ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors review empirical literature written in Chinese between 1998 and 2016. There is a striking difference between the number of empirical and non-empirical papers – the latter far outweighs the former and the difference would be even greater if dissertations were excluded from the empirical corpus. The authors aim to review empirical papers, providing insights into the stage and status of thinking about principalship in China. As in the non-empirical work, the changes over time seemed to reflect greater contextual awareness, broader knowledge of international research, improved local research capacity and years of interacting with multiple educational reforms. The research suggests that principal leadership in China is influenced by multilevel contextual factors. These variables work together to affect principal leadership and shape school outcomes. Much of the empirical work explicitly used Western leadership frameworks and imported instruments and research designs.
