As a form of school-based management (SBM), the School Management Initiative (SMI) reform in Hong Kong provides a framework for more teacher participation in decision making. This exploratory study aimed to provide a preliminary investigation of the characteristics of participative decision making in schools after implementing the SMI scheme by using a 3-dimensional model and both quantitative and qualitative methods. There were two SMI schools, two principals, and 105 teachers involved in the study. The findings revealed a deprivation state in decision making regarding issues of managerial and technical domains at individual, group and school levels in the sampled schools, but teachers in general had shown a positive attitude towards the opportunities for more participation provided with the implementation of the SMI scheme. Also there were strong interactions between decision domains and levels of decision issues in predicting teacherparticipation discrepancies. The characteristics of participation patterns revealed are interesting and can provide useful information for facilitating implementation of the SMI scheme and teacher participation in decision making. The findings support the usefulness of the 3-dimensional model in studying the patterns of participation in a larger sample of SBM schools, if not all, in both local and international contexts.
[Copyright © 1997 The Chinese University of Hong Kong.]

Teacher attitudes and practices have been considered as essential in bringing about parent involvement in school education. In Hong Kong, among various home-school links, teacher-parent communication about children's learning has been agreed as the primary concern of both schools and parents. This study looks at the intentions and practices of the communication of primary school teachers with parents. It attempts to identify variables which can predict the effectiveness of such communication. A model which has taken into account the theory of planned behaviour, self-efficacy theory, expectancy theory and role theory has been proposed. Scales for measuring the variables and constructs involved have been developed. Path analyses linking the variables in a conceptual model have been conducted. Results show that a number of variables, such as "the teacher's commitment towards teaching", "personal teaching efficacy", "teacher efficacy in working parents" and "teacher's sense of shared responsibility with parents" have predictive power for teacher's intention and practices. The significance of these findings for enhancing teacher-parent communication is discussed.

This study tested how collaboration, as a component of school capacity and a potential mediator, affect the relationship between principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools. To investigate teacher perceptions of principal leadership and school capacity, two questionnaires were combined to use. The online survey was administered with a sample of 970 teachers from 32 primary schools. The orthodox regression based dour-step causal approach (Baron & Kenny, 1986) integrated with the bootstrapping method, was adopted for mediating analysis, with the composite score of principal leadership as the predictor. Upon the affirmation of the presence of the mediating effects, significance and strength were further assessed. This study stepped further to test the overall effect of the seven core areas of principal leadership, as independent predictors, on teacher professional leaning via the possible mediating effects of collaboration. The findings affirmed that, collaboration did play a mediating role between the relationship of principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools.

Factors affecting planning effectiveness in Hong Kong self-managing schools are investigated. Questionnaire survey data from teachers, gathered in late 1994 from schools participating in the Phases I & II of the School Management Initiative scheme, are analyzed by principal-components analysis and multiple regression. Flexible planning, teachers’ participation in planning, principal’s support and resource support are found to be significant factors in predicting positive outcomes of planning. The concept of flexible planning is explored and conceptualized in terms of built-in flexibility and flexibility through evaluation. As interactive model, “A self-Managing School Planning Model”, which is responsive, recurrent and flexible in nature, is proposed.

School-based Management (SBM) is regarded as the centrepiece of the current educational reforms which aims to enhance quality of education since 1980s (Caldwell & Spinks, 1992; Cheng, 1996b; Gamage, 1996; Wong, 1995). To enhance quality culture, flexibility, transparency and accountability, the policy-makers introduce a new school management reform policy, entitled “The School Management Initiative (SMI)”, to Hong Kong schools in 1991. Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), even announced in his policy address (Tung, 1998) that all schools should practise SBM by 2000. With reference to the latest SMI report, there are altogether 43% secondary schools and 23.3% primary schools practising SBM in 1997-98 academic year. The implication shows that many schools need to join the new initiative within two years time. Why is there a huge gap in between the policy and the front line? In order to have a closer look at how people interact and how these effects affect the promotion of school improvement in the change process, a small scale research with a stratified sample of nine aided primary schools was conducted in May, 1998. The result of the findings demonstrated some important implications that effective leadership, collegiality, healthy interpersonal relations are essential to accelerate the effectiveness of the school management scheme which can enhance the quality of school education of Hong Kong as a whole.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education]

No matter whether in the context of Hong Kong or other parts of the world, the school reform towards school-based management is a complicated change process involving the multiple school constituencies and creating uncertainties as well as opportunities for them to learn, change, and develop. This paper aims to report and analyze some significant and interesting phenomena observed in the development and implementation of the school-based management policy in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that the school-based management reform is a long-term process of policy development, in which all concerned constituencies can contribute to further define, develop, and shape the policy. Only when the involved actors perceive more positive meanings from the change, they are more effective in creating and using opportunities for development and maximizing all potential benefits from the process of school reform. Hopefully, the Hong Kong case of school-based management can provide useful implications for school-based management movements in both local and international contexts.