Abstract:
Against the backdrop of rapidly globalizing systems of education, the economic considerations have led to a push to impose neoliberal reforms in the field of education. Many Australian schools have responded to the policy of Engagement with Asia by introducing one of the four recommended Asian languages in recent years. However, knowledge flows between peripheral (China, Asia or developing or underdeveloped countries) and metropole (Australia or Euro-America) societies are imbalanced and complex. As an example, Chinese concepts introduced to western countries were quite limited to a number of philosophical or sociological concepts such as, Dao, Tianxia, Guanxi or Face. Limited research has been done on the dialogues between western and Chinese educational ideas. This autoethnographic research focused on how a Chinese educational concept “jiaoshu yuren’” (教书育人,imparting knowledge and nurturing human beings) was embodied by a Chinese language teacher who was trained and worked as a primary school educator in both China and Australia. Resonating with humanizing pedagogy, the research also found that teacher’s roles and teacher-student relationships embedded in this Chinese concept were challenged, negotiated and empowered with new interpretation in today’s globalised learning environment. The paper argues that (1) When our society has gradually moved into neoliberal direction and education has become synonymous with economic productivity, the holistic Chinese educational concept of ‘jiaoshu yuren’ certainly has its modern implications. (2) Theoretical dialogues between peripheral and metropole societies should be encouraged through flows of knowledge and concepts. Keywords (Limit 6 keywords):Knowledge flow, ‘jiaoshu yuren’, autoethographic inquiry, humanizing pedagogy, neoliberal reforms in education, teacher-student relationshipProposed bibliography (key texts): Cheng, K.-m., & Wong, K.-c. (1996). School effectiveness in East Asia: Concepts, origins and implications. Journal of Educational Administration, 32-49.Gupta, A. (2018). How neoliberal globalization is shaping early childhood education policies in India, China, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Policy Futures in Education, 16(1), 11-28.Mansour, J. M. (2018). An autoethnographic exploration of being human through teaching and learning. Qi, X. (2012). ‘A case study of globalized knowledge flows: Guanxi in social science and management theory’, International Sociology, 27 (6), 707-723.Qi, X. (2013). Intellectual entrepreneurs and the diffusion of ideas: Two historical cases of knowledge flow. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 1(3), 346-72.Zhang, C. (2018, December 10). EduResearch Matters. Retrieved from Knowledge flows about China: how knowledge about China flows between teacher and students in a Mandarin language class in Australia: https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?tag=knowledge-flows-about-china