https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-4029
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical discussion on teacher leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Chinese contexts. Since 2010, the Chinese government has initiated a comprehensive education reform in ECE, with strategies for developing teacher leadership and promoting education quality. However, at the school level there is a lack of leadership preparation and development, along with a gap between policy initiative and its implementation. How to narrow this gap between policy and practice in teacher leadership has become a critical issue for ECE in China. This paper suggests that ‘formal role or informal role’ and ‘role or practice’ are important dimensions of teacher leadership in a Chinese, policy-driven context. In this regard, it is worth exploring how teacher leadership is conceptualized and enacted in the process of quality improvement and related contextual factors. In doing so, an agenda could be identified for future research, contributing to theories on the development of teacher leadership in the global discourse.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Mo Wang
Mo Wang has finished his PhD degree in Early Childhood Education from The Education University of Hong Kong on August 2018. His research interests include educational leadership, education policy, and early childhood education.
Dora Ho
Dora Ho is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include educational leadership, education policy, curriculum and pedagogy, male participation and early childhood education. Many of her research projects are concerned with the role of leadership in leading school-level change. She has written extensively on issues of educational leadership, curriculum change, education policy, male participation, and teacher development. She has published book chapters, articles in leading international, peer-reviewed journals.