Mapping the terrain: A literature review on school middle leadership in Mainland China

This article comprises a review of the literature on school middle leadership published in mainland China from 1995–2021. It pioneers building a knowledge base and provides ‘a topographical map of the terrain’ for China to fill a gap in the school middle leadership literature. The studies are reviewed in terms of their focus, conceptual and methodological development, and findings. Of the studies included in the review, the non-empirical ones are mostly description and commentary. The descriptive studies highlight the roles and practices of middle leaders, provide summaries of successful middle leadership practices, and present conclusions about core strategies for middle leadership development. The commentaries are discussions of the requisite competencies for successful school middle leaders, the challenges they face, and strategies for enhancing their leadership. The studies reviewed reflect the limited output of empirical research and a paucity of theoretical orientation regarding school middle leadership in China. The three key themes that emerge from the empirical studies are as follows: middle leaders’ roles and practices, factors influencing middle leadership, and middle leaders’ development. This analysis emphasizes academics’ calls for more sophisticated empirical studies and theoretical analysis to develop middle leadership models in schools in non-Western contexts. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.