1 Introduction

This section reviews the "Confucius Institute Work Competency Cultivation and Enhancement" seminar held during the 2024 World Chinese Language Conference, highlighting the importance and urgency of research on CI teacher competency. It analyzes current problems in CI faculty, including high turnover rates, unclear career development paths, and misalignment between training and actual needs, as well as the status quo of diverse cultural backgrounds and uneven competency levels among teachers. It also notes new requirements for teachers' information technology capabilities in post-pandemic remote teaching and new challenges brought by the AI era. Adopting a problem-oriented approach and based on competency theory, this study constructs a CI teacher competency dictionary, selecting Chinese government-appointed teachers, full-time teachers, and volunteers from CIs in the United States, Australia, Thailand, Italy, and Cameroon as research subjects, obtaining research materials through four channels: personal network diffusion, official contacts, academic conferences, and remote connections.

2 Competency Dictionary

This section introduces the origin and development of competency dictionaries, McClelland's 21 general competency elements and their dynamic updating characteristics, and elaborates on the three-stage design for constructing the CI teacher competency dictionary in this study: multi-dimensional element extraction, BEI interviews and thematic analysis, and two rounds of Delphi expert consultation for validation.

3 Current Research on CI Teacher Competency

This section systematically reviews the current state of international Chinese teacher competency research from 2013 to 2023. Based on CiteSpace analysis of 769 core journal articles, it finds that topics such as teacher quality, professional development, and teaching ability have continued to rise in popularity, with research on competency components and evaluation systems experiencing explosive growth in the past five years. Current research mainly covers three categories: first, analysis of general competency characteristics, such as the "Quality-Ability-Knowledge" model proposed by Li Quan et al.; second, extraction of transferable competencies, such as Ding Anqi's research on characteristics of excellent trainers; third, professional development and regional adaptability research, such as Ye Jun et al.'s teacher growth cycle model and Zhu Ruorao et al.'s localized exploration for different regions. The study also points out two major deficiencies: lack of systematic, multi-dimensional competency element extraction, and insufficient interdisciplinary integrated research.

4 Preliminary Construction of CI Teacher Competency Element System

This section constructs the preliminary framework for the CI teacher competency element system. The research first reviews nine Chinese and foreign foreign language teacher professional standards to extract high-frequency competency elements; second, draws on "Foreign Language and Literature Teachers" occupational data from the O*NET job analysis system to obtain practitioner characteristics and occupational demand information; third, analyzes more than 300 CI recruitment announcements from the past six years to extract job requirements from dimensions including education, knowledge, skills, experience, and personality; finally, based on McClelland's 21 general competencies, classifies, merges, and reorganizes elements from the three sources according to similarity, forming a coding dictionary containing first-level and second-level characteristic elements from a multi-dimensional perspective.

5 Element Extraction and Supplement Based on BEI Interview Method

This section describes the process of using the BEI interview method to extract competency characteristics from 105 CI Chinese teachers in five countries. The study set differentiated selection criteria, with an average interview duration of 76 minutes and approximately 800,000 words of effective transcribed text. The coding process included behavioral event extraction, coding principle formulation, pre-coding and reliability testing, and formal coding. The coding consistency reliability coefficient verified the feasibility of the dictionary. Ultimately, 47 competency elements were extracted, with instructional design ability, achievement orientation, professional reflection ability, and role awareness ranking in the top four. The study decomposed "personality characteristics" into refined elements such as self-confidence and positive optimism, and integrated and deduplicated them with elements extracted from objective demands, forming 50 competency elements divided into 7 first-level indicator dimensions including teaching knowledge and skills, and teaching literacy.

6 Two-Round Expert Validation and Construction of CI Teacher Competency Dictionary

This section employs the Delphi method for two-round expert validation and dictionary construction of CI teacher competency structure. The study engaged 17 experts from CIs, higher education institutions, and other fields, including Chinese and foreign directors, university professors, and government-appointed teachers with more than 5 years of frontline teaching experience, with 2 additional alternate members to ensure questionnaire response rates. In the first round of consultation, experts evaluated 7 first-level indicators and 50 second-level indicators. Results showed "teaching knowledge and skills" scored highest, while "refined qualification requirements" failed to reach the critical value and was adjusted to background information; 9 second-level indicators were deleted due to failing standard deviation or mean criteria, and some indicators were merged, repositioned, or modified, forming a new system of 5 first-level indicators and 40 second-level indicators. The expert authority coefficient was 0.834, with coordination coefficients of 0.345 and 0.389 respectively. The second round of consultation focused on the revised indicator system. All 5 first-level indicators met standards, with only "inclusive education concept" deleted due to content overlap, ultimately establishing a competency dictionary with 5 first-level indicators and 39 second-level indicators. The expert authority coefficient improved to 0.856 in this round, with coordination coefficients increasing to 0.425 and 0.469 respectively, showing significantly improved expert opinion consistency. The final competency dictionary includes five dimensions: teaching knowledge and skills, teaching literacy, cross-cultural communication and adaptability, international perspective and Chinese culture communication ability, and personality characteristics, encompassing 39 specific elements including Chinese classroom teaching ability, professional reflection ability, cross-cultural communication ability, Chinese culture communication ability, and sense of responsibility. These elements reflect both the professional teaching foundation of CI teachers and highlight their special requirements for cross-cultural adaptation and cultural communication, while revealing the internal logic of mutual promotion and common development between individual teacher competency and CI organization and teacher groups.

7 Summary and Discussion

This section elaborates on the importance of CI teacher competency for teaching quality and brand image. Through multi-dimensional perspective feature element extraction and two-round expert validation, it constructs a competency dictionary containing 5 first-level dimensions and 39 second-level elements, and points out its significance in improving teaching, clarifying responsibilities, and promoting development. Research limitations include sample coverage of only five countries with limited quantity, insufficient analysis of country-specific differences, and inadequate consideration of AI era impacts. Future prospects include: expanding sample size to deepen country-specific research; developing assessment scales to conduct surveys and propose strategies; and incorporating new elements into the international Chinese education professional training system.