Staff development and appraisals in Hong Kong primary schools: A case study

It is noticed that up till 1997-98 academic year, there are only 200 primary schools which is approximately 23% of the total number of primary schools of Hong Kong, joining the School Management Initiative (SMI) Scheme since its first initiation in 1992. Referring to the SMI handbooks and other related reports, a well organized staff development and appraisal system is very significant in the effective management of schools. However, the main concern of this paper is not focussing on why not many schools join SMI scheme. Instead, this paper describes a qualitative case study of three Hong Kong primary schools, aiming at revealing the present situation of staff development and appraisal practices implementing in HK primary schools. Researchers also want to study how school practitioners, especially from the views of the people in the frontier, i.e. the heads (the manager), the senior teachers (the middle manager) and the teachers (the staff) value and act in the whole staff development and appraisal programmes. In the study, researchers have interviewed 3 school heads, 9 senior teachers and 12 teachers. The three sample schools are chosen by convenience but the interviewees are selected by ramdom sampling. The experience explored in the study is hoped to have some important implications to the effective management, especially in the areas of staff development and appraisal practices in primary schools of Hong Kong.