Turnaround Leadership in Southeast Asian Countries : Leading School Transformation

This book explores turnaround leadership in Southeast Asian countries across four themes: principal competencies and leadership frameworks, country-specific practices, teacher leadership and empowerment, and system leadership for school transformation. The chapters collectively contribute to a unified understanding of how theoretical models intersect with real-world challenges and strategies to improve low-performing schools. Emphasising a flexible, context-driven approach over a one-size-fits-all model, the book underscores the importance of adapting leadership strategies to diverse educational environments. While rooted in Southeast Asia, its insights are globally relevant, offering guidance for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners aiming to advance educational equity and sustainable school improvement through contextually grounded leadership practices. This book also encourages meaningful cross-country learning and policy development.

Professor Kenneth Leithwood, University of Toronto, Canada

Featuring qualitative evidence from schools in 11 Southeast Asian countries, this book provides a carefully grounded and much needed non-western perspective on the meaning of successful school leadership and the culturally sensitive task of improving the performance of underperforming schools. It is an excellent resource for both practicing school leaders and researchers.

Professor Coby Meyers, University of Virginia, United States

The rapid improvement of underserved schools—and the students they serve—remains a critical topic worldwide. Liu and Thien’s focus on Southeast Asia is a timely and comprehensive account of various challenges to leading school turnaround in an array of contexts. The attention paid to system, school, and teacher leaders in these challenging circumstances offer important insights into how such efforts can be successful in Southeast Asia and elsewhere while illuminating the various complexities to overcome.

Professor Jingping Sun, University of Alabama, United States

What distinguishes successful school leaders from others is the breadth and accumulation of practices and strategies they enact and employ, as well as the frequency and intensity with which they apply them effectively with precise timing to achieve success, driven by resilience, passion, contextual intelligence, political acuity, and above all, a strong moral purpose. As Walker and Dimmock commented, our understanding of educational leadership remains incomplete if the bulk of theory and practice in the field are drawn from Anglo-Saxon countries. This explains the unique contribution of this book, which broadens our understanding of educational leadership to turn around schools in Southeast Asian countries.

Peng Liu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, Canada. His research interests include Indigenous leadership cross cultures, effective leadership, higher education leadership, educational change, educational policy, principal and teacher professional development, and international and comparative education. He serves as an editor for International Journal of Educational Policy and Leadership and an associate editor for International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, Frontiers in Psychology and Frontiers in Education. His most recent books include “Transforming Turnaround Schools in China: Approaches, Challenges and Achievements” published by Springer in 2021, “Educational Leadership and Asian Culture: Culturally sensitive leadership practices” published by Routledge in 2024, and “Understanding Teacher Leadership in Educational Change: An International Perspective” published by Routledge in 2025.

Lei Mee Thien serves as an Associate Professor at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, where she also holds the position of Director at the National Higher Education Research Institute. Her research primarily focuses on educational management and leadership in both K-12 and higher education contexts. She has published articles in refereed journals, including Educational Management, Administration & Leadership. Her recent book is “Understanding Teacher Leadership in Educational Change: An International Perspective” published by Routledge in 2025. She is involved in research projects with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.