A Review of Educational Leadership in the Chinese Compulsory Schooling System and Leadership Framework for Improvement

Abstract

The Chinese compulsory schooling system plays a fundamental role in developing students’ academic and social outcomes to lead successful lives. Successful schools require influential leaders. However, it is unclear what competencies principals in the Chinese compulsory schooling system require to become successful in improving the quality of schooling. The purpose of this research is to conduct a systematic review of research on educational leadership in China and propose a culturally appropriate educational leadership framework suitable for Chinese educational leaders. A systematic review of 13 peer-reviewed empirical studies written in Mandarin on educational leadership in China revealed that current academic research has examined eight leadership styles from Western paradigms and evaluated their effectiveness in a Chinese context. The review found that Chinese principals’ transformational and distributed leadership practices improved teachers’ organisational commitment. School leaders’ social and emotional competencies also played a moderating role in enhancing teachers’ well-being. Areas of educational leadership research in China that have not been given due consideration were discovered, such as the lack of concern for the role of the Communist Party of China on the principal’s leadership style, the influence of Confucian culture, or strategies for extending the professional skills or expertise of Chinese principals. An analysis of three educational leadership frameworks was conducted to develop a charter or set of principal guides for school leaders within a Chinese context. The three frameworks included the Competency Framework for Southeast Asian School Heads for Southeast Asian Countries, the New Zealand Educational Leadership Capability Framework, and the Australian Professional Standard for Principals andthe Leadership Profiles. These guidelines from other jurisdictions were studied and aligned with the empirical literature to produce a set of culturally appropriate guidelines for Chinese schools. The educational leadership framework developed within this research comprises five standard competencies: strategic planning and implementation, stakeholder management and engagement, promoting a learner-centred environment, emotional intelligence and communication skills, and resource sharing and management. In addition, two additional competencies that a Chinese educational leader requires are high moral and ethical competence and an understanding of the influence of Confucius’s culture within China’s educational context. This research concludes with a presentation of both English and Chinese versions of the educational leadership framework for Chinese principals working in the compulsory schooling system to assist Chinese educational leaders in their future work.