A Research On The Cultural Leadership Of Urban Middle School Principals

School culture is the key factor to promote the connotative development of a school.As the soul of a school,the principal should not only have certain management ability,curriculum leadership,teaching leadership and other special abilities,but also command the cultural leadership of those abilities.The strength of the principal's cultural leadership has a great impact on the comprehensive and long-term development of the school.With the increasing complexity of educational environments and the deepening of educational reforms,the country,families and the society are setting higher and higher requirements for the cultivation of talents in middle schools.Accordingly,the new modern school needs to carry on the overall design from the strategic goal,the value idea,the cultural construction and so on,in order to enhance the cohesion,creativity and vitality of the school,and to promote the mutual development of the school,teachers and students.All of these require the leadership of the principal's cultural leadership.Therefore,the study of principal's cultural leadership also needs to be deepened.The cultural leadership of principals in this study refers to the ability of principals to guide and to influence the overall development of schools,such as the school cultural construction,education,teaching and management.It takes value leadership as the core and the construction of positive cultural community as the goal which aims to nurture the spiritual character of teachers and students and to cast the spiritual connotation of the school.This study divides the principal's cultural leadership into five dimensions of cultural cognitive leadership,cultural choice leadership,cultural communication leadership,cultural innovation leadership and cultural evaluation leadership.As a result,this study focuses on the culturalleadership of principals in Xi ' an middle schools and makes an exploratory empirical study on the characteristics of the cultural leadership of urban middle school principals by using the method of literature analysis,questionnaire survey and in-depth interview,in order to make an exploratory empirical study on the present situation of the cultural leadership of the principals in urban middle schools.Meanwhile,the following characteristics of culture leadership of principals from five dimensions are found :Firstly,in the aspect of cultural cognitive leadership,the principals of urban middle schools have a certain understanding of the school culture,and the principals attach great importance to the construction of school culture,and show a positive attitude towards improving their own cultural leadership.Secondly,in the aspect of the cultural choice leadership,the principals of urban middle schools agree with the positive school culture which is based on the life-long development of teachers and students,and pursues the long-term,healthy and happy life of teachers and students.In terms of cultural communication leadership,principals are flexible and diverse in the dissemination of school culture.Many principals are aware of the infiltrating role of school culture by designing the featured activities and theme activities around their school culture.Fourthly,in terms of cultural innovation leadership,middle school principals have their own understanding of the cultural innovation.Most principals also have a sense of cultural innovation and take the initiative to learn.Some thoughtful headmasters also have a unique innovative thought which can constantly expand the new system of school culture,establish a unique relationship between all kinds of ideas,and stimulate the creativity of teachers,students and staff.Finally,in the aspect of cultural evaluation leadership,most urban middle school principals are able to evaluate the cultural situation of their own schools accurately.By finding out the shortcomings and problems of the cultural leadership of urban middle school principals in five dimensions,this paper puts forward five strategies and suggestions for developing the cultural leadership of urban middle school principals: improve from both inside and outside,enhance the level of cultural cognition,strengthen the ability of cultural choice,spread the school cultureeffectively to exploit school's advantages to the full,promote the innovation of school culture to keep pace with the time,carry out the cultural evaluation effectively to obtain a systematic layout.The innovation of this research is mainly reflected in three aspects.First of all,the cultural leadership is divided into five dimensions,namely,cultural cognitive leadership,cultural choice leadership,cultural communication leadership,cultural innovation leadership and cultural evaluation leadership,which expands the theory of the cultural leadership.Secondly,it makes an empirical study on the principal's cultural leadership in urban middle schools by compiling Questionnaire on the Cultural Leadership of City Middle School Principals and The Interview Outline on the Cultural Leadership of City Middle School Principals.As a result,it will provide some references for the research on the cultural leadership of school principals.Finally,it summarizes the characteristics of the cultural leadership of the city middle school principals and puts forward the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions according to the conclusion of the research.It is hopeful that this research will make useful attempts to deepen this kind of researches.