Leadership style has always been a controversial topic in educational administration and management. Following the recommendation of the Education Commission to introduce school-based management (SBM) into Hong Kong schools in the early 1990s, discussions about the kind of leadership style that is appropriate for SBM schools have never ceased. The government holds a continuing belief that SBM schools work better if they are managed by "better" principals, and emphasises the value of "transformational leadership." However, this paper articulates the limitations of that leadership style and argues for complementing it with "educational leadership," which purports that principals have an obligation to learn with others about ways of promoting student learning. Secondly, the staff should also be encouraged and helped to carry out certain leadership functions. These arguments are supported by references to the most relevant literature. The discussion is useful to school principals, leaders, and teachers by offering them a better understanding of how to facilitate the implementation of SBM.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188790600937292]

Teachers beliefs about their ability to affect students' performance is an important part of professionalism. This study compared 725 Hong Kong and 575 Shanghai primary in-service teachers on their teacher efficacy. Two Chinese versions of the 12-item Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale were used in this study since some wordings of the Hong Kong version of the Scale (HK-TSE) were different from the Shanghai version (STSE) as a result of cultural differences. Basically, the Shanghai teachers reported significantly higher efficacy than did the Hong Kong teachers. After reviewing these quantitative results, 86 follow-up questionnaires from Shanghai in-service teachers who also participated in the first part of this study were collected. Results of this qualitative part showed that the three most commonly cited factors for the contribution of teacher efficacy were: respect and confidence placed in them by students and parents, the training they received from universities and the experience they gained from daily teaching practice. Though Hong Kong in-service teachers had lower efficacy scores than the Shanghai counterparts.
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Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.aare.edu.au/aer/about.htm]

This study sought to measure general teacher efficacy levels of in-service primary teachers in Hong Kong. Participants included 725 Hong Kong in-service teachers, who were invited to take part in the study. These in-service teachers came from 28 different primary schools ranging from government, aided, private and direct subsidy schools. The Chinese version of the 12-item Teachers' Sense of Efficacy (C-TSE) Scale was applied to investigate the efficacy of the teachers. A factor analysis of these 12 items when male and female datasets were combined led to the extraction of only one factor. But separation of the two datasets led to the extraction of different factor analysis models. This could reflect the different perceptions that male and female teachers had about the formation of teacher efficacy. Overall, this study showed that female teachers were significantly more efficacious than male teachers. Moreover, years of teaching experience showed a weak but significant correlation to levels of general teacher efficacy. Interestingly, educational levels did not have a significant effect on the efficacy of this group of in-service primary teachers. Overall, the C-TSE was found to be a valid and reliable scale for measuring the efficacy levels of this particular group of in-service primary teachers in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607470600982134]

A teacher professional identity scale was developed for Hong Kong in-service teachers to measure the professional identity of teachers. Most studies of professional identity have been qualitative. The present study tried to examine this important concept using a quantitative method. Based on various studies, one of the ways of understanding the professional identity of teachers was through teachers' roles and practices. This study described the procedure for developing a professional identity scale according to the practices of professional teachers. The final version of the scale included 19 items. Overall, this scale was found to be valid and reliable for measuring the professional identity of Hong Kong in-service teachers in both pilot and main studies.
[Copyright of Journal of In-Service Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674580802003060]