In recent years, the role of school principals in providing leadership, and the impact of that leadership in promoting teacher professional development for building school capacity has attracted increasing attention worldwide. The study described in this paper explores the practices of leadership for promoting school-based teacher professional development (SBTPD) through a case study of a preschool in Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region of China. The case study examines leadership and SBTPD. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. The research participants were the management team and teachers from the case study school. The findings of the study indicate that direction setting, communication and collaboration were associated with the practice of leadership for promoting SBTPD. We argue that teacher participation in decision-making is an important factor influencing the practice of leadership and its impact on SBTPD. There are implications for developing a critical awareness of the constraints that limit the extent to which SBTPD can be empowering in the hierarchical school structure in a Chinese educational context.
[Copyright © 2016 Informa UK limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]

This study tests mediated principal leadership effects on teacher professional learning through collegial trust, communication and collaboration in Hong Kong primary schools. It is based on a series of single mediator studies, and uses the same convenience sample of 970 teachers from 32 local primary schools. It also adopts regression-based macros, integrated with bootstrapping, to examine and compare sizes and proportions of potential mediating effects of the three human relational variables. The findings affirm the role and nature trust, communication, and collaboration play in the mediated relationship. In contrast, the mediating power of collaboration is non-significantly stronger than that of communication, and is more than double that of trust. The conclusion is that a school environment featuring mutual trust, effective communication and genuine collaboration is a core condition for teacher learning and change. Provided that the forces that bind people together in schools are multiple, principals are recommended to create school culture and conditions strategically for teacher learning to thrive.
[Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis.]

This study examines the issues surrounding 'student voice' in a specific Chinese context, and assesses the key elements of leadership that could enhance student voice in that context. It reports the results of a research conducted in a community-based educational centre in Hong Kong that provides after-school educational and social adjustment programmes for children aged 6-15. Although the centre promotes the principle of student voice, the perceptions and attitudes of students and teachers towards this principle are found to be different. Analysis draws on several sources, including semi-structured interviews, observations and related documentation. Based on the data collected, the gaps between teachers' and students' perspectives of student voice are identified, and cultural perspectives are discussed. Student voice is found to be a key issue for children. The recommendations for institutional leaders who seek to promote this concept include valuing student voice, embracing a willingness to construct a new partnership with students and ensuring consistent whole-institution commitment.
[Copyright of International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2011.635809]

This article reports a case study that investigated the ways in which heads of subject departments managed the development and application of new assessment strategies in one secondary school in Hong Kong. The data of the study were gathered through participant observation and interviews with 12 teachers who participated in an assessment for learning project in the school. The results show variation in the leadership approaches adopted by the department heads, highlighting the dichotomy between managerial accountability and professional empowerment as their perceived mandate, and techno-instrumentalism and autonomous explorations as their visions for school-based renewal initiatives. The findings of the study highlight the subcultures within subject departments resulting from the different leadership styles enacted by the subject leaders, and point to the need for further investigations into the mediating roles of culture of subject disciplines and contextual variables that shape the dynamics of educational management.
[Copyright of International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2012.672654]

This paper examines the criteria used by recruiting bodies to assess potential candidates for the post of principal of a secondary school in Hong Kong. A quantitative methodology is used to identify what recruiters seek in applicants. The expectations that recruiters have when assessing applicants can be seen as a form of proxy for the elements they consider would constitute a successful principal. Data were collected from school superintendents who had served as selection panel members. The findings confirm a four-factor set of expectations sought from applicants; these are Generic Managerial Skills; Communication and Presentation Skills; Knowledge and Experience; and Religious Value Orientation. The diversity of the backgrounds of the school superintendents was also explored. An understanding of the selection criteria may inform policy-makers and practitioners and improve the selection of candidates.
[Copyright of International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2011.617838 ]

This paper discusses the changing concepts of leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in England and Hong Kong during a period of significant education reform. We seek to illustrate the interplay between the impact of the policy agenda and the emerging quality leadership perspectives found in the theoretical literature, by first considering the recent education reform context in both England and Hong Kong, before examining the importance of leadership for quality provision given the constraints and drivers of policy expectation. The paper explores transformational, distributed and authentic models of leadership in the 'New Leadership' paradigm and uses these constructions to examine the developing problems and opportunities for quality leadership as expected by the current policy reform agenda and understood by the practitioners. In conclusion, we raise questions about the interplay between policy agendas and the development of theoretical models of leadership for ECE in England and Hong Kong.
[Copyright of International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2011.644327 ]

This article aims to identify leadership roles for quality in early childhood programmes in the local settings of a sample of Hong Kong preschools. Two schools were selected for the study, both of which were rated as excellent in the quality assurance inspections of a local education authority. Effective leadership was explored from the multiple perspectives of various school stakeholders, including school governors, principals, teachers, members of support staff and parents. The qualitative interviews were used for data collection. The interview data indicated that the teachers, members of support staff and parents quite often viewed themselves as followers and were dependent on a single leader, the head. As perceived by the school stakeholders, the principals tended to take up three major roles: role model, school manager and mentor for curriculum and pedagogy. Characteristics of the associated patterns of the three leadership roles were similar to those of moral, managerial and instructional leadership documented in the Western literature. The implications of the study for promoting moral leadership and developing teacher leadership are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603120903387561]