Understanding China’s School Leadership

Front matter

Daming Feng

Understanding China’s School Leadership

Interpreting the Terminology

Preface

“China, with its geographical, historical, cultural, and political distance from the West, long has been a black box upon which we readily paste labels communist, non-Western, developing country but whose internal logic remains a mystery to us”. (Cohen, 2010) In this global era and also with China’s rapid developing economy over these decades, the international education community has a growing interest in understanding how school leadership works in China’s context. Understanding China’s School Leadership: Interpreting the Terminology' is a book on school leadership in China’s context, but is not the school leadership book in the conventional sense and with common formats. This book primarily focuses on the key terms? widely accepted and high-frequency used in school leadership practice in China, which may be a bit difficult to understand for outsiders. It is not a book based on an empirical study, in which a specific issue of China’s school leadership is concerned. Rather, it seeks to provide a broader, but nuanced and accurate picture with ample information about current status of China’s school leadership by attempting to explore a set of key terms and explicate the real meaning of them so as to assist readers to have access to China’s school leadership terminology system, which would be likely to help international audience to understand the fundamental characteristics of China’s school leadership practice, and even to gain insight into the internal dynamic and hidden logic of school leadership practice in China’s context.

'The term of “China’s school leadership”, instead of “Chinese school leadership”, is deliberately used so that the scope of this book is confined to the school leadership in mainland China. Namely, the school leadership in Chinese communities out of the mainland will be excluded.

Chinese does not have an alphabet but uses a logographic system (Hanzi) for its written language. Symbols usually represent the words themselves in Chinese—words are not made up of various letters as in English. Because of this difference, a Chinese term made up of a few words may present as a sentence some times after the term is translated into English. On this account, each term in this book is expressed by Pinyin (spelled-out sounds) with meaning of the term in English. For instance: DA-QI-WAN-CHENG [Great talent takes time to mature].

vi Preface

Tab. I Key leadership practices set by the MOE

Framework of the Book

Given the aims and format of the book, all selected terms need to be couched within a framework which was composed of several categories of key practices of school leadership. To build the framework for this book, it was, perhaps, not very difficult for us to borrow an existing one from Western literature. Christopher Day and his colleagues, for example, had identified and outlined four categories of key leadership practices in a recent published book (Day, et al. 2011:17—30).

Also, we can borrow the “six key areas for the role of the headteacher” set out in 2004 by Department for Education and Skills, the United Kingdom (DfES, 2004), or the “five professional practices to the role of the principal” from Australian Professional Standard for Principals (AITSL, 2011) as the framework of this book. However, some Western scholars had recently challenged the appropriateness of such borrowing in non-Western contexts (Dimmock and Walker, 2005; Walker, et al., 2012; Bush, 2014.) and argued that “it is highly suspicious of Western ideas, theories and frameworks applied to non-Western settings as means of understanding leadership”. (Dimmock and Walker, 2005, p. 2) For the author of this book took a similar view to these Western scholars, he decided to build a framework as far as possible to fit for the policy context and practical logic of China’s leadership practice. To this end, it seemed to the authors that one of possible alternatives was based on two policy documents, The Professional Standards for Principals of Compulsory Education Schools’ (MOE, 2013) and The Professional Standards for Principals of Senior High Schools (MOE, 2015) issued by the Ministry of Education (MOE) of China, which set out the professional standards for compulsory education school and senior high school principals in six key non-hierarchical leadership practices (see Tab. I). Obviously, the professional standards implied the fundamental expectations of Chinese government for school principals since the MOE pointed out in above-mentioned documents that the standards would serve as one of major bases in the future to develop the qualification standards, training standards, and appraisal standards for compulsory education school and senior high school principals (MOE, 2013, 2015). Hence, it seems reasonable that these six

3The nine-year compulsory education of China encompasses primary and junior secondary education. Therefore, the compulsory education schools usually refer to primary schools and junior high schools.

Preface Vii categories of leadership practices are employed as the framework of this book. Besides, it could be also essential for the audience who has little background knowledge of education in China to obtain synthetic information about China’s school leadership and the specific policy for management of school headship. With this in mind, “China’s school leadership: an overview” and “The policy regarding principal management” were included in the framework of this book.

Methodology for the Terms Selection and Interpretation

To select the critical key terms which are paramount to understand school leadership in China, the terms explored in this book were not picked up in a random manner. Rather, the terms selection was based on literature review, questionnaire surveys, and interviews. At the stage of literature review, sources consisting of the laws on education, policy documents of Chinese central government and local education authorities, strategic plans as well as rulebooks and other practical texts from schools, journal articles, conference papers and research reports about the best practices of school leadership, and books of introducing or analyzing successful school leadership cases, particularly those authored by school principals were extensively examined. From the literature review, the high-frequency used terms with high influence on school development and leadership practice were identified. Most of the terms that preliminarily identified would be examined again in the practical context of school leadership by large-sized questionnaire surveys on school leaders and teachers as well as by the interviews with school principals and directors of county/district-level education bureau" to verify significance of the terms in China’s school leadership context. After the stage of questionnaire survey and interview, the key terms that would be couched within the framework of this book were selected. For the terms interpretation, these key terms were examined in relation to their own origin and development based on relevant literature review. Meanwhile, the real meanings of the terms in work place were further explicated in the light of results of questionnaire surveys, interviews and field observation. On the basis of such an exploration, the selected terms would be fully interpreted. Finally, it would be necessary to add that the author of the book has been maintaining close relationships with China’s school leadership practice as the expert for National Key Teacher/Principal Training Programs of the MOE; Research Fellow at ECNU-based National Institute of Basic Education Reform & Development, the MOE; Accreditation expert for Teacher Education, the MOE; the final reviewer for the qualification of the Top-grade Teacher and the Superfine Teacher/Principal of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (SMEC); expert for OECD-TALIS program of Shanghai, the SMEC; and as the author of consultation papers for local principal /teacher development as well as the consultant on strategic planning and

“The “director of district/county education bureau” in China is almost synonymous with “district superintendent” in the United States.

viii Preface school effectiveness and improvement for counties/districts and schools across China in the last 30 years. These ample experiences of the author which accumulated from hundreds of school visits, classroom observations, and the chance of working with school leaders and heads of local education authorities on school leadership improvement were helpful to triangulate the information and data drawn from the literature review, the questionnaire surveys, and the interviews.

Organization of Text

This book is organized into eight chapters, which together provide a broad landscape of China’s school leadership practice. It is possible to profit from the insights presented by examining the eight chapters either as a whole or as separate entities. The first chapter of the book presents an overview of school leadership in China by focusing on the sources of school leadership knowledge, administration system, and school leadership system of the country. Through this chapter, the general profile as well as the salient features of China’s school leadership are recognized. In the section of conclusion of the chapter, the tensions in China’s school leadership practice caused by multi-sourced knowledge are also discussed. In Chap. 2, nine key terms regarding the theme “the policy regarding principal management” are explored and interpreted based on research literature review and examining the government policy documents concerning principal qualification, preparation, selection, development and appraisal. The chapter provides the background knowledge to understand how the Chinese government manages and supervises principals and what career ladders the government has set for principals. Subsequent chapters of this book turn to six key leadership practices set by the MOE for school principals, and explore and interpret the key terms revolving around these leadership practices. The Chap. 3 focuses on the terms associated with the theme of “creating a culture fostering student development”. The main concern of this chapter is not with all aspects of school culture but concentrated in those leadership behaviors, strategies and school ceremonies on which the Chinese-featured leadership values, beliefs, principles, and styles being reflected. Most of the terms in this chapter are coined by China’s leadership practitioners, in which ample practical wisdom with strong Chinese characteristics is embedded. Among the nine terms of this chapter, the term moral modeling seems particularly worth further exploring since it has been identified by empirical studies in Chinese leadership context as one of significant leadership dimensions although it has been hardly noted in Western leadership literature thus far. However, it doesn’t mean the moral modeling exclusively works in Chinas leadership context. The terms explored in Chap. 4 are associated with the leadership key practice of “guiding and facilitating teacher development”. the first three terms of the chapter provide the policy background of teacher development in China while the last four terms

Preface ix present what responsibilities that China’s principals must assume in school teacher development. In Chap. 5, eight selected terms are explored. In practice, these terms more or less reflect Chinese government’s requirement for principals’ leadership capacity in “planning school development”. By exploring these terms and examining policies associated with them, the author not only reviews the reasons why “planning school development” was so valued in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but also revealed Chinese government’s real consideration behind the significant decision of promoting the quality-oriented education, and also analyses the reasons why the hardest nuts in quality-oriented education implementation has been not yet cracked thus far. Chapter 6 turns to the theme “leading the curriculum and instruction” which involves both domains of instructional leadership and curriculum leadership. The first six terms in this chapter are all widely used in school leadership practice in China, through which some convention and format of China’s instructional leadership are disclosed. Moreover, these terms reflect the beliefs underpinning the instructional leadership practice in China. For international researchers, understanding the beliefs may be more important than knowing the terms themselves. The last four terms explored in Chap. 6 are the terms associated with the curriculum leadership. By examining these terms, the progress, achievements, and current challenges in China’s curriculum reform would be understood. Chapter 7 gives readers glimpse of the State-set the framework of school management standards, the construction baseline of school architecture and other infrastructure, and school routine management system in China. Moreover, the school decision-making mechanism as well as the unique China’s leadership values embedded in the decision-making process are revealed. Interestingly, the criticism and self-criticism, one of the terms in this chapter was concerned twenty-five years ago by American scholar Robert Joseph Thomas, the professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he linked it to his analysis of the forms of total quality management in the United States. The author believes that, even today, it is still a potential topic for further exploring in the field of school leadership. In Chapt. 8, seven high frequency-used terms in China’s school leadership practice of “accommodating the external environment” were selected to explore and interpret. By exploring these terms, the evolution of the relationship between schools and communities in China is presented, and the government initiatives and school leadership strategies to establish relationships with parents and local community are examined. Through this chapter, one can find how the process of urbanization and the progress of education reform, especially curriculum reform, have influenced the relationship between school, parents and community.

The Audience

This book is intended mainly for international researchers who have interests in the research themes on school leadership in China’s context, and for the graduate students who would like to be better informed about China’s school leadership.

x Preface

It would also be a useful reference book for the school leadership practitioners in other cultural contexts if they would like to share some of leadership experiences from their Chinese counterparts in addressing current challenges in the field of school leadership.

Shanghai, China Daming Feng

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Limited (AITSL). (2011). Australian professional standard for principals. http://www..aitsl.edu.au/verve/_resources/ NationalProfessionalStandardForPrincipals_July25.pdf. Retrieved 24 Sept. 2012.

Bush, T. (2014). Educational leadership and leadership development in Africa: Building the knowledge base. Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, Vol. 42, No.6, pp. 787-791.

Cohen, W.I. (2010). China’s rise in historical perspectives. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Vol. 30, No.4—5, pp. 683-704.

Day, C. et al. (2011). Successful school leadership: Linking with learning and achievement. Berkshire: Open University Press.

DfES (2004). National Standards for Headteachers. http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/ Retrieved 24 Sept. 2012.

Dimmock, C. and Walker, (2005). A. Educational leadership: Culture and diversity. London: Sage Publications.

Ministry of Education (MOE). (2013). Jiaoyubu guanyu yinfa “yiwu jiaoyu xuexiao xiaozhang zhuanyebiaozhun de tongzhi. [Circular of MOE on publishing “the Professional Standards for Principals of Compulsory Education Schools”). http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A 10/s7151/ 201302/t20130216_147899.html. Retrieved 14 Sept. 2017.

Ministry of Education (MOE). (2015). Jiaoyubu guanyu yinfa “pitng gaozhong xiaozhang zhuanyebiaozhun”, “zhongdeng zhiye xuexiao xioazhang zhuanyebiaozhun”, “‘youeryuan yuanzhang zhuanyebiaozhun” de tongzhi. [Circular of MOE on publishing “the Professional Standards for Principals of Senior High Schools”, “the Professional Standards for Principals of Secondary Vocational Schools”, and “the Professional Standards for Kindergarten Heads”’). http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A 10/s7 15 1/201501/t20150112_189307.html. Retrieved 15 Sept. 2017.

Walker, A. et al. (2012). Principal leadership in China: An initial review. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, Vol. 23, No.4, pp. 369-399.

Acknowledgements

Iam grateful to the reviewers who examined the initial proposal and the manuscript for this book and offered valuable criticisms and suggestions. I am also grateful to all of the respondents in CSSLM2017-principals and CSTWCE2017-teachers and the interviewees in Intrview2018-EBO and Intrview2018-Principal for their patience and cooperation. I am particularly grateful to the persons who gave me sincere support at the stage of questionnaire survey. These include Prof. Yushun Shen, Mr. Xinxin Qin, Dr. Xudong Lu, Dr. Sen Wang, Mr. Jun Zhang, Ms. Weiyi Yan, Ms. Qi Jin, Ms. Jing Wang, and Ms. X. Messerschmidt.

Many thanks go to Ms. Melody Zhang from Education, SpringerNature for her professional advice on the book preparation and publication. Special thanks go to Dr. Shengnan Liu for her crucial technical support and encouragement in my working on this book.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge two leading academics, Prof. Yukun Chen at East China Normal University and Prof. Minshen Zhang, member of the State Education Advisory Committee who have had a profound influence on me in my academic journey.

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List of Figures

Figure 1.1 The increasing numberof students in Protestants-founded schools in China (1876-1920)

Figure 1.2 The four-tier system of educational administration in China

Figure 1.3 Common organizational structure of a school

Figure 2.1 The typical format of a red-head document issued by the MOE

Figure 2.2 Figure 2.2 The rank titles and levels of Principal career-Ladder system of Shanghai Figure 4.1 The five-step career ladder of China’s teaching professionals

Figure 4.2 Levels of backbone teachers

Figure 5.1 The three-stage procedure of the Commissioned Management

Figure 6.1 Five-Link-Cycle of Teaching

Figure 7.1 The respective ratios of passing and failing to pass the evaluation of “approximately balanced development of compulsory education” in east, middle and west China

Figure 7.2 A typical framework of school internal system

Figure 7.3 The typical structure of a school routine management system xiii

List of Tables

Table I. The key leadership practices set by the MOE

Table 1.1 List of Christian-founded universities/colleges in China

Table 1.2 School autonomy in public sector (ISCED 1 and 2) of three European economies

Table 1.3 China’s school autonomy in teacher recruitment

Table 1.4 School autonomy in public sector (ISCED 1 and 2) of China

Table 2.2 The framework of evaluation criteria for Principal Career-Ladder System of Shanghai Table 4.1 Honorary titles for teachers

Table 4.2 Specific requirements of PRTQ

Table 7.1 Dimensions and tasks of the Management Standards for Compulsory Education Schools Table 7.2 The standard for usable floor area of instructional room and auxiliary space of rural regular primary schools

Table 7.3 The standard for construction land area of rural regular primary schools

Table 7.4 List of high impact RHDs on school safety management

Table 8.1 The proportion of juveniles! parents with different educational attainments in China

XV

List of Abbreviations

ACFTU ACWF CCCPC CCCYL CEB CPC DEB OCTSMC ONEI PRC MOHRSS MOCA MOE MOF MOHRSS MOJ MOP MOPS NACEQ

NEEA

NETU

PED

PLCED

SEC

SMEC

SPC

SPP

All-China Federation of Trade Union

All China Women's Federation

Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Central Committee of the Communist Youth League County Education Bureau

Communist Party of China

District Education Bureau Office of Comprehensive Treatment of Social Management Committee Office of National Education Inspection

People's Republic of China

Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security Ministry of Civil Affairs Ministry of Education Ministry of Finance Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Personnel

Ministry of Public Security

National Assessment Center for Education Quality

National Education Examination Authority

National Education Trade Union

Provincial Education Department

Prefecture-Level-City Education Bureaus

State Education Commission (renamed Ministry of Education 1n 1998) Shanghai Municipal Education Commission

Supreme People's Court

Supreme People's Procuratorate xvii

Contents Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1. China’s School Leadership: An Overview 1.1 The sources of school leadership knowledge

1.1.1 Chinese cultural heritage from ancient times

1.1.2 Leadership knowledge from Western countries

1.1.3 The practical knowledge of school management from Soviet Union 1.1.4 Leadership Tenets and principles of the CPC

1.2 Educational administration system

1.2.1 A four-tier system of administration

1.2.2 Autonomy and accountability for school leadership

1.3.1 School organizational structure

1.3.2 Principal Responsibility System

1.4 Conclusion

Chapter 2. The Policy Regarding Principal Management 2.2.1 Red-Head-Document [HONG-TOU-WEN-JIAN]

2.2.2 Reserve Principal [HOU-BEI-XIAO-ZHANG]

2.2.3 Serving a Temporary Position |GUA-ZHI-DUAN-LIAN] 2.2.4 Principal Career-Ladder System [X1AO-ZHANG-ZHI-JI-ZHI] 2.2.5 Term-Accountability by Objectives [REN-QI-MU-BIAO-ZE-REN-ZHI] 2.2.6 Leadership Team Appraisal [LING-DAO-BAN-ZI-KAO-HE] 2.2.7 Reporting Performance and Integrity [SHU-ZHI-SHU-LIAN] 2.2.8 Democratic Reviewing [MIN-ZHU-PING-YIJ]

2.2.9 Comprehensive Evaluation [ZONG-HE-PING-DING]

2.3 Summary and Discussion is

XX Contents

Chapter 3. Creating a Culture Fostering Student Development

3.2.1 Putting Student Development First [Y1-XUE-SHENG-FA-ZHAN-WEI-BEN] 3.2.2 Collectivism [J1-T1-ZHU-Y1]

3.2.3 Sense of Ownership [ZHU-REN-WENG-YI-SHI]

3.2.4 Building a Class-Based Student Collective [BAN-JI-T1-JIAN-SHE]

3.2.5 Flag Raising Ceremony [SHENG-QI-YI-SHI]

3.2.6 Moral Modeling [Y1-SHEN-ZUO-ZE]

3.2.7 Emotional Management [QING-GAN-GUAN-LI]

3.2.8 Heart to Heart Talk [TAN-XIN]

3.2.9 Home Visits [JIA-FANG]

Chapter 4. Guiding and Facilitating Teacher Development

4, 2. 1 Professional Title System for Teachers |JIAO-SHI-ZHI-CHEN-ZHI-DU] 4.2.2 Honorary Titles for Teachers [J.AO-SHI-RONG-YU-CHEN-HAO]

4.2.3 Periodical Registration of Teacher Qualification [JIAO-SHI-DING-QI-ZHU-CE] 4.2.4 Leadership for School-Based Teacher Development [XIAO-BEN-JIAO-SHI-FA-ZHAN-LING-DAO]

4.2.5 Construction of Teacher Ethics |SHI-DE- JIAN-SHE]

4.2.6 Passing on Experience by Guidance and Support [CHUAN-BANG-DAIT] 4.2.7 Fostering a Cohort of Backbone Teachers [GU-GAN-JIAO-SHI-PEI-YANG] 4.3 Summary and Discussion

Chapter 5. Planning School Development 5.2.1 School Development Planning [XUE-XIAO-FA-ZHAN-GUI-HUA]

5.2.2 Quality-Oriented Education [SU-ZHI-JIAO-YU]

Contents xxi

5.2.3 Guiding Principle for Education [JIAO-YU-FANG-ZHEN]

5.2.4 Exemplar Senior High School [SHI-FAN-XING-GAO-ZHONG]

5.2.5 Commissioned Management [WEI-TUO-GUAN-LI]

5.2.6 New Quality School [XIN-YOU-ZHI-XUE-XIAO]

5.2.7 Running Schools by Group |JI-TUAN-HUA-BAN-XUE]

5.2.8 Neighboring Schools Networking [XKUE-QU-HUA-BAN-XUE]

Chapter 6. Leading the Curriculum and Instruction 6.2.1 Teaching-Study System [JIAO-YAN-ZHI-DU]

6.2.2 Teaching-Study Specialist | ]-AO-YAN-Y UAN]

6.2.3 Five-Link-Cycle of Teaching [JIAO-XUE-WU-HUAN-JIE]

6.2.4 Collective Lesson Preparation [J\-TI-BEI-KE]

6.2.5 Classroom Observation and Commentary [TING-PING-KE]

6.2.6 Open Lesson [GONG-KAI-KE]

6.2.7 Compendium for Curriculum Reform [KE-GAI-GANG-YAO]

6.2.8 Three-Level Curriculum Management [SAN-JI-KE-CHENG-GUAN-L]] 6.2.9 Curriculum Leadership [KE-CHENG-LING-DAO]

6.2.10 School-Based Scientific Research Management [X1AO-BEN-KE-YAN-GUAN-LI]] 6.3 Summary and Discussion

Chapter 7 Optimizing Internal Management

7.21 Management Standards for Compulsory Education Schools [YI-WU-JIAO-YU-XUE-XIAO-GUAN-LI-BIAO-ZHUN]

7.2.2 Standards for School Construction [XUE-XIAO-JIAN-SHE-BIAO-ZHUN] 7.2.3 School safety management [KUE-XIAO-AN-QUAN-GUAN-LI]

7.2.4 Democratic Centralism [MIN-ZHU-JI-ZHONG-ZHI]

7.2.5 Criticism and Self-Criticism [P1-PING-YU-ZI-WO-PI-PING]

xxii Contents

7.2.6 Democratic Meeting [MIN-ZHU-SHENG-HUO-HUI]

7.2.7 Routine Management System [CHANG-GUI-GUAN-LI-ZHI-DU]

7.2.8 Transparency in School Management [XIAO-WU-GONG-KAI]

Chapter 8 Accommodating the External Environment 8.2.1 Parent Committee [JIA-ZHANG-WEI-YUAN-HUI]

8.2.2 Parent School [JIA-ZHANG-XUE-XIAO]

8.2.3 Local Studies [XIANG-TU-JIAO-YU]

8.2.4 Social Practice Base [SHE-HUI-SHI-JIAN-JI-D]]

8.2.5 Opening of School Resource [X1AO-YUAN-ZI-YUAN-KAI-FANG]

8.2.6 School Open Day [XUE-XIAO-KAI-FANG-RI]

8.2.7 University-School Collaboration [DA-XUE-Y U-ZHONG-XIAO-XUE-HE-ZUO] 8.3 Summary and Discussion

Epilogue

Glossary of Chinese Terms

Appendix A. Questionnaire Surveys

Current Status of School Leadership and Management: A Survey of Principals (CSSLM2017-principals)

Current Status of Teachers’ Work Condition and Environment: A Survey of Teachers (CSTWCE2017-teachers)

Appendix B. Interview Protocols

Education Bureau Official Interview Protocol

Principal Interview Protocol

Chapter 1

The differences between school leadership in China and in other countries, especially in Western countries, can be largely attributed to their different sources of school leadership knowledge and different external and internal institutional environment for school leadership. To understand how China’s school leadership unfolds in day-to-day practice and what knowledge underpins its leadership practice, it is essential to figure out the sources of China’s school leadership knowledge and to examine the educational administration system and the school leadership system of China. Through an overview of China’s school leadership, this chapter intends to provide readers with necessary background knowledge before they have access to and make sense of key terms of China’s school leadership which will be explored and interpreted in following chapters.

School leadership in China, in terms of practice, can be traced back to thousands years ago though the leadership practices of modern schools just started from the late 19" century. Examining the thousands years course of evolution, the contemporary knowledge base underpinned school leadership practice of China is largely shaped by four sources of knowledge which can be identified as the cultural heritage from ancient times, leadership knowledge from Western countries, practical knowledge of school management from Soviet Union, and the leadership tenets and principles of the Communist Party of China (CPC) (Zhang, 1990, p.16; CIES, 1991, p.1; Sun, 1993, p.22; Zhao, 1993, pp.611-612; Xiao, 1994, p.5; Mei, 1995, pp. 231-240; Wu & Feng, 1998, p. 164; Zhang, 2004; Xi, 2014, pp.373-379).

1.1.1 Cultural heritage from ancient times

The history of education in China began with the birth of the Bronze Civilization formed thousands years ago. For the next centuries, ancient Chinese ideologists and educationists contributed to the abundant literature about school education, within which some classic volumes known as Chinese cultural heritage were included. One of the volumes was Xue Ji, (formerly known as Hsio Ki [Record on the subject of education]) written by an unknown Chinese author in the 3" century B.C. (Fu, 1983, p.1) and translated into English version by Scottish sinologist

James Legge and published by Oxford University Press in 1885 (Legge,1885). The Xue Ji has

© The Author(s) 2020 1 D. Feng, Understanding China’s School Leadership, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-98 1-15-0749-6_1 been acknowledged by Chinese academic community of education as the first Chinese book discoursing upon issues of educational administration and school management because the school system, admission policy, rules and schedule of a school day, the standards for student assessment, and the inspection system were introduced and discussed in this classic volume (Li et al., 1984; Zhang, 1990;Sun, 1993; Xiao, 1994; Mei, 1995; Wu et al., 2000). Moreover, a set of principles for teaching and learning proposed in Xue Ji has been inherited by generation after generation of Chinese educators and adopted usually by school leaders as reference for their practice of instructional leadership and teacher supervision in last thousands years. For example, the author of Xue Ji argued (Legge, 1885, p1):

However fine the viands be, if one do not eat, he does not know their taste; however

perfect the course may be, if one do not learn it, be does not know its goodness.

Therefore when he learns, one knows his own deficiencies; when he teaches, he

knows the difficulties of learning. After he knows his deficiencies, one is able to

turn round and examine himself; after he knows the difficulties, he is able to

stimulate himself to effort. Hence it is said, "Teaching and learning help each

other; as it is said in the Charge to Yueh, 'Teaching is the half of learning. This argument was summed up by later generations of educationists as a principle in education so-called JIAO-XUE-XIANG-ZHANG, which implies a couple of close but slightly different meanings in different contexts, such as “teaching and learning help each other”(when valuing the questioning from students to teachers during classroom instruction), “there is a reciprocal relationship between teaching and learning’(when emphasize on building a linkage between teachers’ lesson preparation and professional learning), and “teaching others benefits yourself’(when encouraging peer mentoring). Another well-known principle for teaching and learning is YIN-CAI-SHI-JIAO [teaching individual students in accordance with their different aptitudes and dispositions so as to help every student achieving their potential]. The idea of YIN-CAI-SHI-JIAO was originally drawn from The Analects. In Book X I of The Analects, the conversation between Confucius and his students, Tzu-lu, Jan Ch’iu and Kung-hsi Hua was recorded (Waley, 1998, p. 137):

Tzu-lu asked, “When one hears a maxim, should one at once seek occasion to put it into practice?” The Master said, “Your father and elder brother are alive. How can you whenever you hear a maxim at once put it into practice?” Jan Ch’iu asked,

“When one hears a maxim, should one at once seek occasion to put it into practice?”

The Master said, When one hears it, one should at once put it into practice.”

Kung-hsi Hua said, When Yu asked “When one hears a maxim, should one at

once seek occasion to put it into practice?” you said, “You have a father and elder

brother alive.” But when Ch’iu asked, “When one hears a maxim, should one at

once seek occasion to put it into practice?” you said, “When you hear it, put it into

practice.” I am perplexed, and would venture to ask how this was. The Master said,

“Ch’iu is backward; so I urged him on, Yu is fanatical about Goodness; so I held

him back.”

In this conversation, Confucius implied that a teacher should modify his/her way of teaching to suit the chracteristics of individual students. About one thousand and five hundred years later, Zhu Xi who was renowned as one of Neo-Confucian rationalists in Song Dynasty summed it up as one of principles for teaching, called YIN-CAI-SHI-JIAO when he annotated The Analects and commented on the teaching style of Confucius (Dong et al., 1985). In addition to discussion about skills of management and principles for teaching, the discussion or saying concerning the importance and influence of leaders’ personal characters can be also found in Chinese classic volumes. A well-known saying from The Analects, for example, is that “[If] the ruler [leader] himself is upright, all with go well even though he does not give orders. But if he himself is not upright, even though he gives orders, they will not be obeyed.” (Waley, 1998, p. 163) This saying implies that personal virtue of leaders could be more important than their leadership skills. It is noteworthy that these ancient Chinese claims or arguments about school management, teaching and learning, and leaders’ virtue drawn from ancient Chinese classic volumes are still widely accepted by Chinese educators today. For example, the author of this book conducted two questionnaire surveys respectively in 2017 to principals and teachers in Chinese primary and secondary schools. The result of the first survey titled Current Status of School Leadership and Management: A Survey of Principals (hereinafter called CSSLM2017-principals) showed that 78.6 percent of the respondents STRONGLY AGREED with the questionnaire item of “The ancient teaching principles that have been handed down to the present ( e.g.

JIAO-XUE-XIANG-ZHANG[valuing the questioning from students to teachers during classroom teaching], YIN-CAI- SHI-JIAO[teaching individual students in accordance with their different aptitudes and dispositions so as to help every individual achieving their potential],etc.) are still the teaching principles that schools require for teachers to carry out in their classroom instruction today.” while 19.4 percent of respondents AGREED with the same item. In the second survey titled Current Status of Teachers’ Work Condition and Environment: A survey of Teachers (hereinafter called CSTWCE2017-teachers), 78.7 percent of the respondents STRONGLY AGREED with the item of “YIN-CAI-SHI-JIAO is a teaching principle I have always believed in, and I also try to implement it in the teaching practice.” while 18.0 percent of respondents AGREED with the same item (see Appendix A).

1.1.2 Leadership knowledge from Western countries

By historical literature reviewing, three major vehicles which conveyed modern leadership knowledge from Western countries to China can be identified. The first is Chinese government policy initiatives enacted in late 19" and early 20" century to promote educational change in China. The second is the Protestant and Catholics schools burgeoned in China at the turn of the 20" century. The third is the waves of Chinese to seek study in Western countries in early 20" century and from 1978 onwards (Chen, 1979, pp.175-194; Lü, 1987; Wang, 2000; Li, 2003; Li, 2004; Jiang, 2007; Liu, 2009; Wu & Liu, 2013).

1.1.2 .1 Chinese government policy initiatives of educational transformation

For a very long time, Chinese education system had been steady and exclusive from Western world. However, such a situation was broken by the first Opium War in 1840. Over the ensuing decades, the Western influence on Chinese education was gradually growing and the attitude of Chinese government towards Western education also changed significantly (Chen, 1979, pp.8-11; Lü, 1987). Almost all of government initiatives to transform feudal imperial education system into modern education system of China in the late 19" century and in the early 20th century were more or less with Western influence. In 1898, the Imperial University of Peaking (the predecessor of Peaking University) known as the first state-funded modern university and the cradle of modern higher education of China was founded with the guiding principle called ZHONG-XUE-WEI-TI, XI-XUE-WEI-YONG [upholding traditional Chinese values aided with modern Western management and technology] (Chen,1979, p.104). Unprecedentedly, the Imperial University of