Teacher Leadership: Influences of Hierarchical Chinese Contexts on the Capacity of Professional Learning Communities to Empower the Classroom Teacher

Hong Kong’s schools need teacher leadership to improve student learning and stay ahead of rapidly changing educational demands. For classroom teachers without formal leadership roles, they still need the capability to influence educational decisions on student learning. The question is, can PLCs succeed in empowering teacher leadership in hierarchical Chinese contexts such as Hong Kong? Despite increased collaboration among teachers, studies show more needs to be done to empower informal teacher leadership in Hong Kong schools. Our research team aims give recommendations to improve PLCs in Hong Kong schools by understanding how professional development takes place for the classroom teacher according to school type, principal leadership, and teacher dispositions. The findings will contribute to future studies on Chinese school systems (e.g., Hong Kong and Singapore), building on previous studies.