Purpose: This paper explores education group school principal's influence on professional learning community (PLC) development in China. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative comparative case studies were conducted. Findings: The findings show that principals indicated principal-level factors were their major concerns regarding PLC cultural condition design, school needs were the major concerns in PLCs' relational and structural design, and educational-group factors impacted principals' extension of PLCs' structural conditions. Originality/value: This article concludes by presenting a "three-context" framework for understanding education group principal's influence on PLCs in China.