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School leaders’ dilemmas and measures to instigate changes for inclusive education in Hong Kong

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Abstract

The roles of principal leadership in change management have long been documented. The key concern to examine in this study was the dilemmas and measures confronting principals’ when they led changes to instigate inclusive education in Hong Kong. Thus, this paper aims to report sources of dilemmas and how principals tackled them in the change process. Ten principals of schools recognized for effective inclusive education practices were interviewed in a qualitative study. Findings suggested that the process of leading change was very complex. Two dilemmas were identified: (a) principals’ struggles between benefits and issues of participating in inclusive education and (b) autocratic initial decisions versus need for staff involvement. The second dilemma stemmed from not involving key staff while the implementation required their active participation. Thus, the existing organizational culture and personnel capacities became obstacles required for the success of inclusive education. The leadership measures to tackle the obstacles began by building a shared vision which in turn required both transactional and transformational leadership activities in order to increase teacher commitment to reforms. This study has contributed to change leadership theories in affirming the need to include socio-political contexts in examining leadership decisions toward school reforms.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (Grant No. 840013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong

    Kim Fong Poon-McBrayer

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  1. Kim Fong Poon-McBrayer
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Correspondence to Kim Fong Poon-McBrayer.

Appendix

Appendix

Interview protocol for principals

  1. 1.

    Who made the decision to join inclusive education in your school?

  2. 2.

    What were the reasons for practicing inclusive education under the voluntary participation policy in Hong Kong?

  3. 3.

    What were the reasons for joining the school partnership scheme as resource schools?

  4. 4.

    What challenges have you encountered as a school leader? How did you tackle these challenges?

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Poon-McBrayer, K.F. School leaders’ dilemmas and measures to instigate changes for inclusive education in Hong Kong. J Educ Change 18, 295–309 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9300-5

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