Challenges and research agenda of school leadership in Taiwan

Throughout the world, rapid political and economic change has applied enormous pressure on educators addressing leadership and accountability measures to improve instructional practices and student performance. Decentralisation of central authority regarding school site-based decision-making has drastically changed the educational environment in which the duties of school administration have become much more demanding. This paper, in reviewing reform initiatives and school leadership research in Taiwan, introduces first the background of Taiwanese educational reform, then discusses the challenges and dilemmas that school leaders typically face. New leadership practices, such as instructional leadership and teacher leadership, are developed to respond to the needs of educational reform. Finally, this paper analyses the literature of school leadership research in Taiwan, having discovered that quantitative methods have predominated; in addition, a gap exists between leadership practices and academic studies. This paper, therefore, suggests future themes and multiple uses of methodologies in the education field to contribute to academic practices worldwide.