Developing Transformative Leadership for Building Professional Learning Communities in China

Though China’s educational system has gone through a number of reforms, the concept and practice of PLCs have not been paid enough attention. Therefore, teachers still regard educational reform as a mandated change, which gives rise to many problems, such as negative emotions, superficial implementation, and contrived collegiality. This article will present the importance of founding a successful PLC in educational change with the help of leadership theory. By comparing transformative leadership with transactional, transformational leadership, this paper will demonstrate what differences transformative leadership can make in changing teacher identity, emotion and professionalism as well as in preparing teachers for social justice.