International Congress School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) 2025 concluded with a brilliant keynote by Jiafang Lu on "The Leadership Challenges of Learning from Another System: Observations from Hong Kong." Held from February 10th to 14th, 2025 at the University of Melbourne, Australia, ICSEI is a significant international community for education researchers, policymakers, and practitioners focused on school effectiveness, school improvement, educational innovation and transformation, excellence and equity in education, educational policy, school differences and school effects. ICSEI conferences generally attract people from over 50 countries and have been organized annually by local members and committees around the world since 1988.
Jiafang Lu delivered the final keynote of the event with important input from Allan Walker and former colleague Haiyan Qian. Her presentation followed six thought-rattling keynotes given by Jim Watterston, Martin Westwell & Anam Javed, Gert Biesta, Linda Darling-Hammond & Larissa McLean Davies, Andy Hargreaves, and Sharon Davis.
In her keynote, Jiafang discussed Hong Kong's active engagement in cross-system interactions for leadership and school improvement. She highlighted three leader learning programs, addressing organization-based systems (school-to-school), sector-based systems (school to non-school organization), and jurisdiction-based systems (sister school partnerships between Hong Kong and Mainland China). Jiafang outlined the achievements and challenges of these programs and proposed solutions and implications for cross-system learning.
Jiafang Lu is Associate Professor at the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, Education University of Hong Kong. She also prides herself on serving as Acting Co-Director at the Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change, a strategic research and development center established in 2010 at the Education University of Hong Kong.
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