ABSTRACT
Empirical studies on school leadership models began to appear in Chinese academic journals at about 2001 and it remains an emergent field of study. Among the most studied leadership models is transformational leadership. This chapter focuses on transformational leadership in schools in Mainland China. We first examine the status of empirical inquiry into transformational school leadership in China and then discuss why Chinese transformational school leadership (CTSL) exists contextualized in Chinese culture. Previous studies on the influence of Confucianism on education are more related to teaching and learning and much less is inquired as it relates to school leadership. In this chapter, we trace the roots of Chinese transformational leadership back to Confucian idea of transformation. From this perspective, we explored what indigenous CTSL should look like in contemporary China and how it can be adapted to meet the demands of a rapidly developing educational system in the midst of current ideological policies and Modernization. Implications for fostering such school leadership practices in Mainland China, the adding of indigenous CTSL to current theory development of transformational leadership in the West, and gathering further understanding of its cross cultural effects are discussed.
