Research have repeatedly reported that principals influenced student achievement through leadership on building school capacity for improving teacher professionalism. For principals, enabling effective communication is one approach to build up school capacity and one basic competence to lead effectively. This study aimed to identify and assess effects of communication in the relationship between principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools. Two questionnaires were combined to survey teacher perceptions of principal leadership and school capacity from a sample of 970 teachers from 32 local primary schools. Baron and Kenny’s (1986) four-step causal process for mediation analysis was employed, integrated with bootstrapping method. Significance and size of the mediating effect of communication were further tested. Next, mediating effects of communication between the seven core areas of principal leadership practices and teacher professional learning were examined and compared. The findings affirmed the mediated leadership structure. The implications are that, effective communication helps teachers come to understandings across differences and work together to shape the working environment and meet the targets of their professional learning. As resources providers and communicators, principals should lead adequately to ensure the key precondition of successful teacher professional learning – effective communication.

Schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts have gained increasing policy and research attentions in western countries (Muijs, Harris, Chapman, Stoll & Russ, 2004), but this still an under-researched area in Hong Kong. Previous local research on schools and principals that showed academic success (e.g., Darren, Walker & Ko, 2014) may overlook schools that may show strengths in non-academic areas. Mixing data and analysis from different research projects can enrich research findings in schools in similar challenging contexts but differed in areas of school improvement (medium of instruction vs career education). For example, this paper reports findings of two schools in the same catchment area, but in different academic bands (Band One vs Band Three). Comparing the current results with the conclusions on school improvement in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas reported by Muijs and colleagues (2004), we find that leaders in the two case schools tended to be more transformational than instructional and looked for strategies and approaches that might assist their schools. They would recruit from the existing staff, empower them to enrich existing work with new meanings in their contexts. For example, in the Band One school, the principal communicated their academic focus on English as a vision and mission for the school to achieve the EMI status that would allow them to use English as a medium of instruction for all subjects other than Chinese Language and Chinese History. In contrast, the principal of the Band Three school soon identified that their mission was to set up goal orientations for students at different year levels through career life planning. Both principals had made the school improvement sustainable by maintained the improvement with a strategic and operational focus that was compatible with the wider structural and cultural reform agendas. Evidence also indicated that the school improvement processes involved structural, functional and cultural

Civic education is a component of the school curriculum in most countries yet it is not always given a high priority compared to subjects such as Mathematics, Science and Language. Given the current climate of concern related to youth radicalization, the apparent attractiveness of radical solutions to social problems and the importance of adolescence as a key time for political socialization, new efforts should be made to make civic education a more central and more relevant part of the school experience. In particular, the role school leadership can play in developing more civically-oriented schools should be examined. Kennedy, Li & Chan (2014) and Li & Kennedy (2015) reported studies of the individual school and community influences on Hong Kong students’ civic knowledge and understanding. The results suggested that school could be differentiated by the extent to which students were encouraged to participate in school civic activities. School with high levels of student participation tended to have students with higher levels of civic knowledge. At the same time, resources in the community were also a significant influence on students’ civic learning. This result highlighted the importance of leadership in creating a culture of participation and suggested that ‘leading for civic learning’ should be a priority in responding to the current need for more relevant and meaningful civic education in schools. The purpose of this paper is to explore in greater depth what it means to adopt ‘leading for civic learning’ as a motif for student civic development. Implications will be drawn for classroom pedagogy, the school curriculum and school policies in order to show how schools might respond to the current climate of youth disaffection and alienation.

This paper examines the changing nature of principals’ work in the context of the global movement of education reform. This changing nature is not uncommon in different education systems across various societies. Case study was approach to unpack Hong Kong principals’ struggles posed by the changes in education policy and increasing student diversity in a Chinese context. Three research questions are addressed: (1) What challenges did the principals face at the time of the education reforms? (2) What was the major shift in the principals’ work in addressing the challenges? (3) How did the principals’ changing scope of work inspire new opportunities for their schools? Multiple qualitative data were collected including semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence such as school reports and school development plans. There was extensive change to the principals’ work due to the gap between the policy and practice of the education reforms in the past decade. Despite this change, they could identify new opportunities from the challenges that saved the schools from the threat of closure. The principals were also inspired to set out on new directions for their schools. The implications of the principals’ changing work for school improvement are also discussed.

近年，香港教育當局落實了校本管理的政策和推行著多項教育的變革，在學校大大增加了中層人員的工作量和他們在領導方面的需求。最近的研究指出，有很多學校的中層人員在領導方面遇著很大的困難，它們主要來自四方面：對自己領導的信心不足、同工的不合作、與校長不合拍、及環境的影響等，以致大大影響中層人員領導方面的信心與效能。其中「與校長不合拍」可能有很多原因，如雙方是否願意充分合作、溝通是否足夠、彼此是否遷就對方的處事方式等等。有研究指出，聰明且有幹勁的管理人員，常會忽略調理與上司的關係，最終傷害了自己及危及組織。要成為高效能的中層領導，他不僅需要努力建立團隊的關係，還要與上司有良好的關係及得到他的支持。本文以小學中層人員及校長為研究對象，透過面談，瞭解中層人員與校長之間相處的困難及協作方式，並且作出分析及建議。

Purpose – Over the past decade, studies of school leadership effects have increasingly aimed at identifying and validating the paths through which principal leadership impacts key teaching and learning processes in schools. A recent meta-analysis by Robinson and colleagues identified principal practices that shape teacher professional development experiences in schools as the highest impact path used by instructional leaders. The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between principal leadership, dimensions of school capacity, and teacher professional learning in 32 Hong Kong primary schools. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a cross-sectional research design and quantitative methods to analyze teacher perceptions of principal leadership and key school conditions. The research employed hierarchical linear regression analysis to explore survey data collected from a sample of 970 teachers. The surveys covered a range of principal leadership and school capacity dimensions, as well as a measure of teacher professional learning. Findings – Results indicated that multiple dimensions of principal leadership made significant contributions to both school capacity and teacher professional learning. The presence of cooperation, trust, communication, support for students, and alignment, coherence, and structure in schools also affected teacher professional learning. Research limitations/implications – These findings contribute to the global discourse on leadership for learning. The study addresses the need established by multiple scholars (e.g. Leithwood, Hallinger, Heck, Robinson, Witziers) for research that further illuminates “paths” and “intermediate targets” through which leadership impacts teaching and learning. The findings elaborate on the means by which leadership can enhance school capacities that directly impact teacher classroom practice and student learning. Consistent with other scholarly research (e.g. Bryk and Schneider, Louis and colleagues