Junjun Chen is a Professor at the Department of Education Policy and Leadership. Prof. Chen studied in Chinese Mainland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Before joining the EdUHK, she worked at the universities in Chinese Mainland and New Zealand. Her research has focused on principal and teacher development, well-being and resilience, systematic literature review, psychometric measurement, and how these have contributed to school effectiveness. She is willing to enlarge her research interest to advance the work of the EdUHK by cooperating with colleagues. This opportunity to work at EdUHK has made her feel very privileged indeed.

Research interests

• Principal development, literacy, resilience, and well-being
• Teacher development
• Systematic literature review
• Psychometric measurement

Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (RGC) funded-General Research Fund (GRF) Projects as Principal Investigator (PI)

• Leading for the future: Drivers, measure, and outcomes of principal system leadership (2026-2027)
• Getting into the zone: Patterns, interplays, and outcomes of principal flow (2025-2026)
• The missing link: Principal well-being literacy and its drivers and outcomes (2024-2025)
• Principal resilience and its influential occupational drivers in Hong Kong: Developing and validating the principal resilience inventory (2023-2024)
• Investigating the occupational well-being of Hong Kong school principals and influential psychosocial risk factors: A mixed-methods approach (2021-2023)
• The psychological well-being of PhD students in Hong Kong: A territory-wide study and an international comparison (2020-2021)

Foundation Funding Projects as Principal Investigator (PI)

• Enhancing holistic well-being for underprivileged children living in rural Chinese Mainland (2023-2024, Asia Story Education Limited)

Other Research Projects as Principal Investigator (PI)

• Teacher well-being literacy in the GBA and beyond: Drivers, measure, and outcomes under the project of Virtual Interdisciplinary Research Centre (VIRC) of the Faculty of Education and Human Development (2024-27, Project leader)

International Baccalaureate Commissioned Research Project as Co-Investigator (Co-I)

• The International Baccalaureate Continuum: Principals, teachers, students, and school outcomes (2012-2014, PI: Prof. Allan Walker)

External Government Research Grant as member

• The Brazil Government Research Grant. The effectiveness of leadership in schools in Brazil (2014-2015, PI: Prof. Christopher Day).
• The Economic and Social Research Council Grant of British & The University Grants Committee of Hong Kong. Reshaping educational practice for improvement in Hong Kong and England: How schools mediate reforms (2012-2013, PI: Prof. Allan Walker, Prof. Qing Gu & Prof. Christopher Day)

Recognition and Awards

• UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report (Educational leadership) Expert Group Member, 2024
• The top 1% of the world's most-cited scientists by the Stanford University, 2023 & 2024 (Career)
• The top 2% of the world's most-cited scientists by the Stanford University, 2020 & 2021 & 2022 (Single year)
• The President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research, 2021
• The Faculty Caring Teacher Award Scheme, Certificate of Merit, 2022 
• The most-cited article by Web of Science, 2021
• The most cited paper out of 25 papers from Chinese researchers by Wiley, 2020
• The Faculty Quality Publication Award, EdUHK, 2016 & 2018
• The Faculty Quality Publication Award Finalist, EdUHK, 2019 & 2021
• The Top 10% Faculty Publication Award, EdUHK, 2014 & 2015
• PhD Dissertation Award by The University of Auckland, New Zealand, 2012

Editorship

• Senior Associate Editor for the Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 2018/present (SSCI)
• Editorial advisory board of School Effectiveness & School Improvement, 2023/Present (SSCI)
• Editorial advisory board of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 2024/Present (SSCI)
• Editorial advisory board of Journal of Educational Administration, 2024/Present (SSCI)
• Associate Editor for Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 2020/24 (SSCI)
• Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychology (Educational Psychology), 2020/Present (SSCI)
• Consulting Editor for Educational Psychology, 2020/present (SSCI)

Reviewer for External Grants

• Israel Science Foundation, Israel
• Research Grants Council, Hong Kong