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Leadership in the Reform Era
Paula Y.K. Kwan
by Professor
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Administration and Policy
bodies. Research findings revealed that hiring bodies
tend to view principal applicants from the same
school or the same sponsoring body more favourably,
presuming a better match between the candidate
and the school. Prevalence of such a belief appears
to reinforce the importance of affiliation, loyalty
and long service in a particular school or school
sponsoring body, and discourages other applicants.
The second theme centres on school vice-principals
(VP). The CUHK team has undertaken many pioneer
studies, covering VP job responsibilities, role strains,
career development, and socialisation. The results
suggest that VPs are seldom tasked with financial
responsibilities; and they perceive their scant
involvement in money matters affects their taking up
of the principal’s roles upon promotion. The findings
also reveal that VPs who are more concerned about
The past few decades have seen more educational collegial relationships in schools are less predisposed
47 policy reforms, both internationally and locally, toward becoming principals, perceiving that the role
than in the previous hundreds years. Hong Kong of a principal to implement changes in the reform
has not only been introducing a number of reform era are at odds with the preservation of harmony
initiatives following the international trend for in schools. A more recent study targeting at new
decentralisation and accountability, but has also aspiring principals found that female VPs and those
introduced changes in a unique politically transitional VPs working in bigger schools felt less efficacious
environment alongside its returning to the Chinese than their counterparts in adjusting to the new
sovereignty. The unprecedented and unpredicted roles. The findings also revealed that acceptance
changes seen in the political, cultural, technological by colleagues and school feedback mechanisms
and economic environments in recent years have contributed significantly to the smooth transition of
further placed school leaders in the limelight on the VPs when they first moved from the teaching role to
agenda of theorists, policymakers, and practitioners. the administrative role. However, the importance of
The proposition that great leadership is based on feedback mechanisms appears to fade out as they
immutable truths is apparently no longer held, giving progressively settle into their new role in later years.
way to a quest for effective leadership in the local On the contrary, the importance of acceptance by
school context. colleagues appears to increase as VPs moved to their
third year of office. In a cultural context in which
The research team in the area of school leadership harmonious working relationships are highly valued
and administration at CUHK has undertaken various and staff mobility is relatively low, it is imperative for
projects with a view to improving school leadership policy-makers and practitioners to develop a fair and
and student performance. Given below are some transparent succession plan with a view to helping
recent research highlights. newly appointed VPs adjust to their role in schools.
There have been significant attempts to understand The third theme focuses on the effect of instructional
the shortage of school principals in Hong Kong, from leadership on student academic and non-academic
the perspectives of both job applicants and hiring performance. The findings of a recent study reveal
that transformational leadership and instructional
leadership are complementary practices in Hong
Kong schools rather than incongruent practices
as that commonly depicted in the international
literature. School leadership that leads to student
performance amalgamates a transformational and
developmental orientation as well as an instructional
and supervisory orientation. In their transformational
and developmental role, efficacious principals seek
to elicit higher levels of commitment from all teachers
and to develop organisational capacity for school
improvement; whereas in their instructional and
supervisory role principals set the learning goals and
standards and make available a school structure
guiding teachers to accomplish their teaching goals.
The findings highlight the central role played by
instructional leadership in improving student academic
outcomes. However, the effect of instructional
leadership can only be materialised in schools in
which the principals have developed a moderate 48
to high level of trust through transformational
leadership. In these schools, principals’ intense focus
on curricular monitoring and strict implementation of
various quality assurance measures can elicit a higher
level of concern towards student learning effectiveness
amongst teachers. When teachers have trust in their
principals, they believe that the quality checkpoints
are aimed to help them effectively discharge the
teaching responsibilities rather than to put their work
under surveillance. With this belief, teachers would
be committed to follow school policies and quality
procedures and readily undertake the assigned
responsibilities. Teachers in low trust schools lack
motivation and commitment to follow complicated
school policies.
In addition to these major themes, the team has also
attended to the development of professional learning
communities in schools and the effectiveness of school
IMCs.