Abstract
School governance is a topic of general interest worldwide in educational research, and in recent years, it has also drawn widespread attention in China. In order to examine the problems faced in the process of promoting the modernization of school governance at Chinese primary and secondary schools, we conducted interviews with different stakeholders such as experts, principals, teachers, and parents, and as a result, we found that the problems currently in urgent need of attention are concentratively reflected in the areas of pluralistic co-governance and accountability, specifically including: A low degree of and few channels for teachers’ participation in school governance; shallowing and superficializing of parents’ participation in school governance; no establishment of checks and balances and accountability mechanisms in the internal operation of power. The causes producing the problems are complex and multifarious, including both causes in the area of social psychology and causes in the area of school leadership styles. Recommendations addressing the problems and their causes are provided at the end of the paper.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Decheng Zhao
Decheng Zhao is a Professor at the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University.
Yao Zhou
Yao Zhou is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University.
Meng Wang
Meng Wang is a postgraduate student at the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University.