Bilateral (Hong Kong): Reshaping Educational Practice for Improvement in Hong Kong and England: How Schools Mediate Government Reforms

提高学校的教与学标准是一个全球关注的问题，也是最近教育改革的一个主要焦点。然而，在政策界、学术界和实践界，关于学校如何以及在多大程度上以确保实现其意图的方式实施此类改革，仍存在持续的争论。因此，这项研究的目的是通过对英格兰和香港一系列有效和不断改进的中学的学校领导和教师如何协调这些改革的预期结果的比较分析，为政策意图与教育实践和结果之间的复杂联系提供新的知识。这项研究将首先对香港和英国当前政府改革面临的挑战进行测绘，然后对现有的两项全国性调查进行第二次分析，调查内容是高级和中层领导人对校长对学校变革和改进的看法。这是两个由研究小组领导的平行三年研究项目的一部分，研究小组分别在香港和英国更广泛的教育改革背景下调查了学校领导力对学生学业和社会成就的影响(顾氏等人，2008年；戴等人，2009年和2011年；沃克，2011年)。通过合并两项调查的数据集，并考虑到背景差异，这项次级分析将寻求建立一个框架，以分析各级领导对学校和课堂改进的结构、过程和结果的影响，这些分析将成为对不同社会经济背景下不同学校群体的8所成功中学(每个国家平行研究4所)的详细案例研究的基础。研究这些学校的主要方法优势是，我们将能够对它们的行动和做法建立丰富的纵向账户，从而确保深入调查学校在不同背景下如何以不同的方式和不同的效果调节系统性改革意图。案例研究将集中于校长、高级和中级领导人和教师如何协调改革，以评估他们的主要意图在多大程度上得到了实践，以及他们对改善学校和教室的学习和教学领导能力的关注是否得到有效实现和持续。对校长、高中级领导和专职教师的访谈将是数据收集的主要方法。还将进行学生调查，以探讨他们对学校和教室教育做法的变化(或不变化)及其对学习和成就动机的影响的看法。因此，通过探索不同层面和不同角度对变化的看法，这项研究将有助于我们更好地了解改革导致的旨在改善教育实践和学生成绩的变化对服务于不同社区的学校的连续性、间断性和相对影响。这项对英国和香港学校的比较分析，将在两国社会、文化和社会价值观的异同以及改革目标的相似之处，为教育实践中领导和管理变革的性质提供新的见解。此外，通过使用纵向、混合的方法来调查宏观(国家)、中观(学校)和微观(课堂)层面的改革的界面，这项研究将对了解学校领导人和课堂教师如何在其使用的背景下协调强制改革作出独特的贡献。

Raising standards of teaching and learning in schools is an issue of global concern and a key focus of recent educational reforms. However, there are continuing debates within policy, academic and practice communities about how and to what extent schools implement such reforms in ways which ensure that their intentions are achieved. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to contribute new knowledge of the complex interface between policy intentions and educational practices and outcomes through a comparative analysis of the ways in which the intended outcomes of such reforms are mediated by school leaders and teachers in a diverse range of effective and improving secondary schools in England and Hong Kong. The research will begin with a mapping exercise of perceived challenges of current government reforms in Hong Kong and England and a secondary analysis of two existing national surveys on senior and middle leaders' perceptions of their principals' contribution to change and improvement in their schools. These were part of two parallel three-year research projects, led by the research teams, which investigated the impact of school leadership on pupils' academic and social outcomes in the wider educational reform contexts in Hong Kong and England respectively (Gu et al., 2008; Day et al., 2009 & 2011; Walker, 2011). By merging the datasets of the two surveys and taking into account contextual differences, this secondary analysis will seek to develop a framework to analyse the influence of leadership at all levels on the implementation of mandated reform on the structures, processes and outcomes of school and classroom improvement.These analyses will form the basis for detailed case studies of 8 successful secondary schools (4 from the parallel study in each country) across diversified school populations in different socio-economic contexts. The main methodological advantage of studying these schools is that we will be able to build rich, longitudinal accounts of their actions and practices and thus ensure an in-depth investigation of how systemic reform intentions are mediated in different ways and with different effects by schools in different contexts. The case studies will focus upon the ways in which reforms are mediated by principals, senior and middle leaders and teachers in order to assess the extent to which their primary intentions have been translated into practice and whether their focus on improving the leadership of learning and teaching in schools and classrooms has been effectively realised and sustained. Interviews with principals, senior and middle leaders and full-time teachers will be the main method of data collection. Pupil surveys will also be conducted in order to explore their views on the changes (or no change) in educational practices in their schools and classrooms and their impact on their motivation to learn and achieve. Thus, by exploring perceptions of change at different levels and from different perspectives, the research will help us better understand the continuities , discontinuities and relative impact on schools serving different communities of reform led changes which seek improvements in educational practices and in pupil outcomes. This comparative analysis between schools in England and Hong Kong will provide new insights on the nature of the leadership and management of change in educational practice in the context of similarities and differences in the social, cultural and societal values between the two countries and similarities in the reform objectives. Moreover, by using longitudinal, mixed methods to investigate the interface of reform at macro (country), meso (school) and micro (classroom) levels, the research will make a distinctive contribution to knowledge of how mandated reforms are mediated in their contexts of use by school leaders and classroom teachers.