Educational Leadership

Specialist Courses	Description	Compulsory/ Elective
Effective Educational Leadership	The course examines theories and new developments of effective educational leadership and explores ways in which school leaders can secure and sustain school improvement. This course will also adopt a critical perspective to guide participants to evaluate issues of educational leadership in Hong Kong, Mainland China and beyond. Participants are expected to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the concept of leadership and how school leaders can adopt ethically sound strategies to develop people and improve organisations in the midst of change	Compulsory
School Evaluation and Improvement	The objective of schooling goes far beyond meeting the stated standards and requirements of regulating authorities. At the same time, to stimulate changes in knowledge, behaviours, and attitudes that lead to the continuous development of school systems, there is a need to measure and evaluate the status quo critically. Research and practice of school measurement and evaluation vary widely in education systems across the world and yield different outcomes. This course starts with a broad-based overview of school measurement and evaluation practices from a global and comparative perspective. It will help participants to understand school evaluation concepts well enough to integrate them into complex measurement and evaluation processes. Further, the course will provide rigorous, theoretically-grounded and evidence-informed practices that participants can apply by developing school measurement and evaluation instruments to improve the school systems in their local contexts and the institutions in which they work.	Elective
Leading School-based Teacher Learning	Teacher leaders need to know how school-based teacher professional development can support both the learning needs of the teachers and the organisational needs of the school to exercise effective leadership in teacher learning. This course situates teacher leadership in school-based professional development in its context and discusses the practices and capacities needed to lead teacher learning. The course objective is to provide teacher leaders with the thinking tools and a space to explore the topic in five domains: School-Based Management; Teacher Culture; Student-Centred Learning; Reflective Dialogue; and Collaborative Teacher Learning. Course participants will gain an appreciation of how school-based teacher learning operates within the broader context of school-based management.	Elective
Organisational Dynamics	The course provides participants with an analytical background to the study of educational management and administration from the organisational dynamics and organisational learning perspectives. Schools are complex formal organisations. The course examines how schools navigate between external/policy contexts and internal processes, and enhances insights into human behaviour and learning within organisations. Drawing on local and international experience, the course analyses frameworks of educational organisations as bureaucracies, socio-political systems and open systems. At the end of the course, participants are expected to demonstrate a critical understanding of the rationale behind school practices and be prepared for contributing to the effective management of schools in the new policy context.	Elective
School, Family and Community Collaboration	This course is designed to provide participants with opportunities to understand and engage theoretical and empirical discussion on school, family, and community collaboration and an overview of current related school policies and practices in Hong Kong and other countries. Through exploring complications and implications of developing partnerships between school, family, and community, participants are expected to acquire the conceptual knowledge and practical skills to organise, implement, and evaluate an innovative approach to partnerships, create goal-oriented programmes of school, family, and community collaboration within the educational context of systemic change and reform and work effectively with diverse families in Hong Kong.	Elective
Policy Planning and Change in Education (subject to approval)	Education policy is meant to bring systemic change to education in different units of communities in a society. It supports schools and teachers to (re-)shape the development and practices to move towards shared objectives. It can come in different forms such as vision statements, goals, targets, measures and mechanisms, as well as official policy statements or circulars, to solve identified issues (e.g. class size, academic achievement, student diversity), and to promote innovations (e.g. curriculum pedagogy, organisational management, teacher education), strengthen specific manpower resources for the economy, cultivate certain kinds of citizens, etc. Policy processes, however, are complex as different people involved bring into the processes varied assumptions, values and interests not clearly articulated. Whether change does take place as expected is also subject to the dynamics at play in a particular educational context affected by policy. This course aims to help participants understand the complexities that result from interactions between structure and discourses at varied levels, e.g. global forces and local political systems, stakeholders and their participatory procedures, as well as school-level context such as resources and student intake, just to name a few. The course takes participants through an examination of research studies, policy documents and other related materials, as well as the critical role a teacher leader should play in shaping up and implementing policies in a locally meaningful way. As current and future school leaders, participants are expected to draw upon policy experiences from their own educational or professional context for critical analysis and reflection. This course offers an introduction to further policy studies.	Elective

Remark: Courses listed above may not be offered every semester.

#Any aspect of the course and course offerings (including, without limitation, the content of the Course and the manner in which the Course is taught) may be subject to change at any time at the sole discretion of the University. Without limiting the right of the University to amend the course and its course offerings, it is envisaged that changes may be required due to factors such as staffing, enrolment levels, logistical arrangements and curriculum changes.