This article proposes that effective leadership in intercultural schools requires authentic understanding and related action; and that this can only be sought through a dedication to ongoing leadership learning. After briefly introducing the metaphor of authentic leadership, outlining the influence of culture on school leadership and the context of intercultural schools the paper suggests a number of learning avenues through which leaders can consciously reframe and better understand problems and solutions around these intercultural school contexts. These interrelated avenues include learning beyond standardised leadership prescriptions, simultaneously trusting and mistrusting experience, learning through student learning, learning through variation, learning through looking beyond culture and learning through curiosity. The major theme running through related discussion is that authentic intercultural leadership is particularly attuned to the values, beliefs and behavioural uniqueness of the students, teachers and others which comprise the community. In other words, it aims to acquire intercultural understanding on an ongoing basis and use this to inform leadership beliefs and practice. Therefore, authentic leadership and learning can be viewed as inseparably twinned.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore what developing moral literacy for leaders in intercultural schools will mean. Design/methodology/approach -Relevant literature on moral literacy, leadership, intercultural schools and social learning is brought together and integrated to develop an understanding of the intricacies of leading for moral literacy. Findings -The foundation for developing moral literacy in intercultural schools requires leaders to become knowledgeable, cultivate moral virtues and develop moral imaginations as well as to possess moral reasoning skills. In intercultural settings these components focus on openly addressing, and indeed exposing, issues of class, culture and equity. The elements which form the basis for improved moral literacy are intimately connected with school life and community through learning. Leaders must simultaneously develop their own and their communities' moral literacy through promoting and structuring community-wide learning through participatory moral dialogue. This may involve sharing purpose, asking hard questions and exposing and acknowledging identities. Originality/value -This article attempts to apply moral literacy to leading in intercultural schools and suggests that learning holds the key to moral development.

As China has appeared only recently as an important knowledge producer with growing global economic significance, little is known internationally about how these processes develop and are managed within China. The rapidly expanding Chinese higher education system is playing an increasingly important role in China's knowledge economy and therefore in the global knowledge society. This paper reviews historically the changing role of Chinese universities from the planned economy to the knowledge economy, analyses their contribution of knowledge and knowledge workers, and critically reflects on the mechanisms driving or confining their future contribution to the knowledge economy.