Developing and Refining an East Asian Conceptualization of Principal Instructional Leadership

Over the past decade, policymakers in East Asia have implemented new policies and programs aimed at increasing the capacity for leadership in schools (Cheng & Walker, 2008; Hallinger, 2011; Walker & Kwan, 2008). The rationale for overhauling school management systems (e.g., school based management, quality systems, accountability structures) and developing new approaches to the recruitment, selection, training, and evaluation of school leaders is based upon an increasingly substantial empirical knowledge base concerning the contributions that instructional leadership makes to school performance (Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Leithwood et al., 2006; Robinson et al., 2008). At the same time, scholars have noted that this knowledge base consists largely of theory and empirical research from Western cultural contexts (Cheng, 1995; Hallinger, 1995, Walker & Dimmock, 2002). This limitation of the knowledge base on school leadership in East Asia represents the focus of this project. The proposed project seeks to contribute to the development of the knowledge base on principal instructional leadership in four East Asian societies: China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Funding Source: RGC - General Research Fund (GRF)