Investigating leadership in formal school clusters: The case of Education Collectives in China

Abstract

This thesis reports on a qualitative study of school leadership in formal school clusters. I anchored my research in Education Collectives (ECs), which is a Chinese instantiation of a ‘multi-school’ (Courtney, 2015b) collaborative organisational model. In order to investigate and conceptualise its governance structure and leadership model, I conducted empirical research based on six ECs in China, engaging with five Executive Principals of ECs and twelve Principals of constituent schools in ECs. Informed methodologically by critical education leadership and policy scholarship, I generated data from semi-structured interviews and documentary data from primary and secondary sources over nine months. This project maps the primary and secondary educational terrain and unpacks the complexity of school-to-school collaboration in the Chinese context. The findings are reported in three journal articles and one book chapter. The first output, Policy borrowing or convergent evolution? Illuminating Education Collectives in China as a new iteration of school-to-school collaboration, applies the concept of convergent evolution to elucidate how China’s ECs emerged and how they differ from MATs, Community schools and Charter schools. The second output, Typologising formal school-to-school collaborations—education collectives—in China through the metaphor of Chinese landscape painting, typologises ECs to illuminate how school-to-school collaboration and education collectivisation have been promoted and operationalised in China. I deploy the metaphor of traditional Chinese landscape painting as a methodological tool, to conceptualise ECs from three perspectives: power relations, legal status, and external institutional engagement. The third output, How do Education Collectives in China function? A critical analysis of relational governance in a formal multi-school collaboration, explores the relationships between governance structures that make education work. The article intertwines relational governance with Confucian Virtue, Authority, and Collectivism, offering a comprehensive understanding of relational governance within formal school partnerships in China. The fourth output, A critical analysis of Executive Principal Leadership in China’s formal multi-school collaboration, employs and develops Foucault’s pastor power to conceptualise the role of the Executive Principal, and explores how the Executive Principal practises leadership in formal school partnerships in China. I conclude with a critical synthesis of the findings from the four outputs, in order to address my research questions; a summary of the contributions to knowledge; and recommendations for policy makers, professionals working in schools, and the research community. Collectively, this thesis contributes to a growing body of empirical and conceptual research on education collectivisation that lags behind its wider practice. It takes step to decolonise educational leadership theory, emphasising the deployment of distinctively Chinese theory and dialogue with China’s broader educational structures and ideologies, thus retaining its rich uniqueness. It also provides a Chinese case for the widespread global popularity of school-to-school partnership and network, and brings a new perspective to the field.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Paul Armstrong (Supervisor) & Steven Courtney (Supervisor)