Since the introduction of accountability framework was introduced in 2003 and the school-based management policy that included parents as school managers was reinforced, a community model in Hong Kong secondary schools seems emerging. Drawing from a landmark study in Hong Kong secondary schools that looked into the impact of principal leadership on student outcomes using both cognitive and affective data, this paper begins with an examination of the empirical evidence that seems to support a positive prospect for a community model. Specifically, the leadership dimension that characterizes principals’ external communication and connection was most highly correlated with the dependable variable, the school condition Support for Students. However, using hierarchical multiple regression, this leadership dimension was also found contributed to only about 3.38% of the variance. This result contrasts with that quality assurance and accountability policy of schools tended to have a negative impact on support for students. Moreover, for some of the forty-seven principals investigated, their scores in this dimension were the lowest among all the seven leadership dimensions studied. These results suggest a mixed message. On the one hand, they indicate that a good communication and connection with parents and the community seemed to help principals provide better support for students. On the other hand, many principals are yet to prepare for the change in power structure in school management (Walker, 2004). In the interviews with the principals and key staff teachers, some strategies adopted by schools to attempt a community model were found. First, as most schools in Hong Kong also have strong affiliations with or under the governance of religious bodies or charitable organizations, some forms of external communication and connection to the community may have already existed. Second, some secondary schools were eager to build stronger connections with primary schools in the local

Business education has been offered in Hong Kong secondary schools for more than 50 years, and has gone through a number of key stages in response to economic growth. The key developmental stages are: (a) 1950s and 1960s, (b) 1970 to mid-1980s, (c) mid-1980s to 1999, and (d) 2000 to 2008. Another new stage of development will be implemented in 2009. This paper provides a historical review of the four key developmental stages, introduces the forthcoming new stage, and analyses and discusses the curriculum development of all these stages in line with the economic changes. It is recommended that pupils in different forms and at different academic levels be taught both generic business knowledge and vocational aspects of business to sustain Hong Kong’s economic success.
[Copyright © 2008 International Vocational Education and Training Association.]

This study identifies the meaning of students’ competence conceived by 26 secondary school business teachers in Hong Kong by using phenomenographic research and dicusses how these conceptions draw implications on business education. Findings show that students’ competence is seen as possessing: (1) work-based skills, (2) good subject knowledge, (3) professional attributes, (4) critical thinking ability, (5) practical experience, and (6) a belief in lifelong learning. These six conceptions are illustrated with sufficient extracts and further covered in three dimensions: performance, personal, and integrated. They are basically in line with the views on developing competent youth in knowledge-based society and empower the latest development of business education in a global sense.
[Copyright © 2006 International Vocational Education and Training Association.]

This article explains why the massification of higher education in Hong Kong has, contrary to the predictions of received wisdom, failed to enhance the upward social mobility of the youth in the city. Building upon recent literature in political science, it argues that massification can take different forms, which in turn determine the effects of massification on various social groups. Through exploring three critical phases in the city’s higher education reform, this article demonstrates how higher education policies have been heavily shaped by the interests of the city’s elites, who, on the one hand, see the expansion of higher education as a solution to such social and economic problems as unemployment and regional integration but, on the other, remain reluctant to increase public spending on the education sector. As a result, higher education has expanded almost exclusively in the private sector. Due to poor planning and implementation, graduates from self-financed programmes are severely disadvantaged in terms of employability, resulting in wage compression and unemployment. The findings of this study shed light on the regressive nature of higher education.
[Copyright © 2015 Routledge.]