Understanding teacher leadership identity: the perspectives of Chinese high school teachers

ABSTRACT

The literature has shown that teacher leaders’ self-identity is a crucial aspect of teacher leadership development. However, less is known about the factors that influence the development of teacher leadership identity in the Chinese education context. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 23 secondary school teachers and administrators, this study aimed to answer two questions: What are the factors influencing teacher leadership identity development, and how do these factors influence teacher leadership identity development in the Chinese education context? Research identifies diverse factors that can influence teacher leadership identity. The personal factors comprised a sense of responsibility, the teachers’ personality, personal working experience, beliefs about leadership capacity. The organizational-level factors included the relationship among organization members, the role of principals, the formal selection mechanism for teacher leaders, personal working capacity, time, and energy, opportunities for the emergence of leadership, the nature of teachers’ work, and the atmosphere of the school. At the societal level, national cultural values also influenced teacher leadership identity. This article provides practical experience of developing teacher leadership identity in the Chinese context and tries to supply the cross-culture understanding of education administration from the perspective of improving teacher leadership identity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peng Liu

Dr. Peng Liu is working at the Faculty of Education of University of Manitoba. His research interests include Indigenous leadership cross cultures, effective leadership, higher education leadership, educational change, educational policy, teacher professional development, and international and comparative education.

Qi Xiu

Ms. Qi Xiu is a Ph.D. student from the Faculty of Education at the East China Normal University. Her research interest focuses on large-scale education reform, teacher leadership, principal leadership, educational improvement, and education and culture studies in China.

Lifang Tang

Lifang Tang is working as the Deputy Head of Faculty of Education at Northeast Normal University in China.

Yujiao Zhang

Ms. Yujiao Zhang is a graduate student at Northeast Normal University in China.