Deciphering Chinese School Leadership ― Conceptualisation, Context and Complexities

With existing educational leadership models and theories being predominantly western influenced, this book aims to provide more insight into school leadership in China. It pioneers building research- and practice-informed knowledge and unravels the complexities that characterize the scholarship, context and practices of school leadership. School leadership in China is presented through four sub-purposes: investigating how Chinese school leadership is conceptualized in the international and Chinese literature; exploring the shifting context within which Chinese school leaders enact their leadership, and examining key policies that have shaped the practice of leader development; extending the understandings about the complexities of work lives of Chinese school leaders; and further locating indigenous understandings of Chinese school leadership in the political and socio-cultural context of contemporary China, and the theoretical and conceptual context of international school leadership. This text will be particularly useful to international education researchers with focus on educational leadership, comparative education, education policy and education in China.

Allan Walker is Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Dean of Faculty of Education and Human Development and Director of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at The Education University of Hong Kong. Allan is also a Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leadership and co-editor of the Journal of Educational Administration.

Qian Haiyan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong. Her main area of interest has been around school leadership in China; and the influence of the social and cultural context on schooling across Chinese societies.