Similar to other places in Asia, Hong Kong is deeply rooted in a typical hierarchical structure of Chinese society that power distance between the teachers (lower position) and principals (higher position) exists in schools. Practice of teacher leadership seems to be a distant future for beginning teachers. This paper examines the development of beginning teacher leadership through teacher-principal interactions. What effects of the interactions have on beginning teachers’ leadership development? How do principals’ leadership practices infuse beginning teacher leadership in the interactions? The findings are derived from interviews and collected documentary evidence of twelve beginning teachers teaching in primary, secondary and special schools. The teachers provided detailed accounts of their interactions with school principals over the past two years through which the teachers’ leadership development was directed and situated in specific school cultures. Results unveil that different school cultures could affect the teachers’ aspiration for and development of leadership in curriculum and instruction. Influences of principal-teacher interactions on development of teacher leadership are identified in four types of school cultures. The effects of the influences are then contextualized as “higher-power distance”, “policy-driven”, “hierarchical” and “individualistic”. Implications for development of teacher leadership are discussed.

The forms and dynamics of school leadership team remain a “blank spot” in literature. Our study investigated school leadership teams at 14 local schools in Hong Kong and 10 local schools in Shanghai. The interview results suggested that most important decisions at schools at both places go through a stepwise consultation process. School principals at both places tend to present important decisions as a result of collective decision rather than a decision made by the principal alone. The extent to which SLT members participate in initiating agenda and contributing to the discussion at regular SLT meetings is closely related with the extent to which their respective responsibility domain. The mobility of school leadership membership is low in schools at both places, which are perceived by some schools as an important hindrance to school innovation. A notable difference was found that the team composition in terms of size, position, and expertise domain of members is more diverse in Hong Kong than that in Shanghai, we argue that distinct educational administration systems at the two place may be accounted for the divergence.

As the millennium unfolds itself public education in Hong Kong is facing both enormous changes and tremendous challenges. The Hong Kong Government has affirmed its strong commitment to build up a strong education system for its people. The school organization and its governance has to be restructured in the direction of a more democratic and collaborative professional community. The implementation of school-based management in Hong Kong has resulted in the devolution of more responsibilities and authority to schools. A shift from hierarchical leadership to distributed and transformative leadership is needed. There is no doubt about the significance of principal leadership in schools. However, without the assistance of effective middle managers, it will be difficult to meet the targets for quality school education. Much recent literature has revealed that middle managers play an important role in leading school reforms. However, a significant number of middle managers admitted experiencing difficulty in enacting their leadership role in their workplace. It is of paramount importance that a robust leadership team of middle managers is built in schools and that they are equipped with more leadership concepts and skills. Since 2003, Yu has conducted research and developmental work on the leadership of middle managers. Focus groups have been regularly conducted to solicit the input of both school middle managers and school heads on needs assessment. The collected data have been used to design training projects. About 5 middle managers’ leadership training projects (Yu et al., 2009; Yu, 2007; Yu et al., 2005; Yu et al., 2004; Yu, 2004) supported by the Quality Education Fund of the Hong Kong Government and school sponsoring bodies have been organized and reported. Before designing training programmes, focus groups of primary and secondary school middle managers were conducted to solicit their needs. Whereas focus groups of primary and secondary principals were conducted to

This paper reports a study on the leadership capacities of a group of 185 aspiring principals. A questionnaire consisting of 24 questions was constructed to examine the levels of leadership capacities of these aspirants. The findings indicate that the aspirants seemed to feel more competent in the leadership area of 'teacher professional growth and development' than they did with regard to 'quality assurance and accountability', 'learning, teaching and curriculum', 'strategic direction and policy environment', 'external communication and connection to the outside world', and finally 'staff and resources management'.
[Copyright © Elsevier Ltd].

由於香港已實施校本管理（schoolbased management），今天校長的管理責任和領導角色起著很大轉變，因此，校長領導能力也成為目前教育研究的重要議題。面對二十一世紀的挑戰，校長必須在專業或國際領域上，以領導技巧和能力裝備自己，使學校的行政管理能有效發揮（Education Department, 2002）。若要副校長或資深教師成為日後學校的領導繼任者，那麼，他們必須要接受適當的在職專業發展培訓（Hartzell, 1993），同時，現任的校長也應給予他們機會，讓他們經常接觸在日常課堂教學以外的學校行政與教學領導等工作，從而掌握領導的技巧（Wong, 2009）。
[Copyright © 2012 高等教育出版社.]

香港政府於2007年推出「學前教育學券計劃」，目的雖是資助家長，但當中也增加了學校資源和提升了幼師的專業發展。本文探討學券下幼兒學校校長在資源運用、收生策略和維繫教師團隊三方面的工作情況、動機、困難和內心感受。研究方法乃採用質化個案及半開放形式訪談兩位參與學券計劃的校長。他們分別是一位全日制和一位半日制的幼兒學校校長。研究結果顯示，學券在資源分配、學校運作、工作壓力、員工士氣及校長領導方面帶來了正面及負面影響。因此，本文建議政府正視學券帶出的問題，而校長亦應該檢視自己領導模式的適切性。
[Copyright © 2011 香港教育學院. The publisher web site is located at http://www.ied.edu.hk]