Three years after: Cross-sectional studies of teachers’ workload amidst education reforms in Hong Kong

K. C. Lai's paper points out that many studies on teachers' workload did not employ a research frame and ways of measurement which would allow meaningful comparisons with earlier studies and benchmarking with studies conducted elsewhere. He reports the development of a standard tool and teachers' diaries which were adopted in two cross-sectional studies on teachers' workload in Hong Kong in 2007 and 2010. His findings revealed that despite a number of government actions to tackle workload issues in Hong Kong nearly four years ago (Committee on Teachers' Work, 2006), teachers' workload has not been alleviated and teachers generally failed to achieve a reasonable work-life balance. The findings point to the need to understand the multi-faceted nature of teachers' work and how teachers perceive them. The government and schools also need to adopt concerted and sustainable measures to alleviate excessive workload amidst the large-scale education reforms and accountability measures.