Research and expertise

What the Department of Education Policy and Leadership works on, and who to speak to.

Staff and school partners in a working session

How we work

Policy research that never leaves the desk is of limited use to a school, and school-based work that ignores the policy frame keeps solving the same problem twice. The Department deliberately holds both ends: our staff sit on advisory committees and consultation panels, and they also spend term time in schools, working alongside leadership teams on improvement plans that have to survive a real timetable.

Most of our projects are commissioned or co-designed with partner schools, the Education Bureau or professional bodies, and we publish what we find whether or not it flatters the policy.

Research across the Faculty

Our research areas

Education policy analysis and evaluation

How policies are made, funded and judged. Current work covers curriculum reform implementation, teacher supply and deployment, and the evaluation methods used to decide whether an initiative is working. We advise on consultation responses and carry out commissioned evaluations for public bodies.

School leadership and principalship

Preparation, succession and the daily practice of leading a school. Our research follows aspiring principals from certification into headship, and examines the role of middle leaders — panel chairs, year heads, subject coordinators — who carry most of the change a school attempts.

Educational administration and governance

School management committees, incorporated management committees, sponsoring bodies and the finance and accountability arrangements that sit behind them. We work with school managers and governors on decision-making, resource allocation and the governance of school improvement.

School improvement and accountability

Self-evaluation, external review, and the use of evidence inside a school. We help schools build improvement cycles that a busy staffroom can actually sustain, and we study what happens to accountability data once it reaches the people it is meant to inform.

Comparative and international education

Hong Kong read against other systems. We compare school governance, teacher career structures and assessment regimes across East Asia and beyond, and host visiting researchers working on system reform in the region.