Teacher Leadership and Teaming: Creativity within Schools in China

Abstract

Preparing today’s children and youth to becomeactive, responsive adults in transforming global societies requires thatschools change dramatically. To work towards this goal is daunting in light ofeducational policies and school structures that hinder teamwork and creativity.Despite challenges due to education policies, traditional school structures,and teacher-culture expectations, teacher leadership and teamwork havenonetheless emerged in many countries. This article reports interesting andeven surprising preliminary findings about education in China gathered throughonsite school observations and interviews with teachers and principals. Thepopular belief that Chinese education is uniformly creatively impoverished andthat schools are nothing but robotic learning environments are dispelled.