China’s Humanistic Zhong-Yong Approach to Educational Partnerships for International Development in Post-Covid-19: Confucian and Ubuntu Perspectives on Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in Africa

Abstract

Based on broad observations of the development of Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in Africa over a decade, this article focuses on educational partnerships between Chinese and African educational institutions and their implications for international development, as they relate to international development in the era of post-Covid-19. The author identifies the Confucian Zhong-Yong approach to educational partnerships through Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in Africa, a pragmatic model for educational development centered on Confucianism. Three core characteristics of Confucian educational partnerships – demand-driven, ethics-based and pragmatic – are seen as the key to the success of such partnerships. Reflecting on Ubuntu from a Confucian perspective, the author concludes that China’s humanistic Zhong-Yong approach to partnerships has a unique potential to re-envision education for international development in ways that may be of interest to such international developmental agencies as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the World Bank, and the United Nations.