Why good leadership is so important in Hong Kong schools

School leadership is crucial for the realisation of educational vision. And it involves different aspects.

First, the curriculum leadership of school heads. It is good to have a lofty vision, but implementation must take place by design.

In recent years, school heads have been consulted by the authorities as well as teachers in their schools on what subjects to offer or cut, what to teach in certain subjects, such as liberal studies or Chinese history, and how they should be taught. They have also talked about how IT should be used to help teaching, how to organise other learning experiences, and life and career planning for the students.

There is often school-based curriculum to develop, too. They have to decide what is best educationally for their students.

All this calls for particular leadership from the school head, who needs fundamental knowledge about curriculum design, implementation, evaluation and change. They also need to seek subject and curriculum expertise, inside and outside school, and work with these experts to take the curriculum forward towards the desired goals.

While curriculum leadership mostly entails what to offer students in school, instructional leadership addresses how it should be done.

This second leadership perspective not only concerns teaching, but also learning. The success of educational reform hinges on unpacking the black box of classroom teaching and learning and finding ways to improve both.