This article explores novice teachers’ perspectives on their teacher leadership roles and their principal’s facilitation of their leadership development. A cohort of 20 novice teachers teaching in Hong Kong participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence during a two-year period. The results show that six novice teachers performed principal-delegated and teacher-initiated teacher leadership roles facilitated by principals’ practices. Interplay of the teacher’s and principal’s roles as an interface of developing teacher leadership is evidenced. This has important implications for the roles of teachers and principals in fostering teacher leadership in schools. Teacher educators are also informed for enhancement of initial teacher education.
[Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.]

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.

Enacting social justice is an imperative issue concerning educators around the world. Like many countries, Hong Kong schools serve a diverse mix of students and many face the challenges of complex socio-cultural changes such as low birth rate and a hybrid of Western and Confucian cultures. This study aims to examine three Hong Kong principals’ perception of social justice and how they enacted social justice by (re)shaping multicultural education in high-needs schools

Similar to other places in Asia, Hong Kong is deeply rooted in a typical hierarchical structure of Chinese society that power distance between the teachers (lower position) and principals (higher position) exists in schools. Practice of teacher leadership seems to be a distant future for beginning teachers. This paper examines the development of beginning teacher leadership through teacher-principal interactions. What effects of the interactions have on beginning teachers’ leadership development? How do principals’ leadership practices infuse beginning teacher leadership in the interactions? The findings are derived from interviews and collected documentary evidence of twelve beginning teachers teaching in primary, secondary and special schools. The teachers provided detailed accounts of their interactions with school principals over the past two years through which the teachers’ leadership development was directed and situated in specific school cultures. Results unveil that different school cultures could affect the teachers’ aspiration for and development of leadership in curriculum and instruction. Influences of principal-teacher interactions on development of teacher leadership are identified in four types of school cultures. The effects of the influences are then contextualized as “higher-power distance”, “policy-driven”, “hierarchical” and “individualistic”. Implications for development of teacher leadership are discussed.

Teacher leadership ties in the heart of school improvement while principal plays a salient role in fostering teachers’ leadership. This study aims to examine a group of beginning teachers in Hong Kong to address research questions: (1) To what extent are the teachers’ developments of teacher leadership? (2) What are the teachers’ perceptions of principal-teacher interactions? (3) How principal-teacher interactions attribute to the teacher leadership development? Multiple data sources, including interviews, documentary evidence and questionnaires were collected. Results show that principal-teacher interactions that reflected trust, value communication and encourage professional development are key to facilitating teacher leadership. Three types of impact illustrating principal-teacher interactions attribute to teacher leadership development are identified. Implication for school leaders and teacher educators are discussed.

Understanding student teachers’ development of conceptions of teaching and learning is critical for teacher educators. Drawing from the findings of a four-year longitudinal study in Hong Kong, this paper examines the trajectories of the student teachers’ changing conceptions of teaching and learning approaches throughout their undergraduate programme. Three types of trajectories: guided touring, experiential detouring and self-guided touring, as the changes in both conceptions of teaching and learning approaches, are presented. The results suggest that three factors: faculty, learners’ attitudes towards learning and ability to integrate different learning resources, influenced the development of the student teachers’ trajectories. This study adds to the international body of knowledge on the interconnected development of conceptions of teaching and learning approaches. The paper concludes with the implications for teacher education.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]