A qualitative study of beginning principals in Hong Kong secondary schools operating within an educational reform environment

A qualitative study of beginning principals in Hong Kong secondary schools operating within an educational reform environment

• Cheung, Man Biu

2004

• R Educational Policy & Administration
  • RH Supervisors, School Principals & Administrators
• R Educational Policy & Administration
  • RE School Management, School-Parents Relationship

School Administration Secondary Education

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

This study investigates how beginning principals in Hong Kong secondary schools managed the first two years of their principalship during a time of substantial educational reform. Given that this area is under-researched in Hong Kong, the study intends to add to the leadership knowledge base and inform principal preparation.
The research yielded five major categories that were related to the beginning principals, namely, preferred leadership orientations, strength of heart, managing people, approach to curriculum reform, and contextual influences. These categories were inter-related in that they interacted with one another to affect how the beginning principals played their new roles. Role-playing included the processes of role adoption, role enactment and role changes. Beginning principals in the study went through these processes in different fashions, but they sometimes shared similarities in their perceptions and behaviors. These differences and commonalities led to the categorization of the principals into four types, namely the shaper-founder, the shaper-changer, the moderator-tinkerer and the inheritor-maintainer. The four types constitute the typology established by the research. It was also found that the typology was not static; there were shifts within it as a consequence of role change adopted by the beginning principals. The findings point to a tentative concept of adaptive role-playing within the phenomenon of the beginning principalship, which requires further investigation to establish its validity.
The research has implications for the knowledge base of the beginning principalship. It points to the complexity and fluidity of beginning principals' leadership roles as well as the importance of their inner worlds, of people in school management, of implementation strategies for curriculum reform and of the school context. It also brings into focus the inter-relationships among the variables affecting the beginning principalship, the significance of the typology, and the implications of the rudimentary theory of adaptive role-playing. The research findings also have substantial implications for principal preparation. Leadership skills and personal qualities need to be enhanced to equip beginning principals for the complex reform context within which they must operate. The empowerment of beginning principals calls for curriculum leadership skills, strategies to handle dilemmas and paradoxes and ways to develop emotional intelligence and competence. The research also provides suggestions for School Sponsoring Bodies and policy-makers on how to make principal recruitment and training more relevant and effective.

EdD

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-01, Section: A, page: 0038

• English

Dissertation Theses

• 9780496964031

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/40120e9b

2010-12-16