Developing Distributed Curriculum Leadership in Hong Kong Schools

The book aims to explore distributed leadership in developing curriculum innovations in schools with a target of bringing about theoretical underpinnings in the West with the empirical studies and practices in the East. It examines theoretically the roots of the curriculum leadership studies and practically with the empirical data and case studies in Hong Kong which has been considered a melting pot of the Western concepts and innovations in a land of Eastern cultures. The examination is framed within theoretical frameworks of activity theories, discourse analysis and social network systems. The findings will show the impact of the cultural traditions of Eastern countries in the mediation of the direction of the discourses in teacher meetings and the effectiveness of decision making in the processes of developing school based curriculum leadership. The book is theoretically exploratory with practically examined practices for educational leaders like schools headers and department leaders as well as teachers who aim at asserting greater influence in the educational decision making processes.

Topics discussed in the book include:

• Curriculum leadership functions and patterns of leadership distribution
• Engaging teachers in reflective practice: tensions between ideological orientations and pragmatic considerations
• Models of distributed leadership: focus, development and future
• Initiating, designing and enacting curriculum innovations: procedures and processes

This book will appeal to researchers interested in Curriculum Studies, School leadership and comparative education. Those who studies the theory of education and Asian education will also find this book valuable.

Edmond Hau-fai Law is Professor in Curriculum & Instruction Department and a research fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change, The Education University of Hong Kong. He was a visiting scholar at universities of Twente the Netherlands, Tokyo Gagukei and Kansai Osaka Japan, East China Normal and Shenyang Normal China. He has also served as external examiner for Ph.D. theses for universities Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Malaysia, Singapore, Twente, Brunei and Hong Kong. He worked for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on policy evaluation and pedagogical transformation projects in Asia Pacific region.