Curriculum leadership and the enhancement of teacher education programs: A case study in a Mainland Chinese normal university

Purpose: Teacher education programmes are critical in developing pre-service teachers' competencies during the apprenticeship phase (Lim et al., 2010), whereas there is evidence indicating that teacher education programmes depend on curriculum leadership (Robinson et al., 2008). The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which curriculum leaders enact their curriculum leadership to enhance teacher education programmes in a context of a normal university in Mainland China.
Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, three groups of curriculum leaders, from university, faculty and classroom level, respectively, are interviewed.
Findings: This study highlights the significance of curriculum leadership in teacher education programmes enhancement in China, particularly the significant impacts from curriculum leaders' involvement on the programme processes of planning, implementation and evaluation.
Research limitations/implications: Implications for research include a conceptualization of curriculum leadership in teacher education and pre-service teachers' training in China, and a theoretical integration of curriculum leadership and the enhancement of teacher education programmes.
Originality/value: Implications for practice regard to restructuring curriculum leadership system and informing curriculum leadership practices, not only in Asian countries, but might be able to shed light on the curriculum leadership development in a range of educational contexts either similar to or different from that of Mainland China. This study thus would contribute to several areas of research. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited.