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The Effect of Trust on the Relationship Between Instructional Leadership and Student Outcomes in Hong Kong Secondary Schools

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Abstract

In discussions on the contribution of leadership in improving schools, transformational leadership and instructional leadership are, more often than not, portrayed as disparate practices. The former argues for developing teacher collaborative capacity in schools, whereas the latter advocates establishing controlling measures on teaching quality; both lines of thought attract their own supporters. The recent finding that instructional leadership practices have a greater impact on student learning has apparently marginalised researchers’ attention paid to transformational leadership. This study argues that both leadership practices are important to student performance; transformational leadership can foster a trusting environment in schools for facilitating the effective enactment of instructional leadership. Based on a dataset on Hong Kong vice-principals, this quantitative study found that the widely recognised link between instructional leadership and student outcomes did not hold in low-trust schools. As transformational leadership was conducive for trust building, its role in shaping student performance should be re-addressed.

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Notes

  1. The dataset was drawn from a large-scale study on vice-principals in Hong Kong that aimed to understand their socialisation strategies and working relationship with their colleagues. Only the data related to the informants’ views on their principals were used in this analysis.

  2. The government department in charge of education matters, except those related to tertiary education, was called the Education Department before 1983. It was renamed as the Education and Manpower Bureau in 2003 and was further changed to the Education Bureau in 2007.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for its support through a General Research Grant (CUHK 445812).

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  1. Department of Educational Administration and Policy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

    Paula Kwan

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  1. Paula Kwan
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Correspondence to Paula Kwan.

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Kwan, P. The Effect of Trust on the Relationship Between Instructional Leadership and Student Outcomes in Hong Kong Secondary Schools. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 25, 111–121 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-015-0242-5

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