Educational Leadership in China

Front. Educ. China 2011, 6(3): 331–341 DOI 10.1007/s11516-011-0135-1

SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORIAL John C. K. LEE, Nicholas S. K. PANG

Educational Leadership in China: Contexts and Issues
© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2011

Introduction
Educational leaders serve as important anchors, providing guidance in times of change, and being responsible for the accomplishment of educational goals. Leaders and administrators occupy positions in which they are expected to exert leadership, a process of social influence (Gamage & Pang, 2003). The primary importance of educational leadership for the success of any educational institution and educational reform is universally recognized. Why do some teams and schools, as well as policies and reforms, succeed while others fail? The credit or blame tends to be assigned to the principals, administrators, curriculum or educational leaders involved. Not surprisingly, educational leadership continues to be an important area in the field of education, attracting much attention. It has been the subject of a large number of publications in the West. Comparatively, educational leadership in the East including China has been largely neglected in English language publications. What makes an effective educational leader in China? How is the concept of educational leadership defined in China? What sort of theoretical concepts enable us to understand this elusive but absorbing concept in Chinese culture? A common assumption is that educational leadership encompasses a social process of influencing others. In leading and managing an organization, an educational leader needs to endeavor to establish appropriate relationships with external
John C. K. LEE ( ) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education Studies, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China E-mail: [e-mail] Nicholas S. K. PANG ( ) Department of Educational Administration and Policy, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of

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