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全球关注的问题，也是最近教育改革的重点。然而，在政策、学术和实践团体中，关于学校如何以及在多大程度上实施这些改革以确保实现其意图的争论仍在继续。因此，本研究的目的是通过比较分析在英国和香港的一系列有效和不断改进的中学中，学校领导和教师如何调节这些改革的预期结果，从而为政策意图与教育实践和结果之间的复杂界面提供新的知识。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制图，并对两项现有的全国性调查进行二次分析，调查内容是关于中高层领导人对校长对学校变革和改善所做贡献的看法。这是两个平行的三年研究项目的一部分，由研究团队领导，分别在香港和英国更广泛的教育改革背景下调查学校领导对学生学业和社会成果的影响（Gu et al., 2008; Day et al., 2009 & 2011; Walker, 2011）。通过合并两次调查的数据集并考虑到背景差异，这一二次分析将力求制定一个框架，分析各级领导对执行授权改革对学校和课堂改进的结构、进程和结果的影响。这些分析将构成对不同社会经济背景下不同学校人口的8所成功中学（每个国家平行研究中的4所）进行详细案例研究的基础。研究这些学校的主要方法优势在于，我们将能够对它们的行动和实践建立丰富的纵向描述，从而确保深入调查不同背景下的学校如何以不同的方式调解系统改革意图并产生不同的影响。个案研究将集中于校长、高级和中级领导及教师如何协调改革，以评估他们的主要意图在多大程度上被转化为实践，以及他们对改善学校和课堂学习和教学领导的关注是否得到有效实现和持续。对校长、中高层领导和专职教师的访谈将是数据收集的主要方法。学生调查亦会进行，以探讨他们对学校和课堂教育实践的改变（或没有改变）的看法，以及这些改变对他们学习动机和成就的影响。因此，通过从不同层面和不同角度探索对变化的看法，本研究将帮助我们更好地了解为不同社区服务的学校在寻求改善教育实践和学生成绩的改革所带来的变化的连续性、不连续性和相对影响。这种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的背景下，为教育实践中变革的领导和管理的性质提供新的见解。此外，通过使用纵向混合方法调查宏观（国家）、中观（学校）和微观（课堂）层面改革的界面，该研究将对了解强制性改革如何在学校领导和课堂教师使用的背景下进行调解做出独特贡献。

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.