My scholarship
Areas: educational leadership, education policy and the changing Chinese societies
Key concepts: context sensitive leadership, social justice, role of the state, institution and organization, boundary and field, temporality, education marketization, cultural capital and symbolic capital
Methodological perspectives: qualitative methods, survey experiments, case studies, cross-disciplinary theorisation,
My academic voice
I am an educational researcher with wider social science interests who seeks to decipher and theorize patterns and mechanisms shaping Chinese education in the changing society from macro and meso levels of policy and leadership. With empirical enquiry and theoretical building, I explore to develop alternative scholarly perspectives helping break down stereotypes, challenge misunderstandings, and interrogate oversimplifications in comparing China and Western contexts.
My belief in education
Education is power, freedom and recognition.
'If Sisyphus were a scholar, his field would be education.' (Labaree, 2004)
My current service
Editorial Board Member, International Journal for Academic Integrity
Research in Educational Administration and Leadership
Ad Hoc reviewer for 5 academic publishers (e.g. Oxford University Press; Springer; Routledge) and more than 20 academic journals (CSSCI+SSCI)
Selected journal publication in English
1. Chen, S.Y. (2015). Boundary objects and boundary brokering to make the research-policy-practice nexus possible: The case of Chinese higher education field. Higher Education Policy, 28(4), 441-457.
2. Chen, S.Y., & Ke, Z. (2014). Why the leadership of change is especially difficult for Chinese principals: A macro-institutional explanation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 27(3), 486-498.
3. Chen, S.Y., & Hu, L.F. (2012). Higher education research as a field in China: Its formation and current landscape. Higher Education Research & Development, 31(5), 655-666.
4. Chen, S.Y. (2012). Contributing knowledge and knowledge worker: The role of Chinese universities in the knowledge economy. London Review of Education, 10(1), 101-112.
Selected journal publication in Chinese
1. Chen, S.Y. & Meng, L.J. (2014). Education policy goal, educational issues and values in media discourse: Discourse analysis of two lists of top-ten China’s education news. Peking University Education Review, 12(4),116-129.
2. Chen, S.Y., Meng, L.J., & Zhang, H.Y. (2014). Education policy evidence in the big data era: The uses of evidence-based policy for modern education governance and scientific educational policy-making in China. Global Education, 43(2), 121-128.
3. Chen, S.Y. (2013). Typology of the interactions between academic logic and bureaucratic logic in Chinese universities. Journal of Higher Education Management, 7(1), 20-32.
4. Chen, S.Y., & Ke, Z. (2012). From personal troubles to public educational issues: Understand students’ academic burden in the real world. Global Education, 41(12), 15-23.
5. Chen, S.Y. (2012). Social micro-foundation and constructed reality of modern Chinese university institution: From a temporal perspective. Journal of Higher Education Management, 6(4), 26-30.
6. Chen, S.Y., & Lo, N.K.L. (2006). Forms of organized knowledge in universities: Four analytical perspectives of academic programs in Chinese universities. Peking University Education Review, 4(4), 18-28.
Selected book chapters in English
1. Chen, S.Y. (2016). Organizing teaching in Chinese Universities. In L. Leisyte & U. Wilkesmann (eds.), Organizing academic work in higher education (pp.132-148). Abingdon: Routledge.
2. Chen, S.Y., & Macfarlane, B. (2016). Academic integrity in China. In T. Bretag (ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp.99-105). London: Springer.
3. Chen, S.Y., & Lo, L.N.K. (2012). The trajectory and future of the idea of the university in China. In R. Barnett (ed.), The future university: Ideas and possibilities (pp.50-58). London: Routledge.
Current research projects
1.Curriculum strategy for innovation in the global cosmopolitan cities
2.Education policy response and public opinion of education
3.Curriculum leadership for social justice