Educational leadership and culture in China: Dichotomies between Chinese and Anglo-American leadership traditions?

This article explores the extent to which Chinese school leaders espouse dichotomous or integrated Chinese and Anglo-American leadership and management preferences. Data are drawn from questionnaires completed by school leaders and from semi-structured interviews with individual school leaders from different parts of China. The exploratory study shows that Chinese school leaders perceive a coexistence of Chinese and Anglo-American leadership and management values, rather than the domination of one over the other. The findings suggest that it is important to understand the impact of national cultures on leadership and management. Differences between Chinese and Western culture and leadership and management are open to the challenge of stereotyping, and should not be over-stressed, as school leaders are working in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, and are exposed to and socialized into cultures of a multileveled polity ranging from the school to the local, national, and even global levels.

► Chinese school leaders prefer Chinese and Western leadership values and practices. ► Local development levels affect their leadership concerns and preferences. ► They are subject to the ongoing influences of China's national cultures. ► They are increasingly exposed to other leadership traditions in the world. ► School leadership is ongoing cultural construct and practice in a multileveled world.