A Research on the Interaction between Teacher Leadership & Teacher learning in School in NCR in Mainland China: A Case Study on Two Primary Schools in Beijing.

摘要

Since 2001, the 8th curriculum reform in mainland China has proposed various role expectations for teachers. All these requirements expect teachers to be leaders, so as to improve curriculum implementation, promote students' development, and enhance education quality. To fulfill these expectations, teachers, in the first place, should be leaders of their own learning to transform education.;This research takes the interaction between teacher leadership & teacher learning as the foci. By employing qualitative research method, the research demonstrates and discusses about how teacher leadership and teacher learning in two primary schools (S&Q) in Beijing interact with each other in school. The data collection method mainly based on interview and document analysis. Totally, 43 teachers, middle managers, and principals have been interviewed.;The research found, first of all, the goal of teacher learning come from superior authorities, which only left limited space for both teacher learning and teacher leadership at school. The school teacher learning was a self-adapting structure which always followed the external goal. In such a structure, teacher leadership were also limited.;Secondly, subject group was an important learning situation for teachers. It played mediating role between the learning demand from the external authorities and from teachers themselves.;Thirdly, the bureaucratic structure and bureaucratic learning culture was the main factor limiting both teacher leadership and teacher learning. Teacher leadership showed the ability to rebuild micro learning situation and learning rules within certain subject group. If teachers could negotiate reciprocal goal through equal collaboration and mutual engagement within the subject group, teacher leadership would demonstrate positive power.;With CHAT as the conceptual framework, this research provided an indigenous interpretation of CHAT based on empirical cases, thus enriched understanding of teacher learning and teacher leadership in Chinese context. Our study found, the overwhelming bureaucratic structure and learning culture in school S&Q, influenced the interaction between teacher learning & teacher leadership, through division of labor and rule in subject group. The traditional subject group culture as "lao dai xin" (in which senior teachers direct novice teachers), the rigid institutional role placement, examination, etc., played together and limited teachers resorting to leadership. If a few teachers could grasp the changing opportunities, they might work out a mutual engaged, fluid leadership capacity, through mutual engagement, equal collaboration, and negotiating reciprocal learning goal within the group. This would help to transform the learning situation within the subject group, and to foster a positive interaction between teacher leadership & teacher learning. During the interaction, middle manager, such as teaching director (jiao xue zhu ren), played an important mediating role; how activity subject negotiate the reciprocal learning object was the foci in the process of activity structure formation and activity development; teacher's intention to cooperate with others, official position or designation as leader, collaborative culture in subject group, and school support were all important factors influencing teachers' Zone of Proximal Development.;Key Words: teacher leadership, teacher learning, leadership for learning, subject group, backbone teachers.