Transforming turnaround schools in China: a review

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the literature on how Chinese turnaround schools are improved in practice. It starts by defining turnaround schools in the Chinese context, and then discusses the essential reasons why such schools exist. Approaches to improving turnaround schools, successful experiences of transforming turnaround schools, and the challenges that Chinese education administrators face are also explored. This article supplies a number of insights into interventions at the governmental level related to school internal management, principal appointment, student development, teacher professional development, and educational finance. Finally, the implications for transforming Chinese turnaround schools in the future are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Turnaround school
• review
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research at the University of Hong Kong (201601159019).

Notes on contributors

Peng Liu

Dr. Peng Liu is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Policy, Administration and Social Science of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on effective leadership, educational change, education policy analysis, teacher emotions, and China studies in education and culture.