This article details a large-scale study of vice-principals in Hong Kong secondary schools. The study aimed to examine the core competency areas that pertain to the work of vice-principals and the way in which vice-principals perceive these areas to relate to school success. It also examined the factors that affect their level of job satisfaction, and differentiated these factors according to whether they did or did not aspire to principalship. The findings indicate that competency gaps, if large enough, can affect the level of job satisfaction of vice-principals and that the impact of these gaps varies according to career orientation. The results show that vice-principals who aspire to be a principal are more satisfied in their jobs than their less ambitious colleagues; and that the effect of these gaps on job satisfaction differs between the two groups. The implications of the findings for the future supply of principals and leader development are expounded.
[Copyright of School Effectiveness and School Improvement is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09243450701856549]

The present study adopted a qualitative approach through in-depth individual and focus group interviews to study the attitudes of the early childhood teachers in Hong Kong. The goal of the study is to reveal the lived experience of real people in real contexts. The first part of the study looks at how satisfaction/dissatisfaction of early childhood teachers was experienced by teachers and the principal, in the process of a top-down curriculum implementation at a local kindergarten in Hong Kong. Building on the findings of this case study, the need for pedagogical skill and knowledge to enhance the job satisfaction of early childhood teachers was addressed. By means of an action research, thirty student teachers at the In-serve Qualified Kindergarten Teacher Education Course were involved in learning ways of understanding and implementing an art project. The ability to help children learn was reported by the student-teachers as the main source of satisfaction when implementing a revitalized process for a more child-centred approach in art projects for children. However, the opinions towards the bottom-up scenario on innovative learning and teaching approach were diverse. The lack of positive supporting context at the organizational level was identified to be the main obstacle to teachers' improvement and satisfaction. Besides the professional/pedagogical development of the teachers, the attitude of the administrators/principals and parents were vital factors in promoting the satisfaction of early childhood teachers in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443022000022413]

This study assessed the three components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment), perceived self-efficacy, and the three triarchic abilities (analytical, synthetic, and practical) of successful intelligence in a sample of 267 Chinese prospective and in-service teachers in Hong Kong. The aim was to explore and examine the contribution of the blending or integration of the triarchic abilities to the three components of teacher burnout and perceived self-efficacy. While there were subtle gender and teaching-experience differences, the general findings suggested that the triarchic abilities, especially practical abilities, could independently contribute to teachers' sense of personal accomplishment as well as perceived self-efficacy. The interactive combination of the triarchic abilities could be most important in contributing negatively to emotional exhaustion. The implications of these findings for interventions to combat teacher burnout and enhance job engagement are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410601061397]

Part-time tertiary education at both undergraduate and graduate levels are becoming more and more popular. In pursuing part-time studies, students must use their own limited and valuable non-work hours at the cost of giving up other commitments to their family and social lives. Part-time study is considered to be a very effective indicator of employees' drive for personal development. A research was conducted in October 2000 to study the mechanism linking work, family and part-time tertiary education, with a review to clarifying the issue and recommending means to manage the conflict among roles in these three domains. About 500 postgraduate and undergraduate part-time university students (who had full-time jobs) in Hong Kong were surveyed. The results of the study suggest that the support of employers and families has a certain statistically significant relationship with the perceived job performance and satisfaction in family and work lives of employees pursuing part-time tertiary education. However, it was observed that academic performance of employees' part-time study actually had no statistically significant correlation with any of the independent and mediating variables that were analysed in the study.
[Copyright of Journal of Vocational Education and Training is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636820100200177 ]