Exploring the successful school leadership literature in China

Abstract

This chapter explores the complexity of culture and its impact on school leadership in the context of Mainland China. Using “successful/famous principal/principalship” as key words, the chapter reviews relevant literature published between 2000 and 2014 in core journals in China. This comprehensive review sheds light on these four questions: (1) How is successful school leadership defined? (2) How is successful school leadership practised? (3) How are successful school principals developed in China? And (4) how is successful school principalship shaped by the cultural and societal context in China? The review contributes to leadership and culture scholarship in the following ways. First, it enriches the knowledge base of international school leadership by interrogating the definition and practice of culturally situated leadership. Second, the chapter helps to identify whether successful Chinese principals enact any culture-specific leadership practices. Third, the review depicts the complexity of culture and captures the dynamics of different components of cultural hybridity.