Leadership as Embodied Value: Contextualizing Principal Identity in a Tradition-Saturated Reform Era

This study examines how six primary school principals in Wenzhou, China, construct and enact value-oriented leadership as lived identity. Using narrative case analysis, it analyzes principals’ accounts, school practices, documents, and field notes to understand how leadership identity is narrated and practiced. Findings show that identity is enacted through moral modeling, ritualized practice, emotional care, participatory dialogue, and intergenerational stewardship. Values appear not as fixed principles, but as contextually negotiated commitments shaped by moral education, cultural memory, institutional expectations, and community life. The study advances leadership theory by framing value-based leadership as relational identity work.