TITLE:
Teacher Leadership and the Connotative Development of Eco-Vocational Colleges
AUTHORS:
Zheyu Cheng, Jinglong Luo, Xu Jiang, Yizheng Fu, Wei Zhang
KEYWORDS:
Teacher Leadership, Connotative Development, Eco-Vocational Colleges, Distributed Leadership, Mechanism Innovation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.9,
September
30,
2025
ABSTRACT: This study centers on ecological science cluster construction in higher vocational colleges, revealing systemic obstacles like a mismatch between talent supply and industry demand, and limited industry-education integration, which are exacerbated by industrial restructuring and talent paradigm shifts. It advocates building a collaborative innovation ecosystem led by teacher agency. Unlike hierarchical models, teacher leadership (TL) is a distributed, non-positional influence system where educators leverage expertise, dedication, and moral power to transform curricula, culture, learner agency, and industry innovation. A dialectical theory-practice approach deconstructs TL’s mediating role, rebuilding the discipline ecosystem, breaking bureaucratic constraints, and enhancing teacher identity and capability. Integrating distributed leadership with critical institutionalism creates a heterogeneous management framework, enabling teachers to become educational innovation co-creators, balancing operational efficiency and connotative growth in higher vocational education.