Chinese educational leaders' conceptions of learning and leadership: An interpretative study in an international education context

This book presents an interpretative study of an Australian leadership development program conducted in China. The study explored the conceptions of learning and leadership brought by a group of Chinese educational leaders to the course and investigated the perceived influence of the course upon their conceptions. It was a pre- and post- comparison case study inspired by the phenomenographic approach, that employed semi- structured and in-depth interviews of twenty participants over a 12-month period. This study employed a culturally sensitive approach which recognises that a complex interaction between Chinese and Western cultures is occurring in the participants. Comparison of their conceptions prior to and after the course indicated an expanded range of, and more complex conceptions. This study makes a contribution to understanding Chinese educational leaders' conceptions of learning and leadership in an international education context. Educationalists, educational leadership researchers and policy makers who read this will have a better understanding of Chinese educators' responses to the new demands of internationalisation.