A Case Study On The Moral Leadership Of Principals In The Primary And Secondary Schools

Internationally there is a consensus of attaching importance to education,pursuing equal and high quality education for each child.The Chinese government has been committed to education reform to promote the development of national education.Since the 18 th CPC National Congress conference,in its national strategic development framework the Chinese government has highlighted the importance of education to promote the people's happiness and prosperity of the nation,and moral education has been put forwarded clearly as the key points to improve the quality of education in China.Since the reform and opening up,China's primary and secondary education has made remarkable achievements,but there are still many practical problems in the face of the new educational situation.In terms of the educational leadership,the primary and secondary school principals tend to adapt instrumental rationality and technical rationality,paying attention to the pursuit of the efficiency of the development of the school and ignoring the true nature of school education.Currently the school principals in primary and secondary schools should reflect their leadership and develop moral leadership to provide better education for all the children.As a new theoretical perspective,moral leadership has been widely discussed internationally since 1990 s.In China,researchers have also conducted some discussion and research in this field.However most of the relevant literature on moral leadership in China tend to proscribe what the school principals should do in terms of moral leadership.There is a lack of deepunderstanding of how the school principals develop their moral leadership in current China's society.It is therefore important to conduct field study to explore the moral leadership of school principals and its role in promoting better education for all the children.This qualitative study explores the development of moral leadership of two school principals in Shandong Province.Semi-structured interview,observation,and document analysis are employed to collect data.Three research questions are specifically explored:(1)How did the principal in primary and secondary school perceive their moral leadership?(2)How did the principal in primary and secondary school develop their moral leadership in reality?(3)What were the factors that affect the development of the principal ' s moral leadership in primary and secondary school? NVivo8 software is used to assist with data analysis.The following categories are built to interpret the data: the professional experience and the school development,the perception of moral leadership,individual moral capability,moral leadership practices.In terms of the moral leadership development of A Principal,this study finds:(1)he did not agree with the exertion of moral leadership in primary and secondary schools,however his leadership practices represented some aspects of moral leadership such as ethic of caring;(2)his personal moral values,capability integrated with his moral leadership practice,namely,his professional socialization process contributed to his moral values and capability,and he practiced his moral values and capability in the pursuit of collaborative learning program in his school.His moral leadership development was a silent professional journey.In terms of the moral leadership development of B Principal,this study finds:(1)she perceive moral leadership as a value-ladened leadership and her moral leadership practices based on her strong commitment to education;(2)her professional experience had contributed to her moral value and capability,and she practiced her moral leadership through her vision to build a school full of caring and love,and through the “Respecting Life”curriculum development in her school.This study concludes that(1)the leadership practices of the two school principals represents the aspects of moral leadership although they seldom realized this term;(2)their professional socialization contributes their moral value and they practice their moral leadership through their moral authority;(3)their personal moral values,thegood organizational climate,and the external environment emphasizing social morality contribute the development of moral leadership of the two school principals.The development of moral leadership of the two school principals demonstrates the practice of “morality cannot be realized through empty talk ”.It is expected that the findings of this study could enrich the understanding of moral leadership of school principals in current Chinese society and the reflection of school principals to better develop their leadership so as to create better education for all the children.It is also expected the policy makers can get some insights to develop relating policy documents to ensure the development of moral leadership of school principals in China.