The Reform of School Leadership and Management in “New Basic Education"

The project “New Basic Education”, led by Prof. Ye Lan, is a collaborative study between university researchers and school teachers in elementary and middle schools of China, which aims to bring about school transitional change in contemporary Chinese basic education. With a focus on free basic education, the project staff has conducted practical research at elementary and middle schools for 15 years. The project can be divided into 3 stages: Exploratory (1994-1999), Developmental (1999-2004) and Shape-taking (2004-2009).  Research areas cover several aspects of basic education, which include teaching and learning reforms, student study and class team construction, teacher development, school leadership and management reforms etc.

This lecture will place emphasis on the reform of school leadership and management, making clear its theory, practice and achievements.  The theory includes the project’s ideas on basic characteristics of new schools, the goal of reform and renewal of concepts.  Regarding practice, the lecture will focus on the project’s effort on drawing up school development schemes, building “hardware” and developing “software”, etc.

(For details, please read Prof. Ye Lan’s work On “New Basic Education” – Exploration and Cognition on Contemporary Chinese School Reform, BJ: Education Science Press, 2006.)