1st Edition
Educational Leadership and Asian Culture Culturally Sensitive Leadership Practice
Providing a window on educational leadership from an Asian cultural perspective, Liu and Thien’s edited collection describes how educational leadership is linked with national culture in the context of different Asian countries.
While much of the scholarship on this topic has been built on Western paradigms, this book examines the measurement of school leadership from a diverse lens by taking cultural context into account while examining educational leadership. Drawing on cross-cultural perspectives, the authors investigate the relationship between leadership for learning and societal culture, in addition to the relationship between leadership style and culture. The text provides a theoretical basis for understanding leadership in the context of Asian countries, and offers practical suggestions for identifying effective, and culturally sensitive leadership practices in similar cultural contexts.
An excellent resource for graduate students, researchers in comparative education, educational practitioners looking to improve their education practices, and anyone interested in cultural leadership practices.
1. Benevolent Leadership in Chinese Turnaround Schools: A Confucius Perspective
Peng Liu, Huan Song, and Weiran Wu
2. Understanding The Perceptions of Malaysian Chinese School Heads on Their Instructional Leadership Roles: A Cultural Lens
Lei Mee Thien, Siaw Hui Kho, and Chee Seng Tan
3. Understanding the Roles of Taoist Leadership in Transforming Chinese Higher Education Institutions
Xiaofei Chen, Song Liu, and Xiang Wang
4. Conceptions of Effective Leadership: A Contextually Grounded Perspective of Omani School Principals
Waheed Hammad, Yara Yasser Hilal, and Khalsa Al-Harthi
5. Understanding School Leadership Practices in the Maldives: The Perspectives of Societal Culture
Ahmed Mohamed and Aminath Shafiya Adam
6. Instructional Leadership Practices in Primary Schools: A Malaysian Indian Culture Perspective
Donnie Adams and Ravadhi Periasamy
7.The Introduction of New Public Management into School Leadership in Japan: Implications for Japanese Paternalistic Culture
Masaaki Katsuno
8. Connecting Culture and Social-Emotional Competencies: School Leaders in Azerbaijan
Elmina Kazimzade, Cathryn Magno, and Azin Mirzaei
9. School Leadership and Indonesian Culture: Revealing the Local Knowledge Development in Post-New Order Indonesia
Bambang Sumintono, Hasan Hariri, and Erika Setyanti Kusumaputri
10. Understanding Singaporean Educational Leadership: A Sociocultural Perspective
Cheng Yong Tan
11. "Are We Really that Different?": Rasch Investigation of Cultural Work Values of School Leaders, Middle Managers, and Teachers in Singapore
Jonathan Wee Pin Goh, Simon Qing Wei Lim, and Salleh Hairon
12. Conclusion
Peng Liu and Lei Mee Thien
Biography
Dr. Peng Liu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, Canada. His research interests include indigenous leadership cross cultures, effective leadership, higher education leadership, educational change, educational policy, principal/teacher professional development, and international and comparative education. He serves as an associate editor for International Journal of Comparative Education and Development.
Dr. Lei Mee Thien is an Associate Professor in School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her areas of expertise are educational management and leadership, and school effectiveness research. She is an Associate Editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education.
The field of school leadership is in the early stages of understanding how school leaders’ values and behaviors are shaped by their cultural contexts. With over 60% of the world’s population residing in Asian countries, this timely book examines school leadership practices that expand our understanding of what transpires in non-Western societies. Examining a variety of indigenous Asian countries influenced by Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic philosophies and traditions, the authors provide empirical evidence and practical illustrations of how these cultural perspectives shape school leaders’ expectations and actions. Readers will be enlightened by the variety of Asian cultures represented, from high-population, ethnically diverse countries to much smaller, homogeneous societies.
Bruce Barnett, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at San Antonio
The field of educational leadership has been dominated by Western and especially Anglo-centric perspectives. But leadership operates in different and overlapping ways in the East compared to the West. This important book introduces readers to the unique contribution of Asian perspectives in educational leadership and leadership in general that don't merely complement Western ones, but also challenge them in important ways. This is a book that will open minds in a way that is essential in an increasingly diverse world of global dimensions in education.
Andy Hargreaves, Professor, Boston College (USA), University of Ottawa (Canada)
The literature on school leadership has long been dominated by perspectives developed in the Western world, so this new book brings both challenges and complementary insights from a rich and diverse set of Asian cultural and spiritual values. Twenty-seven authors from eight Asian countries elaborate on approaches to leadership rooted in philosophical and religious traditions that include Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Islam among others, thus broadening and enriching the literature as well as demonstrating a genius for harmony that is deeply Asian. The book will appeal to educational practitioners, researchers and a wider public.
Ruth Hayhoe, Professor, University of Toronto
