Empirical Research on Leadership Capacity of Secondary Vocational Teachers in Yunnan Province of China

Abstract

Teacher leadership continues to be a growing educational reform initiative across the world. With the rapid development of Chinese language education, the role of teacher leadership in education reform is becoming more and more prominent. Based on the survey data of 104 teachers in a secondary vocational school in Yuxi City, this study investigated the level of teacher leadership capacity and discussed their promotion strategies. Based on Lambert’s (2003a) theory of teacher leadership capacity, the author developed a research questionnaire that including four structures of teacher leadership capacity, which focus on the vision, reflection and innovation, shared governance, supervision, and response to student achievement. This study adopted the five-likert point scale. Data analysis shows that the average scores of 17 items does not exceed 4.00 points, while the highest and lowest score are from “focus on the vision.” To improve the teacher leadership capacity, the study suggests that leaders should concentrate on the school’s vision as well as establish collaborative culture and atmosphere among teachers.