Interactions between principals and teacher leaders in the context of Chinese curriculum reform: a micropolitical perspective

This paper draws from a larger exploratory qualitative study that investigated the perceptions of principals and teacher leaders regarding their interactions in Chinese urban primary schools during contemporary curriculum reform. Insights from micropolitics, notably two core constructs of cooperation and conflict, were utilised to examine the interactions of participants. The research found that principals and teacher leaders employed exchange and facilitation as two strategies during cooperative processes; and they adopted enforcement and compromise in conflictive processes. Eight new sub-dimensions under the four strategies emerged from the interview accounts. Findings indicate that most principals were exercising their power ‘through’ their teacher leaders who in turn were working in alignment with their principals to achieve the desired outcomes in schools. Principals in some circumstances used power ‘over’ as a traditional approach, while power ‘with’ was not apparent in participants’ comments. The paper contends that traditional Chinese cultural attitudes towards education, as shaped through Confucianism, were also discernible in framing the nature of some of the interactions between principals and teacher leaders.