LEADERSHIP FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES IN CHINESE SCHOOLS

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLCs) connect teacher development, instructional improvement and school‑level reform. Chinese schools have long‑established teaching‑research groups, collective lesson‑preparation and lesson‑observation routines that provide solid organisational foundations for teacher collaboration. Nevertheless, scheduled collaborative activities often become formal compliance tasks rather than authentic professional inquiry, constrained by administrative requirements, status hierarchies and superficial documentation‑driven work. This conceptual article examines how multi‑level leadership can transform existing collaborative structures into sustainable PLCs within the Chinese educational context. Drawing upon educational administration scholarship, national policy and recent empirical studies in mainland China, this paper develops the LEARN‑C Framework, consisting of six interdependent leadership dimensions: Learning‑centered purpose, Enabling structures and equitable access, Agency and shared leadership, Relational trust and reflective dialogue, Networked knowledge and digital collaboration, and Continuous evidence‑informed improvement. The framework is operationalised via a five‑stage administrative cycle: diagnose, co‑design, enact, examine, and institutionalise. PLCs should be treated as core instructional infrastructure instead of short‑term professional‑development projects. Their quality ought to be assessed by deep professional learning, instructional change, equitable participation and student well‑being, rather than meeting counts or administrative paperwork. This leadership approach preserves the strengths of China’s collective teacher‑professional traditions while fostering reflective inquiry, teacher agency and context‑responsive educational innovation.