Journal of East China Normal University(Educational Sciences) ›› 2024, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 92-108.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2024.02.007

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Why the Principal Positive Leadership is Important: The Mediating Effect of Principal Positive Leadership on School Context and Student Achievement

Ru Cai1, Xinping zhang1, Jijun Yao1, Shike Zhou2   

  1. 1. School of Educational Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China
    2. Jiangsu Institute of Education Sciences, Nanjing 210013, China
  • Online:2024-02-01 Published:2024-01-17

Abstract:

Education governance under the “deficit remediation” has caused many problems in school education, while the principal positive leadership under the “advantage development” paradigm helps to shape the new momentum of school development. However, there are few studies on the effectiveness of principal positive leadership, and have not been systematically studied in the pre-dependent variable of school contexts. Therefore, this study used provincial large-scale survey data to construct a structural equation model and explore the influence of school contexts and principal positive leadership on student achievement. The findings showed that school contexts have significant positive influences on principal positive leadership. Besides, principal positive leadership, as a structural latent variable, has a significant positive impact on student achievement. In addition, the principal positive leadership has significant mediating effects when considering the influence from school contexts to the student achievement. Finally, the influence mechanism of positive leadership varies according to types of school autonomy. Therefore, it is argued that educational administrative departments and principals should recognize and pay attention to the important role of principal positive leadership in school improvement, enhance the principal’s contextual intelligence, build a “home-school collaborative education” support system, and ensure the school’s self-management space.

Key words: principal positive leadership, school contexts, student achievement, mediating effect