Preparation for school leadership has become a major global educational issue since the late 1990s. In Hong Kong, the establishment and implementation of school-based management in the 1990s have made significant demands on principals. In 1999, a leadership development and training programme for serving and aspiring principals was initiated by the Government of the Special Administrative Region, after visits to and study of similar programmes in England, Scotland, Australia (State of Victoria) and Singapore. In 2002, further suggestions were made to draw up a framework for principals' training in Hong Kong. With an adapted evaluation framework, and based on the evaluation findings of a principals' training programme developed by a tertiary institution in 1998, this paper attempts to give answers to: (1) why do serving principals attend principals' training programmes? (2) what sort of training programme do principals regard as useful? (3) are the findings consistent with the proposals of the Government? (4) do training programmes bring about changes in attitudes and behaviours of principals? The paper concludes with recommendations for (1) and (2).
[Copyright of School Leadership & Management is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13632430410001695796]

This paper aims to report how school leadership is challenged by the three waves of education reform and development in Hong Kong. Since the 1970s, school leaders in the first wave were mainly concerned with achievement of the planned goals through improvement of teaching and learning. In the 1990s, school leaders of the second wave often focused on interface improvement through various types of quality inspection and assurance. In facing the challenges in the new century, the third wave of changes in Hong Kong is moving towards the pursuit of future effectiveness. The school leaders need to be concerned with enhancing educational relevance and creating new goals. This paper will discuss how the leadership conceptions and concerns of the third wave in Hong Kong are completely different from the traditional thinking. Implications are drawn for educators, policy-makers, and scholars in different parts of the world.
[Copyright of Cambridge Journal of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305764032000122041]

This study investigated the challenges and opportunities associated with the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the early childhood curriculum in Hong Kong kindergartens. Thirty-one principals completed questionnaires before they implemented a new curriculum initiative plan that involved the integrating of ICT into children's learning activities. They completed the same questionnaire and were interviewed within 1 month after they had implemented the curriculum. Findings indicated that the main problems were as follows: the low level of teachers' ICT competence, hardware and software problems, the lack of resources and technical support, and parental level of ICT competence. In-service training was regarded as the pivotal solution to these problems. The 5 levels of ICT transformation of the educational and learning processes (Mooij & Smeets, 2001) were evident in the participating schools. Most of the principals admitted that they were just "technology learners" (Yee, 1999), with regard to their information technology leadership. Sociocontextual accounts and implications of these findings are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed1703_7]