Because of the complexity of the phenomenon being studied, a qualitative methodology was adopted for the study. The research was anchored in the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism. Interviews formed the chief data collection method. Eleven secondary school principals from Shanghai were selected through a form of purposive sampling. The study aimed to derive categories, typologies and theoretical models from the data to help explain the realities of the Chinese principalship. / Further interpretation across the major categories and initial typology exposed a set of tensions which captured some of the basic dynamics of the principalship in China. A dominant subtext across these tensions was the multiple accountabilities confronting the principals. The study found that the principals placed unquestionable emphasis on upward accountability. Among the various stakeholders, superiors and the higher level government departments and officials were regarded as the most important audience. Finally a set of five propositions was proposed as a way to capture succinctly the major features of the role of the principalship in China. / The context within which the research was conducted was one full of uncertainty and constant change. As a result of systemic and sustained reform efforts to restructure education, principals are caught between the often contradictory forces generated by educational imperatives, market forces, political hegemony and managerial complexity. It would be naive to believe that Mainland China is immune to the universalising tendency of educational reform. However, without careful study we are unsure whether Chinese principals are faced with similar dilemmas, paradoxes, and difficulties as their Western counterparts. There is thus a need to conduct more contextually sensitive research to unveil the intricacies of the role played by Chinese principals in the change context and to delve into the meanings they attach to their work. / The research findings were integrated into a framework comprised of three major categories, namely, stage, unwritten libretto and performance. The school constituted the most important stage that enabled and constrained their principalship. School status was found to be the most important influence in that it framed the role set within which each principal was situated. Despite the influence exerted by each principal's immediate context, a number of commoalities were identified when the eleven cases were pulled together. These common issues, defined as unwritten libretto in the study, included maintaining guanxi with the government, ensuring internal harmony within the organisation and the need to win resources. The knowledge of these rules was found to be indispensible to a principal in China and formed the instinctive grounds upon which they based their actions. Influenced by both the stage---where they were, and the unwritten libretto---their knowledge about how to be a principal in China, principal performance varied. An initial typology was constructed comprised of four types of principals. These types were Leading Actors, Supporting Actors, Opportunists and Marginal Actors. / The research has implications for the knowledge base of school principalship. It stretches this base beyond its current near-exclusive grounding in Western theory and provides some empirical understandings about the principalship in China. The development of a list of propositions also serves as a starting point to explicate the meanings of 'leadership' in the context of Chinese schools. The research findings also have substantial implications for principal development in China. Some suggestions are provided for program providers that may help to make the development programs more effective. / This study investigates how Chinese school principals perceive and enact their roles. Given that there is a conceptual crevice in our understanding of the Chinese principalship, the study intends to add a much needed dimension to the Anglo-American dominant leadership discourse. / Qian, Haiyan. / Adviser: Allan Walker. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-01, Section: A, page: 0045. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-258). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_344388 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Contributors | Qian, Haiyan, Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Education. |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, theses |
| Format | electronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (xi, 258 leaves : ill.) |
| Coverage | China, Shanghai, China, Shanghai |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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