The findings are based on a larger study on systematically comparing leadership development and practice in seven differentially performing education systems (Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, England, Indonesia, Russia, and Singapore) (Harris et al.). The contextual background of principalship training in Hong Kong was the Principals’ Continuing Professional Development Framework introduced since 2002 (Education Department, 2002). Under this Framework, all existing and newly appointed principals have been required to undergo continuous professional development or prior certification (Education Bureau, 2010). Based on 20 interviews with principals, key staff and teachers of three secondary schools in three different bandings. One of key themes identified in the data is the roles of the school principal as a change agent. This key finding is compatible with findings that highlighted the prominent role of the principal as a key change agent for the successful implementation of school-based management, both in Hong Kong (e.g. Cheng, 1992; Ma, 1993; Ko & Walker, 2014; Ko, Cheng & Lee, 2016) and in schools worldwide (e.g. Hallinger, 1992; Hopkins & Reynolds, 2001; Marks & Printy, 2003; Wohlstetter et al., 2008).More specifically, the roles of school principals are discussed in relation to the different conceptualisations and charaterisations of principalship in transactional, instructional, transformational, and distributed leadership theories.

This paper critically reviews the thesis of managing globalization, which demonstrates how East Asian states have successfully selectively blended elements of transnational academic capitalism with their pre-existing models of political economy, thereby effectively responding to neoliberal globalization. This paper argues that the thesis overlooks the significance of local politics in understanding the global–local dynamics in higher education policy, thus insufficiently acknowledging the indeterminacy that arises in the transformation of the state. To address this argument, this paper examines the transnational higher education development in Singapore and Hong Kong and explains how political resistance and corresponding policy changes that emerged in these two societies help understand a zerosum opposition between global and local perspectives. This zero-summism shows that the conceptual contestation over globalization versus anti-globalization remains relevant.

Successive UK governments have pursued policies to diversify school provision across England nested in neo-liberal ideologies. Reforms has focused both on generating autonomy and distinctiveness with the state system of schools and the creation of new "types" of schools outside local democratic accountability. There are now approximately 70 "types" of schools, characterised through parental choice, provisions of private interests, and a trends toward private funding with subsidies from taxpayers. In short, public schools are increasingly privatised, owned and run by private individuals and consortia which profit from services rendered to and through the school. Business models dominate the training and performance of school principals as leaders. Consideration of school leadership in Asia suggests that research frameworks are bound by a range of factors that differentiate leadership and leadership research across the region. These include the following: socio-economic developments connected to the allocation of resources for research and the development of researchers’ capacities; a tendency for societies with emergent research capacity to communicate understanding of school leadership—sometimes empirical—through prescriptive or descriptive writing; the degree of boundedness to political realities and policy objectives shapes the principalship from being relatively autonomous to agents of the state, and the borrowing of policies which influences how the work of principals are prioritised and contextualised across the respective Asia societal cultures.

This paper will examine the interplay of equity and excellence in Singapore’s secondary schools. It uses Fraser’s (2008) three forms of justice: redistributive, recognitive and representational. It explores Singapore’s ‘bridges and ladders’ model of differentiated schooling. Case studies of a madrasah, a specialised school, and an elite school demonstrate the tensions between equity and excellence in the system. We argue that the ‘bridges and ladders’ model, through its differentiated schooling experiences, paradoxically increases equity and excellence while simultaneously exacerbating inequity. Finally, we reflect on the implications of this research on the pursuit of equity in Hong Kong’s education system.

Music listening occupies a central part of music studies at all levels of education. However, according to the relevant research, teachers have been emphasizing students’ cognitive responses with limited connection to the affective domain during. Undergraduate music majors have little interest in those teaching materials chosen by their teachers. This study is based on motivation theory, which emphasizes cognitive and affective responses during the learning process as well as requiring teachers to understand students’ behaviors, thoughts and feelings. The aim of this study is to investigate and explore teachers’ beliefs and pedagogies toward students’ affective responses during music listening in higher education under the context of mainland China and Hong Kong. The following two research questions guide the whole study: a) what are university music teachers’ beliefs and pedagogies toward affective response during music listening and learning in higher education? (b) How do their teaching pedagogy represent their belief? This study uses a mixed-method approach and includes two phases. Phase I aims to investigate the current situation regarding teachers’ belief and pedagogy towards affective responses while listening and learning to music. A questionnaire surveyed the views of 185 university music teachers recruited from 17 universities in mainland China, together with ten university music teachers from two universities in Hong Kong. From the questionnaire survey findings, three major issues were identified by teachers and considered critical to informing their beliefs and pedagogies when teaching music: (1) the correlation between teachers’ beliefs and pedagogy, (2) perspectives and pedagogic strategies toward affective response in music listening and learning, and (3) the factors influence teachers’ beliefs and pedagogies. Phase II aims to explore what the teachers’ actually teaching and the influences upon teachers’ belief and pedagogy towards affective responses

在2012及2015年學生能力國際評估計劃（PISA）考試中，亞洲地區包括上海、香港、新加坡及台灣的學生（平均15歲）的數學能力名列首五名，美國、英格蘭等歐美國家則處於中游位置。從這項考試數據顯示，美、英兩地學生的數學能力不及亞洲地方。硏究顯示，不同地方學生的數學運用差異與身處的學習環境有一定關係；此外，他們如何學習數學、應用數學邏輯亦會影響評估表現（OECD, 2012）。課堂上，教科書是輔助老師教學的主要工具。Nciol & Crepo（2006）指出，教科書對學生數學學習表現有重要影響，亦在教師教授數學時扮演關鍵角色。Stein、Remillard與Smith（2007）研究進一步發現，教科書内容中的排序、組織、焦點會影響數學老師的教學及學生如何學習數學。 因此，本文對照香港、新加坡、美國及英格蘭的初中數學教科書，探討當中異同。透過20多篇探討四地初中數學教科書的文章，檢視學生數學成績差異與教科書編撰的關係。全文將從教科書的課程目的、課題內容、練習題目及使用等四方面分析問題。

Various terms have been used to define civic education (CE) in Hong Kong since the colonial era. This has been particularly true since 2011, when CE has been given many names, causing confusion among educators. Mixed methods were employed to examine teachers’ perceptions of different conceptions of CE expressed as moral, civic and national education. The findings indicate that some teachers might not be able to differentiate among moral education, CE and national education. Most teachers contended that national education should be included in CE, while others believed the opposite. Teachers perceived that moral and civic education was more successful than moral and national education in cultivating students to become ‘good citizens’. Teachers’ comprehension of these terms has policy and pedagogical implications. While the study is set within the context of Hong Kong, the findings are valuable to policymakers and educators in other countries seeking to improve CE.
[Copyright © 2016 British Association for International and Comparative Education.]

The global drive for world-class universities is twinned with a radical movement to create research assessment indicators, and universities have never been pressured as much as today by global rankings. This paper aims to focus on how research assessment exercises have reconfigured the institutional missions of the university in terms of knowledge production, teaching, and service address, by comparing three top research-intensive universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan. It critically investigates how far and in what ways academics in the three systems have been pressured to respond to these exercises. The empirical findings show that all the three cases have been affected severely and that Hong Kong universities are the most internationalized and Mainland universities are the most productive in research outputs, as also evidenced in recent QS rankings. The paper argues that the global ranking regime has created a Double Bind for East Asian universities, and has brutally dominated their institutional reconfigurations. To turn the tide, the manipulated emphasis, flawed methodology, and unethical desirability of global university rankings and research assessment exercises should be avoided to help universities healthily and meaningfully focus on real missions to which they should commit themselves. Meanwhile, critical reflections and policy actions are particularly urgent on the indigenousness of knowledge exploration and production by higher education systems in East Asia and other post-colonial contexts. Furthermore, the paper anticipates that the importance of teaching and service will be revitalized in the new stage of East Asian universities, e.g., the Chinese University 3.0.