The professional development of school principals: insights from evaluating a programme in Hong Kong

Abstract

Preparation for school leadership has become a major global educational issue since the late 1990s. In Hong Kong, the establishment and implementation of school‐based management in the 1990s have made significant demands on principals. In 1999, a leadership development and training programme for serving and aspiring principals was initiated by the Government of the Special Administrative Region, after visits to and study of similar programmes in England, Scotland, Australia (State of Victoria) and Singapore. In 2002, further suggestions were made to draw up a framework for principals' training in Hong Kong. With an adapted evaluation framework, and based on the evaluation findings of a principals' training programme developed by a tertiary institution in 1998, this paper attempts to give answers to: (1) why do serving principals attend principals' training programmes? (2) what sort of training programme do principals regard as useful? (3) are the findings consistent with the proposals of the Government? (4) do training programmes bring about changes in attitudes and behaviours of principals? The paper concludes with recommendations for (1) and (2).