted institutions for language and cultural promotion, CIs in the two regions manifest completely different dynamics in both internal operations and social recognition.

This study holds significant theoretical and policy-making implications. It challenges the perspective of viewing CIs merely as tools for China's soft power projection and instead adopts a higher education internationalization perspective, considering CIs' operations and social recognition as products of social construction. This calls for policymakers to conduct a fresh assessment of non-Western democratic-led projects for higher education internationalization in different geopolitical and socioeconomic contexts. Policymakers should take into account not only the intentions of the initiating country but also the responses of host countries based on their unique historical, cultural, and societal backgrounds. These contextual factors collectively shape the development and outcomes of higher education cooperation projects at the local level.

Author

• Bingqing Shen, OISE - University of Toronto