Why Principal Positive Leadership Is Important: It’s Mediating Effect on the Relation between the School Context and Student Academic Achievement Ru Cai, 1 Xinping Zhang, 1 Jijun Yao, 1 Shike Zhou 2 1. Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China 2. Jiangsu Institute of Education Sciences, Nanjing 210013, China Abstract: “Deficit remediation” as an educational governance paradigm has given rise to many problems, whereas principal positive leadership under the “strengths development” paradigm has the potential to give new impetus to school development. Based on large-scale survey data within a provincial region, this study investigates how the school context and principal positive leadership impact student academic achievement using structural equation models. Research findings show that principal positive leadership as a structural latent variable has positive impacts on student academic performance and significantly mediates the effects of the school context on student academic results; and that the patterns of the impacts of principal positive leadership differ according to the variations of the school’s autonomy in operation. Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2024; 16(2):1831-1835. Doi: 10.15354/bece.24.ar111 How to Cite: Cai , R., Zhang, X., Yao, J., & Zhou, S. (2024). Why principal positive leadership is important: It’s mediating effect on the relation between the school context and student academic achievement. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 16(2):1831-1835. Keywords: Teacher Support, Migrant Children, Learning Satisfaction, Academic Adjustment, Learning Engagement Cai et al. (Nanjing, China). Principal Positive Leadership and Student Achievements. BECE, Vol.16, No.2, 2024 1832 Correspondence to: Xinping Zhang, School of Educational Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China. E-mail: 403265357@qq.com Conflict of Interests: None. © 2024 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. mailto:403265357@qq.com http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Cai et al. (Nanjing, China). Principal Positive Leadership and Student Achievements. BECE, Vol.16, No. 2, 2024 1833 HE study analyzes the significance of principal positive leadership for school effectiveness in the context of Chinese education and systematically examines the relationships between the school context, principal positive leadership, and student academic achievement. It aims to delve into the roles of principal positive lead- ership to provide evidence and direction for policy making in modernizing school man- agement systems and activating school vitality, as well as valuable insights into how to promote high-quality development of education and student academic progress. Research Hypotheses Hypothesis one (H1): The school context is positively related to student academic per- formance. Sub-hypotheses of H1 include: H1a: The school location is positively related to student academic achievement. H1b: The student family background is positively related to student academic per- formance. H1c: The school’s institutional advantages positively impact student academic achievement. Hypothesis two (H2): The school context is positively related to principal positive lead- ership. Sub-hypotheses of H2 include: H2a: The school location is positively related to principal positive leadership. H2b: The student family background is positively related to principal positive leadership. H2c: The school’s institutional advantages positively affect principal positive leadership. Hypothesis three (H3): Principal positive leadership positively impacts student academ- ic achievement. Hypothesis Four (H4): Principal positive leadership mediates the relation between the school context and student academic performance. Sub-hypotheses of H4 include: H4a: Principal positive leadership mediates the relation between the school loca- tion and student academic results. H4b: Principal positive leadership mediates the relation between the student fami- ly background and student academic performance. H4c: Principal positive leadership mediates the relation between the school’s au- tonomy in operation and student academic achievement. Research Methodology Analytical Models Structural equation models were created to analyze the effects of principal positive leadership on the relation between the school context and student academic perfor- mance and examine its paths. Student academic achievement serves as the dependent variable, used to measure the effectiveness of school leadership. The independent varia- ble is the school context, including the school location, student family background, and school’s autonomy in operation. The intervening variable is principal positive leader- ship, measured by data generated with the principal positive leadership scale. T Cai et al. (Nanjing, China). Principal Positive Leadership and Student Achievements. BECE, Vol.16, No. 2, 2024 1834 Data Sources This study is empirical research based on the data from 2020’s monitoring of academic quality of compulsory education students in Jiangsu Province. The project adopted two- phase stratified random sampling. A total of 1,666 schools were included in the sample with 512 from northern Jiangsu, 311 from central Jiangsu, and 843 from southern Jiang- su; with 1,521 being public schools and 145 private schools; and with 979 being urban schools, 539 township schools, and 148 rural schools. The diversity and distribution of the schools sampled are representative of the overall situation of schools in Jiangsu Province. Measurement Tools The principal positive leadership scale in use is adapted from Cameron’s positive lead- ership scale (Cameron, 2013) in combination of the actual circumstances of Chinese schools. The basic structure of the adaptation remains consistent with that of the origi- nal to include four dimensions: creating a positive atmosphere, developing positive rela- tionships, reaching positive communication, and constructing positive purpose. Items related to principal leadership behavior, such as “principals,” “teachers,” “students,” “schools,” “teacher-student relationships,” and “understanding of the significance of school education for the national development” are added to Cameron’s scale, which was originally developed to measure positive leadership in businesses. Conclusions Research findings show that the school context significantly impacts the effects of prin- cipal positive leadership on student academic achievement. The three forms of school context, namely, the school location, student family background, and school’s autono- my in operation, all potentially affect student academic progress via principal positive leadership. Nevertheless, there are differences in their impacting paths for the relation between principal positive leadership and student academic performance; the school’s autonomy in operation in various forms plays differential roles in the influencing pat- tern. Conclusions can be drawn as follows: (i) Principal positive leadership is a con- struct consisting of high-order factors that pose significantly positive effects on student academic achievement; (ii) The school context is positively related to principal positive leadership; (iii) Principal positive leadership significantly mediates the effect of the school context on student academic performance; (iv) The school’s autonomy in opera- tion in various dimensions impacts principal positive leadership and student academic results via varying paths. Cai et al. (Nanjing, China). Principal Positive Leadership and Student Achievements. BECE, Vol.16, No. 2, 2024 1835 References Cameron, K. (2013). Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance. (Chinese translation by Xichao Zhang & Jing Hu). Beijing: Science Press. The Chinese version of this article has been published in Journal of East China Normal University (Education Science Edition), 2024; 42(2):92-108. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 蔡茹, 张新平, 姚继军 & 周世科. (2024). 校长积极领导力何以重要？— 论其在学校背景与学生成 绩之间的中介效应.华东师范大学学报(教育科学版. 教育研究), 42(2):92-108. Received: 01 March2024 Revised: 08 March 2024 Accepted: 11 March 2024 AR-XinpingZhang-BECE_Title-March_2024 AR-XinpingZhang_BECE-MaintextMarch2024