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Special issue on the making of secondary school principals on

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International Studies in
Educational Administration
Journal of the Commonwealth
Council for Educational
Administration & Management
Special Issue on The Making of Secondary School

Principals on Selected Small Islands
Editied by Petros Pashiardis and Peter Ribbins
CCEAM
Volume 31 • Number 2 • 2003
International Studies in Educational Administration Professor Steve Jacobson, State University of New
York, Buffalo, USA.
An official publication of the Commonwealth Council Associate Professor Phillip Jones, University of
for Educational Administration and Management Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, 2006, AUSTRALIA.
Professor Benjamin Levin, University of Manitoba,
EDITORS Winnipeg, R3T 2N2, CANADA.
Associate Professor Kam-Cheung Wong, Professor Reynold Macpherson, University of
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Auckland, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND.
HONG KONG. Professor Bill Mulford, University of Tasmania, Tas,
Professor Colin W. Evers, The University of 7250 AUSTRALIA.
Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, HONG KONG. Associate Professor Petros Pashiardis, University of
Cyprus, Nicosia, CYPRUS.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Professor Peter Ribbins, University of Birmingham,
Professor Kai-Ming Cheng, The University of Hong Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Kong, Pokfulam Road, HONG KONG. Mrs Vivienne Roberts, The University of the West
Professor Mark Bray, The University of Hong Kong, Indies, Cave Hill Campus, P.O. Box 64, Bridgetown,
Pokfulam Road, HONG KONG. BARBADOS.
Professor Jack Lam, The Chinese University of Hong Associate Professor Viviane Robinson, University of
Kong, Shatin, HONG KONG. Auckland, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND.
Associate Professor P. C. Gronn, Monash University, Professor Nessan Ronan, The Copperbelt University,
Clayton, Victoria, 3168, AUSTRALIA. Kitwe, ZAMBIA.
Professor Padmakar Sapre, Samanda Apartments,
BUSINESS MANAGER 98/1 Ketkar Marg, Pune, INDIA 411004.
Patricia Sallis, CCEAM, AUT Technology Park, Professor Thomas Sergiovanni, Trinity University,
P.O. Box 12 397, Penrose, Auckland 1135, San Antonio, Texas 782 12-7200, USA.
NEW ZEALAND. Professor Paula Short, University of Missouri,
Missouri, USA.
EXECUTIVE OFFICER Professor Angela Thody, University of Lincoln,
Miss Cindy Wu, The University of Hong Kong,
Lincoln, LN2 4UW, UK.
Pokfulam Road, HONG KONG.
Professor Harry Tomlinson, Leeds Metropolitan
University, Leeds, ENGLAND.
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Dr Caroline C Utulu, University of Benin, Benin City,
Professor R K Auala, University of Namibia, P O Box
NIGERIA.
13301, 340 Mandume Ndemufayo Avenue,
Windhoek, Pioneerspark, NAMIBIA. Mrs Barbara Vann, Penair School, Truro, Cornwall,
Dr Christopher Bezzina, University of Malta, Msida TR1 1TN, UK.
MSD 06, MALTA. Professor Duncan Waite, Southwest Texas State
Professor Thomas Charles Bisschoff, Rand Afrikaans University, San Marcos, Texas 78666, USA.
University, P O Box 524, Auckland Park, RSA 2006, Associate Professor Charles Webber, Faculty of
SOUTH AFRICA. Education, University of Calgary, T2N 1N4,
Dr Mark Brundrett, University of Leicester, University CANADA.
Centre, Barrack Road, Northampton, NN2 6AF, UK. Professor Philip van der Westhuizen, Potchefstroom
Professor Brian Caldwell, University of Melbourne, University, Potchefstroom 252O, SOUTH AFRICA.
Parkville, Victoria, 3052, AUSTRALIA.
Associate Professor Chew Oon-Ai, Joy, Nanyang
Technological University, SINGAPORE.
Associate Professor Frank Crowther, University of ISSN 1324-1702
Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD 4350,
AUSTRALIA. The International Studies in Educational
Professor Christopher Day, The University of Administration aims to promote understanding of the
Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham practice and theory of educational administration
NG7 2RD, UK. through the publication of research findings, personal
Professor Gang Ding, East China Normal University, perspectives and reports of projects or developments.
Shanghai 200062, CHINA. Contributions from members and non-members of the
Professor Fenwick English, Iowa State University, CCEAM are welcome. Advice for Contributors is
Iowa 50011, USA. provided on the back cover of this issue. Manuscripts,
Associate Professor S Gopinathan, Nanyang Editorial Correspondence and Books for Review
Technological University, SINGAPORE. should be sent to the Editors. Business
Professor Philip Hallinger, Mahidol University, Correspondence should be sent to the Business
Bangkok, THAILAND. Manager.
International Studies in Educational Administration
Volume 30, Number 3, 2002
Special Issue on The Making of Secondary School Principals

on Selected Small Islands
Contents
Editorial Note 1
PETROS PASHIARDIS AND PETER RIBBINS
CHAPTER 1
The Making of Secondary School Principals on Selected Small Islands:
An Introduction 2
PETER RIBBINS, PETROS PASHIARDIS AND PETER GRONN
CHAPTER 2
On Cyprus: The Making of Secondary School Principals 13
CHAPTER 3
On Hong Kong: The Making of Secondary School Principals 35
KAM-CHEUNG WONG AND HO-MING NG
CHAPTER 4
On Singapore: The Making of Secondary School Principals 54
JOY CHEW, KEN STOTT AND ZOE BOON
CHAPTER 5
Evolving Formations:
The Making of Secondary School Principals on Selected Small Islands 76
PETER GRONN AND PETER RIBBINS
Notes on Project Members
CHRISTOPHER BEZZINA is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Malta. He was
Principal at St Martin’s College before joining the Faculty in 1997.
ZOE BOON is Principal of Merlimau Primary School and an Adjunct Lecturer at the National
Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
VINCENT CASSAR is an organisational psychologist and lectures in the Department of

Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Malta.
JOY CHEW is Associate Professor and Head of the Policy and Management Studies Academic
Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
PETER GRONN is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash University,

Australia. He was Associate Dean (Teaching) and is Associate Dean (Development).
HO-MING NG is Lecturer in the Division of Policy, Administration & Social Sciences Education,
Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong where he is Deputy Director of the Centre for
Educational Leadership.
PETROS PASHIARDIS is Associate Professor of Educational Administration in the Department of

Education, University of Cyprus. He is Senior Vice-President of the Commonwealth Council for
Educational Administration and Management.
PETER RIBBINS is Emeritus Professor and has been Dean of the Faculty of Education and
Continuing Studies at Birmingham University. He is Chairman of the British Educational
Leadership, Management and Administration Society.
KEN STOTT IS ASSOCIATE DEAN, Leadership Programmes, within the Graduate Programmes
and Research Office at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore.
KAM-CHEUNG WONG is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre of Educational

Leadership at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong.
EDITORIAL NOTE 1
Editorial Note
THE LITERATURE ON educational leadership, especially that of the school principal has, in
recent years, become very large and is rapidly getting much larger. With regard to schools, it
almost seems that for some no one else exercises leadership. But if there is a great deal on
leadership there is little on leaders, especially on school leaders outside a small charmed circle
of Western societies. In this special edition we seek to begin to redress this balance and in doing
so to bring a level of cultural sensitivity to our project. As such it reports on a qualitative study
of the making of 37 secondary school principals in Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta and Singapore that
was undertaken by a multi-ethnic and international team of scholars drawn from these four
islands and from Australia and the United Kingdom. We were able to make a preliminary
presentation of our findings in September 2000 at symposium devoted to our work which took
place in Tasmania at the bi-annual Commonwealth Conference for Educational Administration
and Management on Community Building in a Global Context. The response of those who
attended the seminar and those who have reviewed subsequently our texts as they have gone
through the usual process of drafting and redrafting, has helped us greatly in revising and
elaborating our findings into the form reported in this special edition of the journal. We have
found the process of working together a positive experience. We hope that readers will find our
study illuminating and helpful and that it will stimulate others to engage in similar research using
analogous methods.
Guest Editors
Petros Pashiardis and Peter Ribbins
Petros Pashiardis edpetros@ucy.ac.cy

Peter Ribbins p.m.ribbins@bham.ac.uk
2 ISEA • Volume 31, Number 2, 2003
CHAPTER 1
The Making of Secondary School

Principals on Selected Small Islands:
An Introduction
PETER RIBBINS, PETROS PASHIARDIS
AND PETER GRONN
1. Preface
This chapter introduces a report of an international research study into the forming of secondary
school principals 1 in Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta and Singapore. The project involved a
collaborative effort between a team of colleagues drawn from universities in each of these islands
along with contributors from Australia and the United Kingdom. In this introduction, key aspects
of the project (purpose, portraits, provenance, process) are considered. This is followed by case
studies of Cyprus, Hong Kong and Singapore, to each of which a chapter is devoted. A report of
a fourth case study, of Malta, has already been published in an earlier edition of the journal
(Bezzina, 2002)2. The concluding chapter attempts a comparative examination of our findings as
a whole.
2. Purposes
The key purpose of this study is to contribute to what is known about how the principals of
schools are made. In doing so, it focuses upon four ‘small’ islands that, at one time or another,
had been British colonies and, until relatively recent times, were all members of the
Commonwealth. In addition, all four islands - although they may to some extent have been
isolated by their geographical situation - have enjoyed historically a cultural heritage of the richest
kind. In the case of Malta and Cyprus this has included that of Greece and Rome and in the case
of Hong Kong and Singapore that of China. Also, in recent times they have all experienced
significant, if varying, levels of economic success and its attendant social, political and cultural
consequences.
In setting out on this study, we were aware of the potential importance of these and related
factors to our research but also recognised that it would probably be unwise to over-emphasise
any of them. Essentially, we were attempting to complement and thereby give a comparative
dimension to the limited knowledge that is available world wide on how school (and other)
leaders are formed, prepare themselves, and come to be identified. The approach we used set out
to test and, as appropriate, build on the recent theoretical and empirical work of Peter Gronn
(The Making of Educational Leaders; The New Work of Educational Leaders) and Peter Ribbins
(Headship Matters; Understanding Primary Headteachers; and Headteachers and Leadership in
Special Education).
CHAPTER 1 3
These studies share a commitment to a biographical orientation (Ribbins, 2003) in general

and to a portrait-based approach in particular. How is such an inquiry to be justified at a time
when orthodoxy thinking on school leadership and how it should be researched is dominated by
an orientation that is narrowly instrumental? This is an issue that Helen Gunter and Peter Ribbins
(see Gunter and Ribbins, 2002; Ribbins and Gunter, 2002) have given a good deal of attention.
They argue that if we are to hope to comprehend leadership in education, and in so doing improve
its practice, it will be necessary to “develop ways that will make it possible to describe and
understand those who produce knowledge, what they produce, why they produce it and where
they produce it. We have labelled this as involving a study of mappers (who), mapping (how. why
and where), and maps (what)” (Gunter and Ribbins, 2002a, 1).
In elaborating their thinking on maps, mapping and mappers and applying it to the study of
educational leaders and leadership, Gunter and Ribbins (2002a) do so through the medium of
six inter-related typologies: producers, positions, provinces, practices, processes and perspectives.
They argue that: “these typologies can be used to describe and explain knowledge production ...
they also have the potential to support professional practice by field members across all sites of
educational activity. More specifically, they can enable questions and activity surrounding theory,
policy and practice to be scoped and, the choices that are made along with orientations towards
them to be opened to scrutiny” (1).
A comprehensive discussion of these typologies and their implications is beyond the scope
of this chapter, and is in any case available in the papers that have been noted above. For purposes
of the study reported in this special edition, the single most important of the six typologies is
probably that which relates to the notion of ‘knowledge provinces’. Reporting on their most recent
thinking, Gunter and Ribbins (2002a) identify six such provinces - the conceptual, the
descriptive, the humanistic, the critical, the evaluative and the instrumental (see Figure 3, 9)3.
Applied to the study of educational leadership, the identification of these provinces is based upon
an analysis of the publication outputs of the field (see Bush et al, 1999; Gunter, 2001) that
produces clusters around differentiated approaches to purpose. Viewed as such, knowledge
provinces mean what is being asserted as constituting the truth underpinning the intention
behind any leadership activity. They are represented along a continuum - with the conceptual at
one end (the left) and the instrumental at the other (the right) - that symbolises praxis or the
interplay between theory and practice. All six provinces are places where theory and practice are
central to field activity but the emphasis and disclosure of purpose does vary. For example, those
to the left of the continuum put more emphasis on understanding doing, while those on the right
are more concerned with particular types of doing. This type of mapping “enables the full
spectrum of knowledge production within the field to be evidenced, and by completing a full
literature review it would be possible to show where attention is located and where more work
needs to be done” (Gunter and Ribbins, 2002a, 3).
As related to the field of educational leadership, studies in the instrumental province can be
defined as those that “seek to provide leaders and others with effective strategies and tactics to
deliver organizational and system level goals” (9) whilst those within the humanistic province
are regarded as those that “seek to gather and theorise from the experiences and biographies of
those who are leaders and managers and those who are managed and led” (9). Reflecting the
contemporary demands of most policy makers and practitioners in many parts of the world, much
of the literature on leadership in education is concerned with the instrumental and the evaluative
and gives little attention to the critical, the humanistic, the descriptive, and the conceptual.
Whilst we would readily acknowledge the need for studies that are instrumental and evaluative,
we would deny that they are all that is necessary. Rather, if we are to hope to better understand
and improve policy and practice in education and in educational leadership, there is a strong
argument to be made for much more research that is critical, conceptual and humanistic in
character. In developing a case for the latter, we advocate the merits of a broadly biographical
approach that is mainly part- portrait based.
3. Portraits
In justifying their approach to the study of leadership in education, Gronn and Ribbins (1996)
advance three main reasons in favour of a biographical approach:
First, as detailed case histories, biographies may be inspected for evidence of the development
and learning of leadership attributes. Second, they provide analytical balance sheets on the
ends to which leaders have directed their attributes throughout their careers within the
shifting demands on, and options available to, them. Third, a comparative analysis of leaders’
career paths as revealed in biographies can answer broader institutional-level questions, such
as whether sets of leaders, sanctioned by their societies and organisations, are worthy to lead
them, share common attributes and whether those same societies and organisations screen
their leadership cohorts in any way to guarantee conformity to preferred cultural types or
models (464).
There are also difficulties with such an approach to understanding leadership making:
Apart from the rash of popular ones pandering to the relentless public appetite for scandal,
gossip, and sensation about the lives of the rich and famous, most scholarly biographical
accounts ... are written as... well researched appraisals of noteworthy contributions and
careers. But their most serious disadvantage, as source material for a comparative
understanding of leaders and leadership is, of course, that they are usually written towards
the end of a public life (464).
In this context, we stress two points. First, although many of the 37 headteachers studied by
Ribbins and his colleagues (reported in the texts listed above) are well known within their local
and professional communities, few enjoyed a substantial national let alone an international
reputation. Second, if several were approaching the end of long careers when interviewed, and
some retired shortly thereafter, others had only recently taken up their first principalship and yet
others were anticipating many further years in office. Similar claims can be made for the 34
principals interviewed for the small islands project.
Biographically orientated research can take many forms. At its most profound, it can be
enormously demanding. Lodge’s (1996, 46) account of the labours of Norman Sherry, Graham
Green’s official biographer, makes the point:
Setting himself the Herculean task of retracing his subject’s every journey... Sherry suffered
many trials and tribulations, experiencing temporary blindness, succumbing to
dysentery...nearly dying from some tropical disease that required removal of part of his
intestines ... [He] surrendered the security of his tenured university chair without
compensating enrichment by way of royalties - he is £78,000 in debt to his publishers.
CHAPTER 1 5
Given all this, it is no wonder Lodge describes the task Sherry set himself as a “curse and a
cross” and sees his dedication as “a remarkable and heroic achievement” (60). We cannot identify
any biographer of a school principal who has suffered similar privations. That said both Gronn
and Ribbins have devoted a great deal of time and effort to the study in depth of individual
principals that, at the time of writing, remain to be completed. For more than 15 years, Gronn
has been engaged in a biographical examination of the life and career of Sir James Darling of
Geelong Grammar in Melbourne (see 1986, 1989, 1992). And Since 1989, Ribbins has been
involved in a longitudinal, ethnographic study of Brian Sherratt at Great Barr Secondary School
in Birmingham (see Ribbins and Sherratt, 1993).
However, biographically orientated research can take forms that are less demanding than
those identified above. Fenwick English (1995), for example, classifies biography with
autobiography and prosopography, as advanced forms of “life writing” along with other less
advanced categories including “diaries and journals, memories, profiles, sketches, portraits and
portrayals” (208). In recent years, most especially in the United Kingdom, a growing number of
portrait-based studies of educational leadership have been published. These have been derived
from face-to-face interviews with headteachers (see Pascal and Ribbins, 1998, Rayner and
Ribbins, 1999; Ribbins, 1997; Ribbins and Marland, 1994), written interviews and reports from
headteachers (see Mortimore 1991a; 1991b; Tomlinson et al, 1999), or a combination of both
(see Hustler et al, 1995).
In defending the urgent need for many more studies of these kinds, Jo and Peter Mortimore
argue that: “there are few books which enable headteachers to speak for themselves” (1991b, vii).
Quantitative survey-style research, whatever its merits and however well conducted, cannot hope
fully to fill this gap. Such research, whilst it may more or less accurately represent the views of a
defined population of principals as a whole across a series of issues, cannot offer the reader a rich
and comprehensive understanding of the perspectives that they bring to their life and work. For
this, the reader requires a fuller and more personal access to their views across a range of themes
and issues. Such an approach would be based on the accounts that principals give of their
personal and professional lives, reported in some depth, relying on their own agendas, using their
own categories and substantially reported in their own words. This is what we have sought to
achieve in our study of the making of principals on small islands. In doing so, we have focused
upon what the principals we have interviewed have said of the first two stages of their personal
and professional lives as represented in the Gronn model. What is involved in each of these stages
may be summarised as follows.
Formation
Prior to the assumption of leadership roles, there is a preparatory stage in which possible
candidates shape themselves and/or are shaped for prospective high office. This seems to be true
of a wide range of different leaders. As part of this general process of formation, such leaders are
socialised into various social and institutional norms and values - into codes of taste, morality,
values, belief, authority and the like by three key agencies: family, school and reference groups.
Sometimes the individual experiences consistent influences and conditioning within and between
these and related agencies; on other occasions, there is inconsistency even contradiction. Taken
as a whole, these agencies shape the prospective leader’s personality and/or character by
generating a concept of self, and the rudiments of a work style and outlook.
In conducting and analysing the interviews undertaken for this aspect of the project we have
tended to focus upon aspects of family, schooling and selected reference groups as key influences
in shaping the attitudes, values and careers of the principals involved in this study as children,
pupils and teachers.
Accession
Following an initial period of preparation, candidates for principalship, as for other forms of
leadership, during this phase of their career life-cycle develop, rehearse and test their capacity
and readiness by comparison with existing office holders and prospective rivals. Accession is, as
such, a developmental period which is geared to the accomplishment of two crucial tasks: first,
the preparation and construction of oneself as a credible candidate for office; and, second, the
acquisition of marketable performance routines that are designed to attract and convince
prospective talent-spotters and appointment panel members and selectors. This is also the case
with regard to leadership positions at all levels within a school. As such positions become
available candidates learn to present and position themselves, to ‘jockey’ or compete with others
for preferment and come to rely to a more or less significant extent on networks of peers, patrons
and sponsors while awaiting the call to office. The lessons, which may be learnt, and the contacts
that are made in unsuccessful and successful attempts to achieve promotion at any level may be
relevant to the search for further preferment. Of course, the nature of the system for the
determination of appointments and promotions may well differ very significantly from one
society to another and such structural considerations will be highly significant in shaping the
agency of those who work at all levels within it.
In conducting, analysing and presenting our interviews in this part of the project we have
focused on those aspects of our discussions that deal with the history of the careers of our
principals as teachers, their search for and exercise of leadership roles within the schools in which
they worked, and the extent to which this was an effective preparation, planned or otherwise, for
the achievement of their initial experience as principals.
4. Provenance
As with many such projects, this had many beginnings. Three might be noted. The first was the
studies of principalship in which several members of the research team had been engaged in the
past. Some are identified above; others include the theses of Zoe Boon (1992) and Chris Bezzina
(1995) that were undertaken when both were school principals. Yet others include contributions
from Ho-Ming Ng (2001), Petros Pashiardis (1997, 1998, 2001), Ken Stott (2000) and Kam-
Cheung Wong and Kai-Ming Cheng (1995). The second was a bid for an Activity Grant made to
the Commonwealth Foundation in 1998 by Bezzina and Pashiardis. This was to enable a study
involving research in Barbados, Cyprus, Fiji, Malta, Mauritius and Papua New Guinea that would
report its findings on Women’s Roles and Advancement to Educational Leadership Positions in
Small Islands Nations of the Commonwealth at an international conference on educational
administration in Australia in 2000. Although, this bid was unsuccessful, it led to the third
beginning. This arose from conversations in early 1999 between Ribbins and Pashiardis from
which the project reported in this special edition was derived.
Some time after producing his original bid with Bezzina, Pashiardis had read work by Gronn
and Ribbins on the making of educational leaders in general and of school principals in particular
and wished, adapting his earlier project if possible, to attempt something similar. In practice it
proved relatively easy to achieve this. Pashiardis approached Ribbins and they quickly agreed to
work together. They then contacted Gronn, who also agreed to take part. Determining that the
focus of the study should remain on “small islands” was straightforward but identifying which
CHAPTER 1 7
small islands rather less so. Given the preliminary nature of the study and the compelling need
to work with tight deadlines if we were to be able to report their findings at the conference in
Tasmania (see below), four islands seemed sufficient and Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta and
Singapore were selected.
Because Peter Ribbins was to be Visiting Professor for the semester of autumn 1999 at the
University of Cyprus, it seemed logical that he and Petros Pashiardis should work together on
this aspect of the project. For essentially opportunistic reasons colleagues from the Universities
of Hong Kong (Ho-Ming Ng and Kam-Cheung Wong), Malta (Christopher Bezzina, who
recruited Vincent Cassar) and Nan Yang in Singapore (Joy Chew and Ken Stott, who recruited
Zoe Boon) were invited to research principal-making within their own island settings4. The ten
members of the team include several experienced educational researchers, all of whom had
worked as teachers in schools. Furthermore, Christopher Bezzina, Zoe Boon, Ken Stott and Kam-
cheung Wong, had either been, or were at the time, school principals. On being approached all
expressed enthusiasm for the project and agreed to take part.
5. Process
There were differences in the ways in which each of the teams went about aspects of the project.
These, along with what was shared practice, are noted in the following chapters and in Bezzina
(2002). However, at the outset, it was agreed that all the studies would share a process with
respect to key aspects of the research. First, to undertake interviews with between eight and ten
principals from each of the four islands (one of the teams actually interviewed 11 principals).
Given this relatively small number, it was not our intention to claim our findings could be
regarded as representative or that it would be possible to derive anything other than, at best,
“fuzzy generalisations” (see Bassey, 1999) from them. We sought, instead, to identify men and
women who:
■ were interesting,
■ had worked in as wide a variety of secondary schools as possible,
■ were at a variety of points in their careers as principals,
■ were drawn from both genders,
■ had diverse life and career experiences,
■ were from different parts of each of the islands.
Second, once we had identified those whom we wished to approach, and had obtained such
permissions from national, or other, agencies as might be appropriate, the next stage would be
to approach the principals who had been selected and to establish whether they would be willing
to be involved. The initial and follow up approach might be made in a variety of ways - face to
face, telephone or letter or some combination of all three. It was taken for granted that each
research team would know which method was likely to be most effective within its own national
and cultural setting. Once an initial and positive contact has been made this was to be followed
up as soon as possible by a letter that would note that those who had agreed to take part in the project
would be involved as follows:
1. There would be an initial conversation face to face and preferably in private and
uninterrupted, of some 90 minutes with a researcher. The themes to be discussed were
to be listed in an interview schedule included with the letter. The interview would
normally be expected to take place at the school of the interviewee. In practice no

interview was shorter than 90 minutes and several were much longer.
The interview schedule as produced by research team members would comprise a
set of no more than nine items. [Seven would apply to all - see Appendix. It could also
contain up to but no more than two further items designed to take account of local
circumstances. To these might be added further items proposed by individual
interviewees and used only with them. No such items were suggested].
Interviewees to be assured that the schedule was intended as a framework and not
a straightjacket. It would therefore be possible for either party to raise additional issues
as the conversation progressed. If there were specific items the principal indicated
beforehand that he or she did not wish to discuss, or wanted to add to the original
schedule, this would be honoured. Happily, no principal in any of the studies was to ask
for any item to be excluded and very few additional items were proposed.
2. The conversation would be taped and transcribed. The researcher involved would
undertake a preliminary edit to ensure the transcript was coherent and read with some
fluency whilst remaining as faithful as possible to what was said and how this was
expressed. Individual tapes of all interviews would be kept until some time after the
findings of the project had been fully and finally published.
3. The edited transcript would be made available to the principal involved for such
revisions, additions, excisions, etc as he or she may wish to make. As far as possible
these suggestions, subject to the laws of libel and considerations of the well-being of
those who might be identified, would normally be honoured. In practice, very few
principals made more than superficial use of this opportunity and several were content
to let the transcript stand as they had received it.
It should be made clear that the team was working to tight deadlines and therefore
from the date of the dispatch of the transcript to the principal, a maximum three weeks
would apply for receipt by the researcher of suggested revisions. Beyond that date, it
would be assumed that the principal was satisfied with the transcript as it stood. In
practice, team members sought to ensure that they did receive a response from all those
interviewed. This meant that it was sometimes not possible to adhere to the three-week
rule noted above.
4. It would be possible for any principal to withdraw at any point up to and including the
end of the period that had been set aside for the receipt of revisions. We were glad to
find that no principal requested this at any time.
5. The principals and their current institutions would not be named as such. For reasons
that are explained below, it was subsequently decided to give each of the contributors a
fictional name and it is these that have been used in the text.
Team members appreciated that it is possible to cover a great deal of ground in the notional time
set aside for interviews. Given this, it was anticipated that the discussions were likely to generate
substantial edited transcripts. Most were between 6,000 and 9,000 words. However, a few were
shorter, several were longer, and some much longer.
It was recognised that the transcripts would be the key source of data for both individual
research groups and for the team as a whole. Once produced and agreed, they would be analysed
and written up by each separate research group for each island. The division of labour to apply
in undertaking this task would be for each island research group to determine for themselves. It
CHAPTER 1 9
was, however, agreed that the way in which this exercise had been undertaken in the production
of the sections on Formation and Accession in the introductory chapters of Understanding
Primary School Headteachers and Headteachers (Pascal and Ribbins, 1998, 11-26) and of
Leadership in Special Education (Rayner and Ribbins, 1999, 10-29) might serve as an illustrative
template. In the event, all case studies were written up in this way - including that from Malta in
both its forms. As Bezzina (2001) acknowledges: “This paper retains the format agreed for all the
island studies” (5).
There was some discussion on how long the final papers would need to be. It was agreed that
this was difficult to prescribe precisely. Initial views were that short papers would be unlikely to
do justice to the rich data that groups could expect to collect. First drafts of papers reporting on
individual small islands were very long. An on-going process of revision leading to the production
of this special edition has encouraged rationalisation and reduction but, like the Bezzina (2002)
paper, these chapters remain substantial.
The process of producing the chapters in their final form has involved much supportive yet
critical collaboration between those involved in the project. The research team has also sought
opportunities to learn from the views of others. Crucial amongst these was a substantial
symposium devoted to its work that took place at a conference held in Tasmania in September
2000. Its theme was Community Building in a Global Context and it was organised by the
Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management, the Australian
Council for Educational Administration, the New Zealand Educational Administration
Society and the Papua New Guinea Council for Educational Administration. Six members of the
research team attended and made presentations. The response of those who attended the
symposium was helpful and rigorous and exercised a significant influence on key aspects of this
report in its subsequent form. One example of this must suffice. It had not, initially at least, been
our intention originally to attach invented names to each of our principals but nevertheless one
of the four national teams decided to do this. The majority of those present at the seminar found
this helpful, not least because it enabled them to follow up the views of individual principals
across a variety of themes. In reflecting upon the feedback we had received on this matter, the
research team subsequently agreed that “names” should be used, as appropriate, in all the island
reports. This has been done. We hope that doing so has added to the colour and authenticity of
our accounts.
6. Postscript
We have, in this introduction, sought to say something about what we have hoped to achieve in
this study, why this is worthwhile, and how we went about our research. The following three
chapters take the form of detailed reports of the case studies undertaken by designated team
members in Cyprus, Hong Kong and Singapore. The final chapter attempts a comparative
examination and analysis of the project regarded as a whole, including the case study from Malta,
and in doing so seeks to identify and discuss the key theoretical and empirical aspects of our
findings.
In concluding these preliminary remarks, we must acknowledge our debt to the Editors of
International Studies in Educational Administration for inviting us to publish our findings from the
Small Islands Project in the journal. This has amongst other things given us a final opportunity
to revise our work. In doing so, we have sought to bring it up to date in terms of the latest
thinking of members of the team and having regard to recent developments insofar as these have
implications for the role and careers of secondary school principals in Cyprus, Hong Kong,
Singapore and elsewhere. In the spirit of the dialogue we have endeavoured to generate, we look
forward to hearing the response of colleagues on what we have had to say in this special edition.
Notes
1
We have for the most part used the term ‘principal’ rather than that of ‘headteacher’ since this is normal usage for the secondary school sector in
much of the world. However, as can be seen from the island case studies, in some parts of the world, the latter term continues to survive and
even prosper.
2
Unless otherwise stated, references to the Malta case study will be to the original report (Bezzina and Cassar, 2001). Where the article published in
International Studies in Educational Administration (Bezzina, 2002) is cited this will be made explicit.
3
For a much fuller account of these provinces and their implications for the study and practice of educational leaders and leadership see Gunter and
Ribbins (2002) and Ribbins and Gunter (2002).
4
Those approached by the editors were already known by them to have had some experience of researching school principalship within their
national settings.
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Appendix 1: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

1. Tell me of your personal background-home, parents, family, local community, early reference
groups and role models, school, higher education and the people who shaped the kind of
person you are and have significantly influenced your life?
How would you describe your life from the earliest years you can remember to the end of your full time
education? What influence did your parents, family, friends, other members of your peer group,
teachers in schools and higher education have in shaping your views on life, your values, your
aspirations, your ambitions, and your actions? How important and how compatible and consistent
were these influences?
2. Why did you decide to become a teacher?
How and why and when did you decide to become a teacher? Why did you decide to work in schools?
Why did you decide to work with older pupils and in secondary schools? Who or what influenced or
determined your decisions? What preparation and training for teaching did you engage in? Was this
sufficient and was it appropriate?
3. Describe your career? How did it develop to take you to principalship? When and why did
you decide you wanted to be a principal? What and who influenced this?
Describe your career before being appointed to your first principalship? Why and when did you decide
you wanted to be a principal? What were your views on what it was to be a principal during these
years and who or what shaped those views? How influential were the principals you worked for or
have known in shaping your views on principalship and your exercise of it? Who else has exercised a
significant influence?
4. How did you prepare for your first principalship? How did you achieve it? How difficult was
this? Who or what was helpful? Who or what was not?
How did you prepare yourself for principalship? Did you have a career plan? Do you still have a career
plan? How did you go about trying to achieve your first principalship? How difficult was this? Who or
what helped? Who or what did not?
5. How would you describe your early experience of your first principalship?
Did you feel prepared? How did you prepare? What did you know about the school or your
predecessor when you took over? What advice would you offer those about to become principals as to
how to negotiate their first weeks and months in office? On what is this based? How would you
describe your leadership style before taking up your first principalship? Has this changed and if so
how? Do principals need training before taking up a first post? Did you undertake such training? How
useful was it? What kind of training, if any, would you wish to see available?
6. Describe the system for making decisions on teacher appointment and promotion?
What has been your experience of the system in theory and practice? What have you heard from
others of their experience? What are its strengths and weaknesses? What, if anything, needs to be
changed? What would you put in its place?
7. Is the fact that Cyprus/Hong Kong/Malta/Singapore is a small island important in explaining
what you have told me of yourself, your career or the system? What other factors not
discussed earlier would you see as important and how?
What influence, if any, does the fact that Cyprus/Hong Kong/Malta/Singapore is a small island have, in
determining what kinds of leaders are preferred, and who becomes a leader and why? What of other
factors, for example the island’s recent (British) colonial post and its historical and cultural (Greco-
Roman/Chinese) legacy?
CHAPTER 2 13
CHAPTER 2
On Cyprus: The Making of

Secondary School Principals
1. Introduction
An immediate context of our decision to research the life and career of the secondary principal
in Cyprus was an UNESCO national review of education on the island. This revealed that in the
appointment and promotion of teachers:
the principle criterion is age and seniority...competence in performing the work is scarcely
taken into account ... (Drake et al, 97, 56-58).
The report warned that “when the education service focuses so clearly upon the career structure
of the teachers there is a danger this is achieved at the expense of the education of the pupils”
(ibid, 26). To explore such issues, and to examine the careers of school leaders in Cyprus, we
have studied the views of selected secondary principals.
Before turning to a discussion of our findings, it is worth noting that few attempts have been
made to examine systematically the views of principals of secondary schools on the island. One
such was undertaken by one of the authors. In this, Pashiardis (1997) used a questionnaire to
investigate, drawing on gap-analysis, the views of the whole cohort of secondary school leaders,
including principals, on what they believed to be their needs for pre-service and in-service
education. Although it employs a very different methodological approach, in important ways the
research reported below was stimulated by this study.
The methodology of our research is explained in chapter one, in what follows we will focus
on how we selected those involved. Initially, we approached the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Education and asked for his advice. We wished to interview a minority of the 99
principals holding office in the public sector at the time. Without expecting our sample to be
representative, we hoped to talk to principals from a range of schools, a variety of social settings,
and with a diversity of experience. Armed with these criteria the Permanent Secretary noted 20
and agreed to let us have a letter authorising us to approach those selected. We identified ten from
his list and added two more. One declined, from the rest we chose nine. Given that one of us did
not speak Greek, we asked if any would agree to be interviewed in English. All four of the women
agreed, but none of the five men. Language difficulties meant that an interview with one of the
women was not used. This report is based on our discussions with the remaining eight.
This report begins with a brief profile of Cyprus and its educational system. This is followed
by a discussion of aspects of the formation [the making of eight people and students] and
accession [the making of eight teachers and principals] of this set of principals. It concludes with
a brief examination of smallness and isolation and their implications for education and its
management in Cyprus.
2. Contex
Cyprus: A profile of a country and its educational system
Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean: approximately 226 km by 98 km. It is
situated 380 km north of Egypt, 105 km west of Syria, 75 km south of Turkey, and 380 km east of
Rhodes. In 1997 the estimated population was 750,800, whereas in 2002 it was 800,000. The ethnic
composition of the population is 84% Greek Cypriots, 13% Turkish Cypriots, 3% foreign residents,
and a few Maronites, Armenians, and Latins. These figures exclude illegal settlers and military
troops from Turkey, estimated at 85,000 and 40,000, respectively, who live in the Turkish-occupied
areas.
The constitution of Cyprus recognises Greek and Turkish as the official languages of the
Republic. The President, elected for a five-year term, exercises executive power. Cyprus is classified
as a middle-income country, with a per capita income of approximately US$15,400. Total
expenditure on education (public and private) in 1997-98 was about 353 million Cyprus
pounds/CYP (1 CYP = 1.10 pounds sterling), accounting for 7% of GNP. Public expenditure
increased from 193 million CYP in 1996 to 217 million CYP, representing 12.9% of the Government
Budget and 4,6% of GNP. The cost per student for public schools in 1997 was by level: pre-primary
910 CYP, primary 947 CYP, secondary general 1,630 CYP, technical 2,600 CYP, local non-university
education 1,647 CYP, public university 4,043 CYP and special education 6,229 CYP (Ministry of
Finance, 1998).
The public education system in Cyprus is highly centralised, with the Ministry of Education
and Culture responsible for the enforcement of educational laws and the preparation of new
legislation. Public schools are financed from government funds, while private schools raise their
funds primarily from fees. Private schools are administered by individuals or bodies, but supervised
by the Ministry. About 54% of children aged three to five are enrolled in some form of pre-primary
education. Children begin free, compulsory, primary education during their sixth year, and leave
when they have completed primary school. In 1997-98 there were 376 primary schools with 64,592
pupils and 4,159 teachers, with 67% of the students enrolled in urban schools and 33% in rural
schools (ibid.).
Secondary education takes place mainly at public schools (with a few private schools) and is
compulsory to the end of Grade 9. The gymnasium comprises Grades 7 to 9, during which all pupils
follow a uniform course of general education. The lyceum comprises Grades 10 to 12. In 1997-98
there were 125 secondary schools with 61,703 pupils and 5,757 teachers. Enrolments in public
schools accounted for 81% and private schools for 19%. Some 65% of secondary school leavers
attend tertiary institutions (ibid.).
Teachers in public schools are appointed, located, transferred, and promoted by the Educational
Service Commission (ESC), an independent five-member body appointed by the President of the
Republic for a six-year term. Inspectors visit all schools. They offer in-service training and advice
and are responsible for teacher supervision and school evaluation. In-service education for
elementary school teachers is not mandatory. For secondary teachers the only mandatory course
is a one-year, pre-service programme. The Pedagogical Institute, an in-service training institution,
and the Ministry of Education offer a variety of professional development programs for teachers.
These usually consist of ongoing guidance from inspectors and principals, and are taken on a
voluntary basis during afternoons and after the school day (Georgiou et al, 2001).
CHAPTER 2 15
Since the principals interviewed for this study are from the secondary sector, it makes sense
to look at secondary teachers in Cyprus more closely. In 1992-1993, 49% were men and 51%
women (Ministry of Finance, 1993). By 1997-98 43% of secondary school teachers were men and
57% women. Even though the majority of secondary school teachers are women, most principals
are men (Ministry of Finance, 1998). In 1992-93, there were 90.6% male principals and only 9.4%
women principals (Ministry of Finance, 1993). Subsequently there was a substantial increase in
the number of women principals. By 1997-98, 32% of principals were women. If there is still some
way to go in terms of gender equality, this represents a threefold increase in just five years. There
is now nearly equality in the number of assistant principals (56% men and 44% women)
(Ministry of Finance, 1998), so it seems likely that it will not be long before parity will be
achieved.
This is a major achievement. High levels of centralisation has disadvantages, we shall consider
some later in this chapter, but may be more conducive to the swift implementation of new
directions than are more decentralised systems. However that may be, this development has, in
part, been enabled by the way decisions on promotion to principal are made. In this, the ESC
supposedly has regard to (a) years of service, (b) worth and excellence as a teacher and (c) other
diplomas, degrees or academic credentials to form the list from which it chooses assistant
principals and principals. Since all have much the same academic qualifications and because
almost everybody is rated as an excellent teacher, the only significant differentiation comes from
years in service - the seniority system. As such the birth certificate of teachers is, in practice, the
credential. Thus most secondary principals are first appointed when over 50 and face compulsory
retirement at 60. This has resulted in low morale among the teachers and principals, both primary
and secondary. All this may explain why the average age of our principals was 57 years. With this
in mind, it is time to move on to a brief description of the principals who took part in this research
and to consider their making as persons, students, teachers and principals (Pashiardis, 2001).
3. Formation
About the sample
Eight principals were interviewed: five men and three women. Six were serving in urban
secondary schools during the 1999-2000 year. Two were in rural high schools. Four were at a
Lyceum, three at a Gymnasium and one at a secondary school that combined Gymnasium and
Lyceum together. This last was small with fewer than 100 students in a rural setting.
Five came from large, rural families of four or more children: “villagers” as they called
themselves jokingly. Most of the men came from the poor, rural areas (small villages in Cyprus),
whereas the three women were from the urban centres and mainly from relatively well-to-do
families. Six out of the eight had studied maths and/or physics at university; as teachers they
taught physics (four), mathematics (two), Greek (one) and English (one). All went to secondary
school during the time of the liberation struggle against the British from 1955-59. Against this
backdrop, we can now proceed to the analysis of their formative years in the making of these eight
people.
The making of eight people

Influence of fathers and mothers
For several principals, fathers and mothers played an important, even the crucial, role in
influencing who they became and what they had achieved. Most spoke of their parents with great
admiration and respect, and acknowledged the extent to which it was their insistence and
persistence that had set them on their way. As Ms. Andreou1, the youngest in her family, testifying
to influence of her father, put it:
My father had a very powerful personality and his influence on me was very great both when
I was a child and since then. I loved him very much. He had very clear moral values and views
on what life should be about. I knew from the very beginning that if I took notice of his views
and ideas I would have the best chance of having a good and successful life. He put a very
high value on his family and on family life ... He used to tell us that what matters most is what
exists within people’s heads - material things such as money or land were much less
important.
Like others, Ms. Alexiou, recalled that her parents loved education and kept pushing her towards
more of it. Given that most parents were at the time, poor and uneducated, and education costly,
this is a great achievement.
My love for education ... is due more than anything else to the genuine love for education that
my parents had. This is one of the gifts they gave me. They wished me to have a good
education for its own sake and not as a vehicle for social mobility or financial advancement.
They always stressed how important it is for a person to be educated.
For most, their parents created an atmosphere at home, which helped them achieve:
They made the atmosphere so conducive to learning that when I sat down to read or to study
I knew I was doing something important in their eyes. They made home a kind of paradise
for me.
Mr. Lycourgos also noted with warm affection the influence of his parents. His father had
provided university education for five of his seven children:
All day long he would be reading. When I graduated from university, I went to the army and
took the poems of Solomos (a famous poet who wrote the Greek national anthem) to read so
that time would pass faster and productively, he took the book from me and started examining
me in some of the poems. He was an illiterate man according to today’s definition; however
he wanted us to study further and even sent my sister to Gymnasium against the wishes of
my grandfather. Finally, she graduated from university as well and now she is an assistant
principal; my other sister is a doctor, and my brother studied in Greece ... Therefore, my first
big influence, I must say it was my father.
His father wanted his children educated because he:
had great admiration for teachers and whenever he came to school to ask our teachers about
how we were doing, he showed great respect towards them and always regarded this
profession as something that would keep us in the right way and make us into ethical persons
with principles, and values to society at large. He influenced us and turned us towards this
road. When we became teachers, the profession had a high status and appreciation in society,
unlike today.
CHAPTER 2 17
However, it wasn’t just the fathers who were potent. As Mr. Georgiou noted: “My mother had a big
influence on me for this. She regarded university education as very honourable and indeed asked
me to promise her that I would go to study”. Ms. Costa was even more specific describing her mother
as an optimist who, also, had a strong sense of realism:
She made sure I had the things that can make life at home enjoyable - a nice home, good food,
and clean clothes. She was good at setting up a schedule to the day and to ensuring that we stuck
to that schedule. This meant we spent much of our time reading and studying. She was a very
optimistic person and I have inherited that. Like my father, she also had only an elementary
education and regretted that. But she was of a more practical nature and so could cope with this
better than my father. I have told you that she had much love for others and I hope this is
something I inherited from her. But my father was also much the same. But even so, he had a
much more romantic, a more idealistic view of life. My father’s idealism and my mother’s
pragmatism was a combination that I have come to value a great deal when I reflect upon the
ways in which they shaped my life and affected my personality.
Influence of other members of the family

Even though most of these principals identified their parents as being key influences in moulding
them into the kinds of person they now are, some also mentioned brothers and sisters, uncles and
aunts, and cousins as significant. Mr. Gregoriou recalled that as a family they were poor and hungry
and his father wanted him to become a carpenter. However, his older sister and brother, who had
been educated in the Central Academy as it was called at the time, persuaded his father to allow him
to register in secondary school as well:
my brother and sister convinced my parents to let me be educated as well, so they had a great
influence on my life. In the end, all of my brothers and sisters went at least to high school and
three of us even completed our university studies.
Ms. Petrou mentioned with great regret, that her parents, especially her father, had been forced to
live away from home for long periods to earn more money to provide for the education of his
children and for a better life. Her father loved studying; he had been the top student of his year at
his high school and she struggled always to be like him. It is from him that her love of education
came. Furthermore, she was deeply impressed that he had not been embittered by the fact that his
circumstances had made it impossible for him to pursue his studies as far as he had wished. Rather,
he was happy with his life and believed in being content with what he had. In this, she had tried to
follow his example. From her mother she had learnt many things including, notably, to mind her
own business and not to be a gossip. With her parents away for long periods, she had to stay with
her aunt and uncle along with her brother with whom she became very close:
My aunt was also an influence on me as was her husband. He was an elementary school teacher
and so sometimes he worked in village schools and had to live away from home returning only
at the weekends and holidays. My aunt liked most working in her garden and so she gave me
the freedom to look after the house. I liked this and was able to learn a lot from it. They were
able to send their children to English schools because their relatives there took them in and could
send them to the local schools. My cousin was also a very good student. He ended up studying
engineering and eventually became chief engineer of the Cyprus Broadcasting Company.
Mr. Chatzi recalls staying with cousins in a house where they lived as an extended family during
their high school years, away from village and parents:
we rented small rooms and moved away from our village. Our parents would come and visit
us every 15 days. They would send us boxes with food from the village. During my first year
there, I was staying with two cousins of mine and we rented rooms near the school. One of
them was at the 6th and final grade and the other was my age. The older cousin acted as our
guardian. Next year, we had another cousin (a girl), who took care of the house, we had rented
in the meantime. The third year I also had my brother there and then we left the cousins. We
stayed with other families we got to know.
Influence of peer groups and the local community

The local community seemed to have a great influence on almost all the principals. This may have
been because most villages and towns at the time were relatively small communities in which
most people knew each other very well.
Certainly the majority of our principals were born and raised in small villages where
everybody knew everybody and relationships were close. Mr. Georgiou’s account of villages and
of life within them during those times may be taken as representative:
My village was very pretty (now in the occupied areas of Cyprus with Turkish settlers there).
It was a rich village with a lot of farm produce and lots of pigs and sheep. We also had the
monastery of Saint Andreas, famous all over the Christian world. I lived all my life there. I
went to the village elementary school, then to the Gymnasium that was the oldest in the rural
areas of Cyprus. It first started its operation in 1917. During its first year of operation, my
grandpa was a student. I used to go bare-footed at the school because that is how we liked to
walk.
The small communities, the closing of schools because of curfews and the constant striving to be
educated were things many of the principals spoke of. Having close friends and relatives around
all the time was a factor giving them a sense of security, warmth, and strength. In addition, living
in a small community, meant it was easy for the teachers to get to know their students, their
parents, and, often, most of their extended family. Some teachers were close friends of the family,
and their influence on their students’ future and professional careers could be very important.
Influence of wives and husbands

Only the women identified spouses as a significant influence in their careers. The men talked in
such terms or did so only in-so-far as they spoke of going abroad for further studies (due to the
lack of a university in Cyprus at the time), and to the fact that this meant their wives had to stay
at home with the children and take care of the family. As such, indirectly, they saw their wives as
having contributed to their career development.
Conversely, the women principals tended to describe the role of their husband in enabling
their careers in more direct terms. As Ms. Andreou put it:
I did not really want to be a principal. I must admit that my husband played the key part in
this happening. He said to me “It is a natural to advance, you may not want it now because
as you tell me you do not feel competent, but if you do not do it, in a few years time, when it
CHAPTER 2 19
is too late, you will regret it.” He pushed me into it. But again, like teaching, I have never
regretted it.
Another, Ms. Alexiou, described the assistance she had received from her husband in preparing
for her interview to become a principal in the following terms:
I talked with my husband who was going through the process at the same time. We shared
ideas and happily were promoted at the same time. This has proved very useful because we
have been able to work together in a way that is not usual in our system.
This last account does not imply a relationship of dependence. On the contrary, it suggests a high
level of mutuality. In general however it would seem that, for our principals, whilst husbands
were seen to have supported wives in their career strivings, wives played a much more modest
role with regard to their husbands. This is not so strange given that at the time our principals
were clawing their way up the promotion ladder, very few women enjoyed higher education in
Cyprus. This would have made it difficult for them to assist their husbands in advancing their
careers in any direct way. This is not, as some of our male principals acknowledge, to denigrate
the considerable indirect support they received from their wives enabling their professional
advance.
Having considered these principals as persons, it is time to examine their lives as students
and see how this shaped them as prospective educational leaders.
The making of eight students

Attitudes to school
In general, all eight principals appear to have retained very positive feelings towards schools and
education. Few negative experiences were recalled and most remembered their schooling years
with affection. Even though sometimes unable to recall the names of teachers and schools,
particularly with respect to their primary schooling, the experience seems to have been
supportive. They tend to recall their secondary years as full of adventure. This was due in no small
measure to the struggle for independence.
As noted above, most of these principals did not remember much about their elementary
schools. In this, Ms. Petrou is typical:
I don’t remember it much. I doubt if it had any lasting influence on me. I have some memory
of some of the teachers, especially the Director. She used to come to our classes she was very
interested in us. This was unusual at the time. The only other teacher I remember was because
she was the mother of my best friend. The rest did not make much of an impression on me.
Why should this be? It could be that they really did not feel there was anything much of
importance to remember. Alternatively, because at the time the British largely controlled
elementary schooling, they may have been suppressing negative feelings related to the struggle
for independence. As Ms. Alexiou put it:
Most of my childhood was spent under colonial rule. I attended the elementary school nearest
to my home ... a nice place, a good school, I had a good basic education there. But I don’t
remember very much of my elementary school or of my teachers there. Even so I can still
remember one bad experience all these years later. I do not sing well. But I love music and
used to love to try to sing. We were having a music lesson, singing. There was a mistake and
the teacher publicly blamed me. I was so embarrassed that I never opened my mouth to sing
again. Now I put great emphasis on music and I try and make sure our music teacher does
his best to encourage all the children.
Another principal, Mr. Costa, had a very negative experience when he had to move from his
village in the mountains to the capital to attend one of the oldest and most prestigious high
schools in Cyprus. He was the unhappy recipient of remarks, which had a lasting influence on
him. As he talked, years later, of this incident, his eyes were full of tears:
What I will never forget as my first experience in my new school, is that when my main
teacher asked who are the new students in class, and I raised my hand and he asked me where
I come from. When I responded, he said, “oh, so you are a villager”. The way he said it was
so mean that I will never forget it. Then, the very first year when I got my appointment as a
teacher, I entered the classroom and told my students I am from (name of village) and I am a
villager.
Having said this, most of the principals could recall teachers who exerted a substantial and
beneficial influence on their desire to complete high school and move on to university.
Attitudes to teachers
If little reference was made to elementary schooling, a great deal was said about secondary
education and especially of teachers who had a lasting effect on the principals we interviewed.
This should not be a surprise. During the Forties and Fifties, when they went to school, few
enjoyed primary, let alone secondary education. It is, therefore, to be expected that teachers
would have a lasting effect on their students, especially since villages were small and usually,
teachers knew their families well and often had friendships with their parents. Some teachers
were described as key persons in enabling the post school education of several of the principals.
One example must suffice to illustrate this:
Although I was not much influenced by my teachers of science at school, I did have some
good teachers. I had an outstanding teacher of Greek who influenced me a great deal. She is
a lovely woman. I still meet her regularly all these years later. She seemed different from the
rest of our teachers. She was open and friendly with us and used to come and speak to us
during our breaks. She would talk to us about our personal lives, what we had done at the
weekend, how our family was. Others did not do this. Boys and girls alike used to love her
very much. She was also an excellent teacher with a great knowledge and enthusiasm for her
subject. Within a couple of years she was promoted to be a principal. She was a strong
personality and a very kind person. She cared for us as well as her subject. She was well
prepared and always up-to-date (Ms. Andreou).
In times when parents and siblings were usually not educated enough to provide advice on further
education, or future professional plans, a good teacher can be seen as the only viable source of
guidance in a student’s life. Mr. Lycourgos’s experience illustrates what good teachers can do and
the lasting effect they can have on their students:
CHAPTER 2 21
I remember a husband and wife who taught Greek. They were excellent. They were well
educated. They knew their subject. They liked the pupils. They could communicate their love
of their subject. We learnt with them. I remember them with gratitude. But in all my time I
don’t remember a single teacher I did not like. I recall in particular one of my teachers of
English. He, and his wife, became very good friends of mine. Later I was lucky enough to teach
at the same school he did.
Finally, in this context, one should not conclude that it was only secondary school teachers who
exerted a lasting influence on our principals. One at least, Mr. Gregoriou, mentioned an
elementary school teacher with great affection:
Our elementary school teacher was the most influential factor for me. We had an excellent
teacher, Mr. (teacher’s name), who affected our parents and had a great influence on them and
convinced them to allow us to go to high school. He told them that these kids are so good they
need to get further education.
These quotes represent well attitudes in Cyprus during the Forties and Fifties. Most parents
believed that if their children were enabled to learn how to read and write this was sufficient.
Following schooling, the expectation was that children would help with other work such as
farming, and with running the house. This was the norm, especially for girls.
Attitudes to studying and learning

All eight principals were excellent students: studious and with a great love for learning and for
studying for its own sake. From what they said, it was evident that they considered a love for
knowledge as one of the strongest forces pushing them towards what they were to become. In
addition, for the most part they knew, early on, what specialisation they wanted to follow in their
higher education - this despite pressures from families and friends to study something else. As
Ms. Petrou reminded us:
I have already told you my brother persuaded me to study Law in Athens. I took his advice but
soon discovered I did not enjoy studying law. My favourite subjects had long been science and
maths. I had been very successful at them at school. After a month I said to myself, “I am not
going to study something I don’t like”. I wrote saying this to my brother and sent him all the
books I had bought. I decided to change to the science department. It was easy to make such
changes for us Cypriot students. I just told my adviser and the secretary of the University of
Athens, “I don’t like what I am doing. I want to take physics. I like maths but physics more”.
They asked, “Have you really thought about this?” I said “Yes and it is my own decision”.
For some of these principals, such was their desire for education that they lived alone for many of
their formative adolescent years in large, urban centres where there were secondary schools. Given
this, and the fact that travelling was not easy in rural Cyprus at the time, this must have taken a
great deal of courage. It was mainly the male principals who did this. During those years few
families would allow their daughters to live alone in a strange city to attend school. For the boys,
it meant having to face a new and strange environment, adapting to a new “habitat” and way of
life in the city that, at the time, was vastly different from what they had been accustomed to in
their villages:
When I came from a lovely village to the urban school, I was feeling inferior to my fellow
students because I was suddenly out of my natural habitat (Mr Chatzi).
The political situation and the schools

As noted earlier, the political situation had a great influence on our principals. This was because
elementary schools in Cyprus during the years of British rule were governed by the British
administration, whereas secondary schools were mainly under the influence of the Greek
Orthodox Church of Cyprus. When the EOKA struggle began in 1955, most of our principals
were mostly students in secondary schools. The British would shut these schools down especially
if there were demonstrations against the British administration or if students raised the Greek
flag on their schools. As Mr. Gregoriou remembers it:
when the liberation struggle began, they (Greek secondary school teachers), were all thrown
out of Cyprus by the British and the schools were left with nobody and therefore, we would
go from house to house and from school to school, whatever was open because most of the
time they were closed. There was a colonial law at the time for emergencies that said that those
schools that had the Greek flag should be closed down immediately. The British would bring
down the Greek flag and next day we would have it up on the mast again. Our teachers would
then give us lessons in their homes since the schools were closed. We graduated from high
school practically illiterate.
He recalls that they had to move from house to house for their schooling:
I enjoyed my schooling even though much of it coincided with the EOKA struggle. This
meant we did not have much freedom to move around. During my first year the government
closed the school down. We were without education for two months. Then the teachers took
the initiative. They organised private lessons for small groups of pupils in their homes. The
Curfew regulations meant we could only go in groups of five. We started at 8.00 am and ended
at 6.00 p.m. We had to do a lot of walking. We were only 12 years old so it was hard on us
but I have very good memories of that time. Our teachers were very supportive and very good
to us.
Not only were schools shut down but also students had to move. This was so especially if they
lived close to the Turkish sector. This was felt to be necessary because some Turkish Cypriots
were against the struggle and acted as informants for the British. Once you were known to have
participated in any way against the British administration, things could become very difficult. As
Mr. Lycourgos recalls:
In 1955, the struggle against the British started and we used to live near the Turkish sector of
Limassol. Therefore, my father removed us to another sector where it was safer. Then, the
British closed down our school for a year and we went back to our village. I graduated from
the Gymnasium in 1958 and then we entered the EOKA organisation, with our father. In
1958, I took the examinations to become an elementary school teacher, however, the Teachers’
College at the time was controlled by the British and they had a file about me being in EOKA
and on members of our family who had been arrested for their actions. I was rejected. The
British controlled everything.
CHAPTER 2 23
Not only was it hard to secure further education, but increasingly difficult to get a job in
government. Becoming involved in the struggle could mean losing a whole year of schooling:
In 1957, I became a member of EOKA, the Greek group for the liberation of Cyprus against the
British and played a part: giving away pamphlets, notifying the elders if the British were coming.
I remember vividly that period in my life. The British shut down our school for about 15 days
because of things that happened. Then I didn’t go for the examinations at my school because I
got involved in my father’s farmland and he didn’t really press me in any way to go back and
take the exams. In this way, I lost my first year of high school. This had a great impact on me
and my future. Next year, I was the best student in school. I attended on a daily basis and didn’t
really feel the need to be away from school, on the contrary, I appreciated education more and
more and the fact that I had the opportunity to be educated (Mr. Costa).
Subsequently, like all the others, he went on to higher education and in doing so took the next step
enabling him to become a teacher. It is to this, that we now turn.
4. Accession
The making of eight teachers
Teaching, particularly in secondary schools, is, and has long been, regarded as a desirable profession
in Cyprus. Given this, in recent years, the craving, if not the struggle, for appointment is, if not
intense, patently protracted. The system by which “selection” is made is, to say the least, unusual.
As the UNESCO report notes:
the required qualification is a Bachelor degree in any subject. Recruitment, therefore, does not
depend on teaching competence and does not require any initial teacher training. In most
subjects there is a long waiting list. In total there are 10.000 applicants on the list [more than
twice the number in post] for the 400 to 500 vacancies which occur ever year. [In 1995] there
were 6702 on the list and 436 permanent appointments available ... [most when first recruited
are] already approaching middle age (35 to 40 years) (Drake et al, 97, 54).
If this were not bad enough, the latest annual report of the ESC (2001) makes clear that since 1995
things have become worse. That this is so can be illustrated in two main ways.
Firstly, by comparing the numbers of applicants for secondary education as against available
appointments. In 1996 there were 6,904 applicants for 357 appointments, in 1997 7,273 for 189,
and in 1998 7,697 for 180 (84). This makes clear that whilst the number of applicants has been
rising increasingly sharply, the number of available appointments has been dropping almost equally
steeply. Worse still, the Commission’s projections are that, in terms of the number of applicants,
this trend is set to continue. By 2001, there were 13,190 applicants in secondary education and the
Commission’s projections for 2011 are that there will be 19,000 applicants. For certain
specialisations such as economics, the last person on the list today will be appointed in 263 years.
Secondly, with regard to the implications these developments have had for the age profile of
successful applicants. The Commission found that for 1998, 52% of those first appointed as
teachers in secondary education had a mean age of 36 years or more. For technical secondary
education the situation was worse. Here 64% had a mean age of 36 or more. The oldest person to
be appointed as a secondary teacher was 57 whilst the youngest was 32 (29-30). Furthermore, since
the job specification currently in place for beginning principals requires at least 15 years of service
as teachers, it would seem that in the years to come few appointments to the principalship will take
place until a teacher is over 51 years and most will be a good deal older. Given the trend noted above,
and unless something drastic is done, this situation will get worse and not better.
Later in this chapter we will consider the views of our interviewees on a policy that entails
appointing older and older beginning principals. In what follows, we focus on the appointment of
first time teachers. In doings so, we should, perhaps, ask what is the evidence that older appointees
are less effective than younger (Ribbins, 1998). However it is not just that newly appointed teachers
in Cyprus are older than almost anywhere else in the world, but that they had completed their degree
studies many years earlier. Given this, many “have forgotten much of what they studied all those
years previously and may be out of date in their knowledge of their subject as it has evolved over
the intervening years. In some instances they may be incapable of teaching their subject in its current
form and within the syllabus” (Drake et al, 1997, 55). This is compounded by the fact that before
taking up their new posts, few have undertaken initial teacher training or engaged in subject
retraining designed to bring them up to date. Whilst such new appointees are now required to have
undertaken limited part-time teacher training in anticipation of first appointment, there is evidence
that many see this as an unnecessary imposition and engage in it with reluctance and with little
expectation of finding the experience a beneficial one.
Whilst one or two principals saw limited merit in the system, most were very critical. Asked how
many teachers in their twenties were employed at his school, Mr. Lycourgos replied with a passion
echoed by most of the rest:
Nobody! A few in their thirties, most in their forties and fifties. When you are in your twenties
you have just graduated. Your knowledge is up-to-date. You are fresh. You want to work. It is
much better to have some young teachers around. As things stand, when people are appointed
ten or 15 years after they did their degree and have never used it since they will have forgotten
almost everything they knew. Even if they have not, what they know is often not relevant any
more. This makes it very hard for a teacher and for students. Also these teachers are much older
than their pupils. The gap ... can be a real problem. Life is changing fast, some teachers may
simply not understand what young people think nowadays ...We need to get younger teachers
into our secondary schools and they need proper training ...Things must change.
As it happens, things have changed a good deal, and not always for the better, since this principal
first became a teacher. She, like most of the rest, had been appointed in her twenties. In what follows
we will consider why and how she and others chose a career in teaching, and how they managed
“on the long climb up the promotion ladder” (ibid, 58).
The how and why of teaching?

Several of the principals had decided that they did not wish to be teachers. There were exceptions.
Mr. Gregoriou protested that he made:
a conscious choice to become a teacher. Although ... my supervisor (at university) told me that
“You are a born teacher”... I always said “I don’t want to become a teacher”. I became a teacher
because I had to earn a living ... I did not have any real choice. I had hoped (after graduating)
that I would be able to take up my studies again ... but I felt I owed something to my parents and
especially my father. When I came home I said to him, “If I get appointed to the government
service, in a permanent post as a teacher and if I am posted to Wonder City I will stay otherwise
CHAPTER 2 25
I will return and do my masters. I got a post right away, it was permanent and in a school near
my home ... so that was it.
For others the decision was never in doubt. Mr. Costa, like Mr. Gregoriou, was deeply influenced
by his father:
My father had a great admiration for teachers and whenever he would come to school to ask our
teachers about how we were doing, he showed great respect towards them and always regarded
the profession as something that would keep us in the right way and make us into ethical persons
... he influenced us and turned us towards this road.
Ms. Petrou, enjoyed her experience as a “teacher” during her days as a pupil:
I wanted to be a secondary school teacher. I cannot remember a time when I did not want to be
a teacher. Certainly, I did when I was in elementary school. There I had a chance to practice.
Being an able student, my fellow students used to come to my house if they had a problem in
Maths or Science. I could explain. I was a teacher already ... So when I returned to Cyprus I went
straight to the Department of Education and told them ... I would like to work as a science
teacher.. .Later in the day a friend who worked in the Ministry told me “You have been appointed
... There were very few Physics teachers then ... I am sure that wherever I asked to go I would
have been appointed.
Not all found the decision straightforward. Ms. Alexiou recalls, “It was during my high school years
that I began to think I might want to be a teacher”. On graduating she intended “to work in industry”
but:
after making many applications I found out this would be impossible because I was a woman. I
was looked at as if I had come down from Mars. A young woman in industry seemed an
impossible idea to those who controlled selection... I did not give up easily. I tried for a year. I
was as well qualified as men who were being selected but it was no use. So eventually I gave up.
Only then did she decide to “apply for a post in education”. However, if teaching was a second
choice, it was not something she entered into in a negative frame of mind: “I did not regret going
into teaching. I had a wonderful first year”. Despite this, she, and other principals, felt that teaching
was becoming less desirable: “Today, unfortunately, the ideal is the stock market that everybody is
looking towards”.
Few, however, regretted becoming teachers. Whether they would have been as happy had they
been directed to an elementary school is moot. Be that as it may, Mr. Gregoriou recalls struggling
hard to be allowed to train to teach in the elementary sector:
I took the examination to become an elementary school teacher, however, the Teachers College
... was controlled by the British and they had a file on me being in the EOKA ... I was rejected ...
I tried again (later) because I really wanted to be a teacher. I passed the exam ... but had another
obstacle. I had some sort of deformation of my leg ... since I was two years old. At the time, the
idea was that the teacher had to be complete in his body so that he could perform his duties
easily. Therefore I was rejected once more.
He appealed directly to Archbishop Makarios (then President) who enabled him to complete his
studies in Greece and gave him a small grant to make this possible.
Mr Gregoriou studied mathematics, and so when he returned he was directed to teach in a
secondary school. Whilst he did not discuss the relative merits of working within the two sectors,
Ms. Andreou, did explain her preference:
I was trained for secondary. Elementary teaching was never in my mind. I admire those who
work there, they need a lot of patience and skill ... As it happens I had the chance to teach
Psychology on a part-time basis at the Teachers Academy and this gave me the opportunity
to observe a number of lessons in elementary schools. I could never do it.
In one important respect this principal, having undertaken some training for teaching, was unlike
the others. Some expressed regret but their reasons were not always because they believed such
training would have enhanced their effectiveness as teachers:
No, I had done none unfortunately. It would have been worth doing. Not so much because it
would have made me a better teacher but because in our system here you have to have another
qualification to be promoted above the principal scale. I do not agree with this.
This reference to how the promotion system works, leads us naturally into a discussion of the
careers of these teachers following their initial entry into the teaching profession.
The how and why of promotion?

For a quasi-official report, the UNESCO auditors are blunt in what they say on this issue:
Older persons are recruited for the Secondary sector and only the oldest are promoted. On
the long climb up the promotion ladder... the system establishes what can only be described
as a “gerontology in education” (Drake et al, 1997, 58).
Given that they entered the profession long before the setting up of the “List”, in key respects the
career histories of our principals do not match those who have entered the profession in more
recent times. Most importantly all but one were appointed shortly after graduating and were in
their twenties when this took place. Even so, their progression up the ladder of promotion can
be described as a “long climb” given that few achieved deputy principalship until well into their
forties and only one became a principal before fifty.
Limitations of space preclude a full treatment of the “long climb”. In any case a “natural
history” of the career of the principal derived from our research would, for the reasons noted
above, be of doubtful relevance to contemporary times. We shall focus instead on how our
principals view what is now the case. What is evident is that most share the concerns of the
UNESCO auditors and few were reluctant to criticise the system that has created and sustains
this situation. We will consider first the appointments system.
I am definitely against the waiting list. I believe that this ... worked for a while, when there
were not many persons on this list, now it needs change ... You cannot ask someone appointed
at 48-50 to be close to a young person. At that age ... you will have family and health problems
... this is what I see in schools ... There must be change.
CHAPTER 2 27
Even those who see some merit in the system acknowledge its limitations and accept the need
for change. As Mr. Lycourgos points out:
The appointment system is fairly objective and seems to be working as long as there is the
waiting list ... This is fair for those waiting but unfair for education in general and for students.
Someone appointed at the age of 50 has never had any experience or any contact with an
educational institution. How on earth is he going to make it? They are trying to resolve these
issues, but how? There isn’t much any one can do.
Even so, he has some ideas as to how the system might be improved:
My suggestion is to have two lists: one by merit and one chronologically so that those who
have been waiting for a number of years are not treated unfairly. However, there should be an
age limit. These two lists we will give an opportunity to younger and more able persons to be
appointed at an age when they can offer a great deal to our schools.
What then of the promotions system? Mr Georgiou emphasises its limitations:
When you talk of supervision and evaluation, I think there is a lot of unfairness. The evaluator
moves around three main elements: seniority, credentials and worth or grade as a teacher.
Only seniority counts because everything else has been levelled. No one thinks of giving a
higher grade to a younger person. Everyone gets the same grade. We should not use the term
evaluation. In all honesty, it does not exist in our educational system.
Three suggestions for improvement were voiced: to “encourage” inspectors to use the merit
grading system with discrimination; to involve the principal in evaluation; and, to use a variation
of the “two lists” idea canvassed above:
I would encourage more freedom (in use of the grading system) for the inspectors. I would
give more freedom to the principal. The principal needs to give a grade as well because he
knows the teacher better than anybody else ... My suggestion...would be to have two lists from
the beginning for assistant principal. One for the administrative principal and one for the
instructional assistant principal ... so that people will know and be able to decide ahead of
time which kind of position they want to apply for.
Such proposals for improvement are essentially incremental. Two were bolder, advocating a new
approach to making appointments and determining promotions. Ms. Andreou stressed
competence, professional training and certification:
I believe there should be a teaching certificate for whoever wants to teach offered either by
the University or Pedagogic Institute - just like the English have. This piece of paper will give
the candidate the right to apply for a teaching position. Then, the Education Service
Commission could appoint them.
Mr. Costa called for open competition:

I would do it differently. I would wish posts to be publicised and for people to apply and be
appointed as a result of open competition. I would also wish for candidates to develop the
experience and knowledge they need through training or in other ways before they apply. This
would give us much better prepared people.
Such an approach, he suggested, should apply at every level up to and including principal.
The making of eight principals

Seeking principalship
Ms. Andreou told us “I have never had a career plan”. In this she was representative. None saw
themselves as working to a career plan designed to lead to a principalship at the earliest
opportunity. In part, no doubt, this can be explained as a sensible response to the perceived
existence of powerful systemic forces designed to inhibit early promotion to principal. In such a
situation there may be little point in striving for a goal that is hard to hurry and which will, in
time, be “achieved” anyway.
Even so, as with the decision to teach, the idea that they might wish to be principals dawned
more quickly on some than on others. In several cases, if for very different reasons, this came
slowly and even reluctantly. One principal, who spent many years as an assistant principal,
identified three inhibiting factors: family obligations, health problems and a strong wish not to
engage in special pleading.
Other reasons for such reluctance included the recognition that to become a principal meant
ceasing to be a classroom teacher. For some this was a major sacrifice. As one told us: “I liked
being a teacher so much that I did not want to become a principal”. Another claimed that if the
salary scales had been the same, he would definitely want: “to stay in my classroom ... If I had the
chance to be involved only in educational matters and have nothing to do with the bureaucracy,
I would prefer it”.
In taking this view, Mr. Costa seems to have been influenced by what he saw as the declining
status of the principal over time:
The position of the principal has been degraded, you are involved in every futile task except
educational matters. From morning till the time I leave, I have to check if the toilets are open
and clean, if the physical education room is clear, if other classes are in order since in the
evenings other groups come here to have special classes or to use the school’s premises ... I
am not involved in educational matters. That bothers me. I use all my energies on things I
consider irrelevant.
Given this, why should anybody wish to be a principal?

Various reasons were advanced. Amongst the most common were pay and prestige:
The reason I decided to apply was really for prestige. You see other people being promoted
and feel that you are being left behind. Plus, there is the increase in salary, which is important
as well.
Our society believes if someone is not promoted there is something wrong with them.
If neither of these reasons seems especially altruistic or enthusiastic other responses did point
to rather more lofty motives for becoming a principal:
CHAPTER 2 29
there is the moral satisfaction that your service has been appreciated and you have the will
and authority to do more (as a) principal than is possible from that of teacher.
How, then, did our principals prepare? And who or what helped them to do so?
Preparing for principalship

Given that none of our principals admit to striving for appointment, it is unsurprising that few
engaged in substantial and proactive preparation. For several, when first appointed, it was sink
or swim. Mr. Georgiou asked if he had had any formal training, responded:
I didn’t have any. Unfortunately the Ministry of Education deals with this. Even the short
courses and seminars that are available are not helpful. They give you a file and notices and
then send you to your school and let you swim on your own. You have to develop what you
need to know to survive on your own.
On the matter of formal training, whilst one or two spoke of the value of individual sessions on
the programme of short courses for newly appointed principals, others, such as Mr. Lycourgos,
were sceptical seeing them as too “theoretical” and too “unspecific”:
We did have some theoretical training ... I used to go to Nicosia every Thursday for most of
the school year. They taught us how principals had to rule schools. But it was very theoretical,
nothing practical ... some of the training should have been practical. Also there was no
training directly related to the school for which you were responsible.
In fact, the principal quoted as left to swim (or, presumably, sink) on his own, could point to
aspects of his preparation that were positive. For him, a beneficial source of training was the good
fortune of having worked with good and supportive principals and the chance this gave him to
learn from them:
I worked with Mr. Kyprou during the time he was principal. He helped me a lot. He thought
in a very disciplined way. He was a good teacher. He was an effective principal. I had good
learning experiences working with him ... Watching my principal, learning how he works and
thinks, how he controls things, how he managed things like meetings, how he deals with all
kinds of situations, how he handles conflict, were important to me. Especially once he had
learnt to trust me and to talk to me about his inner thoughts.
Several others also acknowledged the influence of one or more principals for whom they had
worked. As Mr. Chatzi described it:
He had a very strong personality. Whatever I have learned about being a principal I have
learned from him. The way he treated pupils, teachers and deputy principals, showed me how
it should be done ...He knew exactly what he wanted and was very organised in getting it.
When we sat down for a meeting he was very well prepared. He would come with his points
carefully listed. When he talked to the staff, he knew exactly what he was going to say. He did
not talk a lot. He got on with the job.
But not all principals were as memorable or as helpful as this. Asked in what sense her experience
as a deputy had been relevant to her work as a principal, Ms. Alexiou remarked:
I don’t think it was. I was not given the opportunities you speak of. They did not give me the
opportunity to discover if I could cope with being a principal ... One principal wanted to do
almost everything himself. He would not delegate ... I think he should have delegated more.
He should have given us more opportunities. This is what I am trying to do with my deputies
... They have to have the chance to learn to be principals.
In our conversations we heard of other forms of preparation. Mr. Costa, explained that he had
equipped himself in various ways:
through my involvement in the (secondary teachers) union and unionism I learnt a lot and
feel I was prepared. There were those short courses that we took at the Pedagogic Institute. I
kept reading on my own and exchanging views with other colleagues ...
Finally, in talking of her preparation, Ms. Petrou felt when she “did finally take over I had the
knowledge and confidence I need to cope”. Much of this came from her work as a deputy but she
“did no reading for preparation. I did the short training the Ministry provides. Mostly very
practical instructions on what to do, what the regulations are, things like that”. More interestingly,
she took the view that: “In Cyprus, in education, there is really no such thing as preparing for a
post”. It seems you wait your turn, you are interviewed by the Commission, you are appointed
or not, and your say in what you are sent to or where is very limited.
Achieving principalship
The UNESCO report notes that: “appointment to Deputy Principal posts occurs ... between 50
and 55 in Secondary schools ... appointment to Principal occurring not long before retirement
age (60)”. If this is accurate then, as a group, our principals were, when first appointed, somewhat
younger than is currently the norm and, unless the system is changed in the near future,
significantly younger than is likely to be the case with regard to future cohorts. Ms. Andreou,
indeed, had been in her forties:
At 32 I became a Deputy Head and 15 years later I became a principal ... I was 47, which was
very young. Now it rarely happens until people are 55.
All the rest were in their early, middle, even late fifties when first appointed. As the youngest and
most recently appointed put it: “I was at 52 ... younger than most of (my deputies). That is
relatively young (for a principal) in our system.” So much for its outcomes, how is the system
organised in theory and work in practice?
Most of our interviewees would accept the following account of what is involved:
Once I had the necessary points my name appeared on the list. We did not apply then. Now
candidates must apply. The rules have changed. But it was not enough to be on the list, you
had to be high up. The first time I was number 43 out of 50 and had no chance. I was
interviewed twice. The second time I was quite high on the list. The interview was terrible. I
was shocked. You enter a huge room. There is nothing in it but a table and some chairs and
CHAPTER 2 31
about several people all looking at you. My interview was 25 minutes long ... one of the
longest. Some stayed for only five minutes. I don’t know why there is a difference. The
question they asked were “What are you going to do to have your name remembered in the
school to which you are first appointed? What must a principal do to have a well organised
school?”... I was told the next day ... that I had been successful.
In other regards the system can be less effective. Three principals told us that they were not
informed about where they were to be placed until shortly before taking up their new posts. This
made preparation, particularly for a first time principal, very difficult:
I was informed ... on August 28th and had to take over on 1st September. On that day a (large
number) of teachers appeared and we had to start working, preparing the schedule ... and a
thousand other things. If you knew where you were going earlier you could come in during
the summer... and start organising ... we keep telling the Ministry we should know where we
are (to be posted) no later than May or (at worst) June.
This was just one aspect of the system that our principals regarded as undesirable. A common
concern was that promotion was determined by seniority not ability:
As things stand, if it is your turn you are promoted. You see people who are not able to do the
job being promoted whereas those who are who are not promoted. The system is responsible.
If you take my case, being appointed in my early fifties makes me one of the very lucky ones.
There are other able people who are far behind me. Age is really the only important criteria.
If you are promoted at 58 (as many are) and know that you have only two years, what can
you hope to achieve? You need at least five years and preferably ten. Then you can have a
vision, a plan, you can hope to do something lasting.
Another concern, one shared to a greater or lesser extent by all the women principals, was what
they regarded as lingering manifestations of gender prejudice. As Ms. Petrou put it:
About one in five principals are women. We have a very male dominated society. When I was
a student, many of my female teachers were very competent but few wanted to become
deputies or principals. Being teachers was enough ... Until recently women did not dare aspire
to these positions ... My first post as principal was in a rural school ...it was the first time a
woman had been appointed to such a post ... there was initial dismay that they had been sent
a women. The local administrator told me afterwards he had said to himself “My God, they
have given us a woman. What are we going to do?”
In fact, her term was successful. And, as noted above, the ratio of women to men is not now one
in five but one in three. The views of another woman principal may be more in tune with recent
developments. She acknowledges past prejudice but also that now the system:
is the same for men and women. They get on the list in the same way. There is no open
discrimination. Things are changing. It will all be quite different in ten years time.
We heard of other forms of discrimination. Another was said to be the way the system was
manipulated to achieve purposes not specified in the public regulations. At least one principal, high
on the list when called before the Commission, unhappy to have been deemed unsuccessful, resorted
to litigation to overturn this decision. Others noted similar concerns. It could be that they are more
applicable to the past than to the present:
In order to be promoted, you had to belong to the right political party. It was something that all
people my age went through. (When, some years ago) I applied to become an assistant principal
... I wanted it as a reward for my efforts and for being a good teacher ... I was (high) on the list
for promotion but did not get it. No reason was given. It really depended on which political party
you belonged to at the time.
As Ms. Petrou, reflecting on the system as a whole, concluded: “It must change”. This is a view that
the UNESCO auditors share:
personnel management is a major weakness ... perhaps the greatest weakness (of the educational
system in Cyprus). Neither the method of appointing teachers for the Secondary sector nor the
promotion system ... focused on the needs of the education system ... (Drake et al, 1997, 58).
Our findings, reflecting the views of eight principals, suggest that this judgement is well founded.
As a means of preparing and selecting secondary principals for a future that may be much more
onerous than the past, the system has little to recommend it. It is time for change. Similar findings
were echoed by primary school principals interviewed in another research project (Pashiardis,
1998). For reasons we will explore shortly, it might also be time for a fundamental review of the role
of the secondary principal?
Reviewing Principalship
The UNESCO auditors argue for fundamental change in the ways principals are selected but
emphasise this must be based on a careful examination of what should be expected of principals. In
doing so they suggest consideration be given to the merits of a more devolved system of school
management in which the authority of the principal is much enhanced.
Many principals talked passionately of their frustrations. As one said, “We are responsible for
everything and have power over nothing”. Five themes were mentioned most.
1. Money
The system is very centralised and everything needs to go through the Director of Secondary
Education within the Ministry of Education. If he says no to something I have asked for I
cannot proceed. For everything I need a written authorisation ... I cannot handle money; not
a single cent ... The country trusts us with the education of its children ... but they do not
trust us with handling even small sums of money.
2. Personnel Management
The biggest obstacle you face (in being an effective principal) is that you have no say on the
personnel of your school. Whatever and whoever they send you from the Ministry you have
to work with ... The most you can do is to try to make the most of (them) ... This is what you
have to live with. However, not all are equal or have the same potential.
3. Curriculum
I have few powers ... If you want to promote music, or art, or have a garden you have some
CHAPTER 2 33
freedom. Mainly you have to do what the Ministry requires ... whatever you want to do you
have to ask for somebody’s permission. I would like greater control over (the curriculum) ...
What we are expected to do is very hard because there is too much to do in the time available.
It puts tremendous pressure on teachers and more on students ...
4. Parents and Teacher Associations
The principal has to be supported against parents. We have powerful parents associations.
They expect miracles. I can’t blame them but I can’t do these. The community expects a lot
from principals, teachers expect a lot, students expect a lot, but our powers are so limited.
The teacher associations are powerful, perhaps too powerful. If you have reasonable people,
then you are lucky. If you have leaders of the associations who are not positive towards
education issues, then this makes things hard.
5. The Power of the Centre
Mainly you have to do what the Ministry requires ... I would like more autonomy and
authority.
The last theme runs through the all others. It stresses what principals see as the crushing power
of the Ministry and their own lack of authority or autonomy.
5. Final Thoughts
Cyprus enjoys a unique educational system. This does not mean it has been uncontaminated by
ideas from elsewhere: they include the legacy of the British over the island’s elementary schools
and of the Greeks over its secondary schools. Such give and take is a continuing process. That
this is so is demonstrated by the arguments advanced above by several of our principals in favour
of devolved school management and greater autonomy for principals. In making them, they are
drawing clearly upon developments that have been taking place in many other parts of the world.
With this in mind, in this final section we explore, as our principals see it, the implications for
education and its management of the status of Cyprus as a small island. Given that this could
have been the subject of a major discussion, what can be said is necessarily partial. We will focus
on two themes: smallness and isolation.
Implications of Smallness
Some benefits of smallness were identified but more was said on problems. In the following
examples, both possibilities are explored and the potentially claustrophobic nature of cultural
expectations emphasised. As Ms. Andreou put it:
everybody knows everybody. This is a mixed blessing. The advantage is that you can feel
reassured. You feel safe emotionally and physically. But there is great pressure not to do things
not expected of you ... Take my experience. I was young when I graduated from my school
and it was hard to take the decision to study in another country. It was acceptable to go to
Greece ... It was acceptable to go to England. But to go anywhere else in Europe or, even more
so, to an Arab country, that was regarded as daring.
Mr. Gregoriou, whilst acknowledging the problem, took a less negative view:
everybody knows everybody and this can mean a lot of bribery. But, I believe nepotism does
not exist in our educational system. Honesty and worth still exist in our schools.
Implications of Isolation
Several of our principals acknowledged that isolation had been something of a problem in the
past. Even so, most stressed that the island’s geographical location meant it had been subject to
the influences of many larger and more powerful nations. Even so, two influences on its
educational system, in more recent times, were regarded as central:
Cyprus has really accepted two major influences: the Greek and the British. It was a British
colony for a long time and then became independent. The British have influenced us a great
deal. There was, however, constant conflict between the two cultures (the British and the
Greek) and this has brought confusion. Those who studied in England wanted to get us into
the British system and those who studied in Greece wanted to get us closer to Greece.
Nowadays we have people coming to us from a much wider range of cultures and systems.
To an extent we no longer have a clear-cut philosophy. We are no longer sure about the kind
of society we aspire to or what idea of citizen we have in mind. We have no clear educational
purposes.
Another of our principals, Ms. Alexiou, gave her final critique a more positive gloss.
We used to be very inward looking in the past. Now, as it gets easier and easier to
communicate with the rest of the world, this is making us look outward to see what is happening
elsewhere. But not everything from outside is better than what we already have. We have to try
to take the best ... not everything. This is not always easy.
We could not hope to improve on this wise observation. Its relevance is universal and, like
Cyprus, probably timeless.
Notes
1
The names used are all fictional in order to ensure the anonymity of the research participants.
References
Drake, P., Pair, C., Ross, K., Postlethwaite, T. and Ziogas, G. (1997) Appraisal Study on the Cyprus Educational
System, Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning
Education Service Commission (1999) Annual Report, Nicosia: Government Printing Office
Georgiou, M., Papayianni, O., Savvides, I. and Pashiardis P. (2001) Educational Leadership as a Paradox: The
Case of Cyprus, in P. Pashiardis (Ed), International Perspectives on Educational Leadership, Hong-Kong
University: Centre for Educational Leadership, 70-92
Ministry of Finance (1993) Statistics of Education, Nicosia: Government Printing Office
Ministry of Finance (1998) Statistics of Education, Nicosia: Government Printing Office
Pashiardis, P. (1997) Towards effectiveness: what do secondary school leaders need in Cyprus, in British Journal
of In-service Education, 23, 2, 267-281
Pashiardis P. (1998) Researching the Characteristics of Effective Primary School Principals in Cyprus: A
Qualitative Approach, in Educational Management and Administration, 26, 2, 117-130
Pashiardis, P. (2001) Introduction: Educational Leadership in the 21st Century, in P. Pashiardis (Ed), op cit, 1-13
Ribbins, P. (1998) Professional careers and the development of school leaders in Britain and Cyprus, in Cyprus
Educational Administration Society Magazine, 6, 1 and 7-10
CHAPTER 3 35
CHAPTER 3
On Hong Kong: The Making of

Secondary School Principals
KAM-CHEUNG WONG AND HO-MING NG
1. Introduction
Traditionally, studies of principalship in Hong Kong have been conducted in the quantitative
tradition. Such research was based largely on school climate and employed the organizational
climate description questionnaire (OCDQ) as developed by Halpin and Croft in the 1960s1. This
was intended to enable an understanding of school leadership as perceived by teachers. The
clusters of factors ranging from closed to open climates were adopted to describe the leadership
style and organization setting of local schools.
In the early Nineties, when qualitative research approaches were beginning to be more widely
adopted, principals were interviewed within a framework of studies that sought to explore what
made for effective schools. In such studies, principals were seen as instrumental in promoting
school effectiveness and enhancing student learning. However, probably for cultural reasons,
such studies have usually placed the principals in a general school context rather than identifying
them as subjects for individual attention. As such, the biographical approach to understanding
principals that was employed in the research that underpins this special edition represents a
significant new direction.
A biographical approach to the study of leaders and leadership in education has long been
advocated by Ribbins (see Ribbins and Marland, 1994). In developing this view, Ribbins and
Gronn (1996) expressed dissatisfaction with the incompleteness of the two recent but separate
trends in the study of leadership: one probed the cognitive and behavioural domains, and the
other emphasized the relationship between task stratification, system and environment. In
contrast, as noted in chapter one, biographical oriented researchers conduct in-depth interviews
with selected principals that provide opportunities for gaining access to their views across a
representative range of issues and events. Biography emphasizes a comprehensive understanding
of the perspectives and styles that principals bring to their work. For this chapter, the life and
professional career history of selected principals from Hong Kong were studied in a systematic
and comprehensive manner. This approach has enabled the researchers to gain insight into their
lives as leaders and what this might mean for their institutions.
2. Context
Strictly speaking, Hong Kong is not an island but consists of Kowloon, New Territories and
numerous islands including Hong Kong Island itself, with a total area of 1098 square km. At the
end of 1999, the population was 6.975 million (statistical information of this paragraph and the
next one is taken from Information Services Department 2000). Ninety-five per cent of Hong
Kong inhabitants are of Chinese descent and Cantonese (a dialect of Southern China) is the
predominant spoken language, whereas English and Chinese are the official languages.
Economically, Hong Kong has steadily grown in the past two decades, until the economic crisis
of 1997, with GDP growing at an average of 5 per cent per annum in real terms, and it is now one
of the most developed and prosperous economies in Asia. With a per capita GDP equivalent to
US$23,200 in 1999, it is second only to Japan. Politically, after having been colonized by
Britain for over 150 years, Hong Kong was returned to the sovereignty of the People’s Republic
of China in 1997 and became a Special Administrative Region (SAR). Under the Basic Law and
the national policy of ‘One Country - Two Systems’, the Hong Kong SAR is permitted a high
degree of autonomy except in defence and foreign affairs. Generally speaking, three years after
Hong Kong’s return to China, there have been no major changes in the political, economic and
social systems.
Supported by the strong economy, education has also undergone significant expansion in the
past two decades. To date, all children aged six to 15 are required to attend school. In 1998-99,
90 per cent of the students at the end of nine years of compulsory education received subsidized
senior secondary education and 18 per cent of the relevant age group are enrolled in university
education. The investment in education by the Government is huge and amounted to HK$54.4
billion in the 2000-2001 financial year. This represents 4.25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
As for secondary schools, there are over 500, of which 90 per cent are in the public sector. These
consist of aided and government schools, with a total enrolment of over 456,693. There are three
main kinds of secondary curriculum in the public sector: grammar, technical, and pre-vocational.
Grammar schools predominate with more than 90 per cent of the public sector schools.
Looking back, in late Sixties and early Seventies, the Hong Kong Government had just
completed the provision of universal primary education and had begun to expand secondary
school education. The Hong Kong economy continued to expand and diversify, and demanded
a better educated work force. Two important policy papers were published in this period. One
was “Secondary Education in Hong Kong over the Next Decade” (Hong Kong Government 1974)
and the other “The Development of Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education” (Hong Kong
Government 1978). Together they shaped the provision of secondary and tertiary education in
Hong Kong. As a result of these two papers, a large number of secondary schools were built with
the number of schools increasing from slightly more than 100 aided secondary schools in the
early Seventies to over 400 in the mid-Nineties. This expansion created many opportunities for
teachers and school administrators.
In 1963, the Government published the Report of Education Commission (also known as the
Marsh-Sampson Report) that laid the foundations of education policy. First, the report limited
the numbers of Government primary and secondary schools to 25 per cent and 30 per cent
respectively2, and, second, it allowed the balance to comprise aided schools (including both
Grant and Subsidized schools) with some places for selected private schools (Hong Kong
Government 1963). One of the major considerations of this policy was that there were substantial
differences in the costs per pupil at Government, Grant and Subsidized schools (the Government
schools being the highest, followed by Grant schools then Subsidized schools). Although the
report suggested the achievement of greater uniformity between the Government and Aided
schools, it was recommended that Aided schools be relied on to shoulder the burden of future
expansion. The financial pattern of the subsidized schools was modelled on the Grant schools.
Like the Grant schools, subsidized schools were given the authority to make major personnel
decisions in the hiring and firing of teachers and other supporting staff, a feature known today
CHAPTER 3 37
as school-based management. This has greatly affected the way principals were appointed in many
Hong Kong schools which is very different from the other three small islands.
As a result of this rapid expansion, the qualification required by principals was set at a low
level. In the early period, teachers with five years teaching experience were eligible to become
principals. The low qualification of many new principals did not seem to be a key issue when
attention was focused on quantity, rather than quality, throughout the period of expansion. The
continuous expansion of the Hong Kong economy, which required large numbers of workers,
diverted attention towards the quality of schooling and principals.
In the Eighties, the Education Department began to consider the need for professional
preparation for the potential principals of schools and required all senior teachers to undergo 30-
hour training in management and related issues before they were appointed as deputy principals.
In March 1991, the Hong Kong Government launched a scheme entitled the School Management
Initiative (SMI) in all Hong Kong schools. As suggested by the sub-title, Setting the Framework
for Quality in Hong Kong Schools (Education and Manpower Branch and Education Department,
1991), the concern was for quality education. SMI borrowed both the framework of school-based
management and effective schools and promoted them in Hong Kong. The authors of the SMI
were very critical of Hong Kong school principals. They claimed that: “There is a widespread
perception that many Principals are insufficiently experienced and inadequately trained for their
task. Because proper management structures and processes are lacking, some Principals are
insufficiently accountable for their actions and see their post as an opportunity to become ‘little
emperors’ with dictatorial powers in the school.” (p. 14) The authors required the principals to
demonstrate his/her ability to lead through:
■ professional knowledge
■ organisational and administrative competence
■ ability to work out a good school policy and put it into effect
■ skill in the delegation of authority
■ ability to understand the professional problems of teachers, especially young and
inexperienced teachers, and to give professional guidance; and
■ ability to establish good working relationships with staff and parents. (p. 14)
In late-1999, under the leadership of Mrs. Fanny Law, the former Director of Education, a paper
entitled Leadership Training Programme for Principals: Consultation Paper” (hereafter the Paper)
was released (Education Department 1999a). It proposed that all principals and potential
principals undertake a needs assessment, an attitudinal and paradigm change and attend core
modules including: learning and teaching, human resources development, financial management,
strategic management, and (for newly appointed principals) school administration. The paper
sparked off some heated debate on the issue. Many serving principals were disturbed by the
Paper’s tone, since it seemed to suggest that they lacked the knowledge required by the core
modules. Others thought that the requirements put down in the paper were too rigid and could
not address the diverse needs faced by the serving principals. In particular, Ng (2001) traced the
development of professional training for heads and put up a theoretical module with focus in
programme coherence and consistence. Wong (2001b) went back to history of Hong Kong
education and pointed out the necessity for the Government to treat practitioners as equal
partners in educational reform. Both of them advocated diversity and flexibility in the training
programs for heads (Ng, 2001; Wong, 2001a). After these objections, the Education Department
modified their plans. It is now established that not only newly appointed principals need training,
the serving principals (after three years of service) are required to attend 50 hours training courses
a year, it allows flexibility in these courses, accumulating to 150 hours in three years. (ED
Administration Circular, No. 31/2002) From September 2003 onward, all potential principals
need to go through a not less than 72 hours training program and must obtain a certificate issued
by the Education Department before they are appointed as heads.
3. Formation
About the sample
One female principal and eight male principals were involved in the project. Eight were principals
of the aided secondary schools that constitute the main proportion of public sector schools3, and
one was the principal of a private secondary school. These schools are of similar size, each with
about 55 teaching staff and 1,100 students. In three schools, known as EMI schools, English was
the medium of instruction and the rest were Chinese Medium of Instruction (CMI) schools. The
EMI schools attract better quality students in the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) - a
public test at the end of the primary school education for allocating students into secondary
schools. The test was stopped three years ago but the system was still used to allocate primary
school graduates to the secondary schools. Three schools were Roman Catholic Church (one was
a diocesan school and the others belonged to two different religious orders), four were from
different Christian denominations and the remaining two had no religious affiliation. In this
sample, the female principals were under-represented while the schools with Christian churches
links are over-represented.
Most principals were born and raised locally and came from lower income families. Their
parents had very little education. As required by the education regulations, all were university
educated. Most completed their courses straight after their secondary schooling. They were either
graduates of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) or the Chinese University of Hong Kong
(CUHK). One principal was a priest from a Catholic Order.
The making of nine people

The influence of families
There were similarities in the influence of the families on the upbringing of the nine principals.
First, most spent their early childhoods in Hong Kong. Second, the majority of the principals
came from lower income families in which the parents had little education.
Man-wah is the eldest in the group. Just before the Chinese Communists took power in 1949,
his father, who was a primary school head, fled to Hong Kong to avoid being purged for his
Kuomintang connections. Man-wah spent his early childhood in Taishan4, his hometown, and
studied for a while in his father’s primary school. In 1953, he joined his father in Hong Kong
while the remaining family members stayed behind. Only many years later did his sisters join
them. It was not until the Eighties that his entire family was reunited. Man-wah did not feel that
his parents had much impact on him:
What influenced me all along had been the environment. In the village, my father was
powerful, being a headmaster and an herbalist. In terms of money we might not have much,
but his social position was high. He was also a solemn and strict man ... My father was very
serious when dealing with me and we did not have much communication, especially when I
was only 10 or 11.
CHAPTER 3 39
The remainder of the principals spent their early childhood in Hong Kong. Wai-keung’s
recollection of his parents’ business is a good example:
The little grocery stayed open in the morning till 10 at night, all year long, except during
the few days of the Chinese New Year... Customers were served even when we were
having dinner in the shop ... Since childhood, I didn’t get the idea that my father came
home after work to enjoy family life. As children, we didn’t feel any family life. It’s just part
of work.
This vignette is very typical of the life of the Chinese working population and is a good
description of the life of Hong Kong people in the Fifties and Sixties. To varying degrees it applied
to most of the principals, who learned to be on their own early in life. Kin-wai’s father died when
he was in Primary 6: “...[my father] also owned people debts before he died ... I learnt to take care
of myself when I was in Secondary 1”. Jack’s father was a taxi driver and his mother worked in a
school as a maid. With seven brothers and sisters, Jack’s parents had to work very hard to make
ends meet. The families of Kao-yuen, Ka-ming and Ho-fai were similar. Their parents had only a
primary education. Despite this, their expectations for their children were no less demanding. As
Jack said, they might not know the best way to teach their children, nor did they have time to
follow their children’s studies, but they supported their schooling and educated them to be good
people.
Man-wah’s, Patrick’s and Jean’s families were different. We learned earlier that Man-wah’s
father was the head of a village primary school. Jean’s father was a businessman and both Patrick’s
parents were university educated. Patrick ‘s family was unique, in that both his parents and
grandparents went abroad to pursue higher degrees from overseas universities, a rarity in those
years. Patrick’s father was a leading pastor in a local Christian church and had strong impact on
him. His early involvement in church activities, such as leading the church choir, affected his later
career in music.
It was quite common in the old days for parents to place all their expectations on the boys in
the family. It was natural for boys to strive. The same could not be said for girls. Jean’s experience
is illustrative, as she recalled:
My brother was ten years older... Since he was the only male heir, I’d always felt left out... I’d
always felt that all the attention was given to my brother. ...He always had more toys. I’d
always wished that my parents had only me.
In her youth, Jean tried to do well in her studies in order to get her parents’ attention, since this
was the only way to attract them. Incidentally, this bias against girls explains why it was so
unusual for them to study at university in the Fifties and Sixties. Those who did were not only
bright but, without exception, came from well-to-do, families.
Man-wah made a similar observation about his sisters. In his family, girls were treated worse
than boys. His elder sister’s education was terminated halfway through. When his younger sister
was born, his father was not at home. Later, he did not even care to give her a proper name. She
was simply referred to as Mui Mui or “younger sister”.
Compared with that of their parents, the influence of siblings was less obvious. As most
principals were the only siblings who were academically successful, they did not have good
models amongst their brothers or sisters.
The influence of Christian beliefs

One unique feature in the early life of this group of principals was the influence of Christianity.
This influence illustrates the penetration of Hong Kong education by the Christian churches.
Today, the most prestigious schools in Hong Kong, apart from the early Government schools, are
the 22 Church schools run by the Roman Catholic religious orders or the Christian
denominations. They are known as the Grant Schools. Although these draw the same resources
from the Government as the rest of the subsidized secondary schools, they still have their own
Council that preserves their distinct characteristics.
In this sample, perhaps, the influence of religion is not surprising since the seven out of nine
schools belong to either the Roman Catholic Church or other Christian denominations. Patrick’s
father was a pastor. One principal came from a family whose members all shared the same faith.
The majority of principals attended church schools and were converted during their school days.
Ho-fai, the exception, studied in a Government school but was affected by the strong Christian
fellowship there. He joined its fellowship group and became a Christian. Christianity was
important since the interviewees’ membership of the church bodies facilitated their later
appointments as principals.
During this early period, the influence of religion was particularly personal. Ka-ming, for
example, won many prizes in kindergarten education but he was “cursed” by one of his classmates
for using all his ‘brain water’ (brain power). As if under her spell, Ka-ming did not do well in early
primary school and even suffered from a psychosomatic condition: he would have a runny nose
and feel very uncomfortable whenever he opened a book:
By Primary 4, I felt I couldn’t go on like this. I started to pray for God to help me study better.
That period lasted for a few months. I began to become more interested in studying ... I felt I
was learning a lot after Primary 5 and could catch up fast. The religious experience seemed
to work on me.
Kin-wai sought help from religion after his crisis in Secondary 1. He was baptised and converted
to Roman Catholicism in Secondary 2. He had wanted to start again to become a new person after
being kicked out of the school in Secondary 1 for reading obscene books. As he recalled: “I did
something wrong and therefore I wanted to start again by wearing new clothes”. Jack felt that he
was called to become a priest when he was only 12. He described how he entered the seminary:
... in Primary 5 I started going to the school chapel every single morning ... the Principal, who
was a priest, noticed me. One day he called me to his office and asked if I would want one day
to become a priest. I was just a primary school kid ... The priest asked my mother to see him
with me. After the interview, we decided that I would enter the seminary. It was 5th August
and I was twelve and a half.
The making of nine students

The influence of school and university
All of the principals studied in Hong Kong primary and secondary schools, and all took the public
examinations. With one or two exceptions, they did well. A few won scholarships for their
secondary school education. The majority of them sat for the Hong Kong Certificate Education
Examination (HKCEE) went on to matriculation classes and entered university. They were the
survivors and products of the competitive education system.
CHAPTER 3 41
After primary education, most principals attended Anglo-Chinese grammar schools where
English was the medium of instruction, except for Jack, who left primary school to study in a
seminary, and Patrick who attended a Chinese middle school. The majority of these schools were
either prestigious Government schools, including King’s College, Queen’s College and Queen
Elizabeth’s College, or Grant Schools such as St. Paul’s Co-educational College, Maryknoll Sisters’
School and Kowloon Wah Yan College. In the Fifties and Sixties, entry to these schools required
good results in the Secondary School Entrance Examination, a public examination after Primary
6 (and similar to the 11+ examination in the UK). Others, which were less prestigious, but also
required good academic results in the SSPA, included two Roman Catholic secondary schools and
a Government Chinese middle school.
Overall, the principals had a good impression of their primary schooling. Their memories of
individual teachers were vivid, such as Wai-keung’s recollection of the mathematics teacher in
Primary 5:
... As our form teacher, Mr. Wong did not only teach us arithmetic, he taught us social
awareness. In the resettlement estate5 where we lived we had to use public toilets with other
families. The place was dirty and the door was always open. This gave us inconvenience and
embarrassment. Mr. Wong taught us to close the doors after using the toilet6.
Wai-keung was very impressed by his teachers and the ways they cared for his life. He treated his
students in a similar manner when he became a teacher himself.
Jean used the metaphor of the family to describe her second primary school experience:
... the school site was a big house, which belonged to a rich family, and one could feel the
cosiness. I still remember the word “mantelpiece”, for in the classroom we had a fireplace ...
the feeling of studying together in a family type of environment inspired us a lot to learn.
Ho-fai observed that his primary school teachers did not do anything particular, except that
together they gave him some broad personal principles, such as: be honest, hard work pays, and
be courteous and considerate to others. He still remembered their names and the name of the head,
and had contact with some of them. Ka-ming shared similar feelings towards his primary schools
and their teachers.
The influence of secondary schools was equally impressive, at least for a number of them if
not for all. Man-wah was an exception, partly due to the fact that secondary schools were much
more competitive than the primary schools. Man-wah was quite bitter about his life in the
Government secondary school he attended:
... in the College I had few friends. Competition among students was so keen that students
seldom told their fellow students what they knew ... They behaved in front of you as if they
didn’t care much about study. But at home, they worked till two in the morning ... That’s why
I did not like the school very much.
Not all of the experiences in secondary school, however, were negative. Studying in a different
Government school, Wai-keung recalled that:
... friendship grew among schoolmates, even between senior and junior schoolmates ... I
would treasure two things in my school life: friendship and acquiring a good reading habit.
... Some students travelled all the way, during lunch break, to the British Council Library in
Tsimshatusi, just to borrow some books. On Saturdays, some went to the American Consulate
Library to study. This had a positive impact on my study.
The teachers who went out of their way to help students were always remembered. Wai-keung
recalls his physics teachers who organized a seminar for the whole year of F.4 students on value
education. He still keeps some of the discussion notes.
Ho-fai felt the secondary school teachers were rather detached compared with those in
primary schools. He was, however, very much influenced by a Biology teacher who had a
doctorate and did some research before teaching in the school. Ho-fai worked hard and wrote
very good laboratory reports. He was publicly praised by the teacher, which affected him a great
deal. Later, he went to university to read biology and followed it up with an M. Phil in which he
specialized in the causes of ulcers in rats.
Some teachers got cross because their students did not measure up to their requirements but,
due to their genuine good intentions, were still liked. Jean recalled her feelings about a sister who
was greatly upset by the lack of responses in class: “She came into the classroom and banged the
book on the desk due to the frustration of being unable to make us respond. We were not upset
because we felt what she really wanted and she tried so hard to make us learn. We liked her a lot”.
Except for Kin-wai and Jack, the rest studied in universities immediately after their secondary
schooling. Five attended the HKU and two CUHK. In the HKU group, one studied economics,
one English Literature, one Chinese Literature and two Biology. At CUHK, one studied
mathematics and the other music.
At university, Man-wah still behaved like an angry young man. The professors did not impress
him. He brought with him the same feeling towards the professors at the other university when
he studied his certificate of education some years later. Kao-yuen went on to read his Masters
degree in Chinese History and had only a vague idea of teaching. Ka-ming wished to read
medicine when he entered university. He even wanted to start over again after he had completed
his first degree. Ho-fai intended to become an academic. After his first degree he stayed on to read
his MPhil and spent a great deal of time in empirical research. Wai-keung had a very exciting
university life. His enthusiasm for learning and living meant that he kept up a wide range of
interests. He purposely chose to diversify into many fields during his studies, which he totally
enjoyed. Being a relatively quiet person, Jean spent her university life in a non-dramatic manner.
Kin-wai went to work as a teacher in a private school after he finished Secondary 5, due to
his weaker results in the public examination. He tried to make up for what he had missed later
in life and became the most learned person in the group as he kept on reading for one certificate
or degree after another. Jack, on the other hand, studied theology in a seminary and philosophy
for an external degree at the University of London. Later, he went to Rome for advanced theology.
4. Accession: From Teacher to Principal

The making of nine teachers
In this group of principals, only Wai-keung and Jean had expressed interest in taking up teaching
as a career. The others did not have teaching in their mind when they were young or, in the case
of Patrick, teaching was just a remote possibility. Wai-keung and Jean went straight into teaching
after graduation. The rest ended up in teaching and it was in the job that they gradually developed
a keen interest in.
CHAPTER 3 43
Wai-keung and Jean liked teaching because they were very much influenced by their teachers
who had left with them a good example:
I was impressed that the teacher (in the primary school) cared not only about our maths. That
was a time when my parents were busily making a living. My elder brother was senior to me
by ten years, and obviously had his own things to attend to. Family life to me was only sharing
the roof. None offered me guidance. I thought: “How nice it would be if all teachers were like
Mr. Wong, who could help students in their daily life”. I started to have good impressions
about the job of being a teacher.
Similarly, the nuns at Maryknoll left Jean with a fond impression:
With regard to a few Maryknoll nuns who were my teachers, I remember them as nice,
effective teachers. They had definitely affected my wish to become a teacher. When I was
young, I had always wanted a blackboard for a toy. My interest to become a teacher was further
reinforced by the sisters in Maryknoll. I was a lonely child because my elder brother is ten
years older. I had very little companionship. So, I played with my neighbours. I always took
the role of a teacher and taught them this and that with my toy blackboard. Probably I was
born to be a teacher.
Wai-tin did pre-service training in the summer before he took up his teaching job in Wong Shing
Chi College. Jean taught English language in a private secondary school immediately after
graduation from the University of Hong Kong. For Kin-wai, teaching was not his first preference.
He wanted to be a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. But all these professions required him to study
at the university. Having a poor HKCEE result, he knew he had little chance of fulfilling his
dream. After secondary school, he obtained a teaching job in a private school, Hong Kong Po
Chee College. For this introduction to teaching by his former teacher he always showed his
gratitude. It was in this job that Kin-wai began to like the work and to find satisfaction. Later, for
his professional qualification in education, he enrolled in the two-year full-time course in the
Northcote College of Education.
Originally, Ho-fai had in mind becoming an academic, and teaching was only a sideline. In
the summer of 1977-1978, before he began his MPhil degree, he took up teaching in a private
school. This half-year of teaching had quite an influence on him for he found it really interesting.
At this juncture, he did not stay in teaching but undertook an MPhil. While researching, he was
very serious and a workaholic. He slept in the laboratory and operated on sets after sets of rats
without break. Ho-fai wrote his thesis at night and was very productive. Together with his
supervisor, he published 14 papers, seven of which he wrote and were accepted by European and
British journals. He was an academic in the making. After graduation he was offered a place to
read for his PhD at an Australian university, but he was not offered a scholarship. He was hesitant.
He had two options: to become a scientist or a teacher. His wish to marry persuaded him to stay
in Hong Kong.
At that moment of hesitation, he began as a substitute teacher. This experience finally changed
his view:
I was in fact quite happy in teaching. The students missed me ... some of the students I taught
in Sacred Heart College as a substitute teacher still keep in contact with me. You can see that
even if I am a substitute teacher, I relate in depth to my students. I like being in contact with
people. So sometimes I wonder if I should keep myself in contact with rats for very long.
Like Ho-fai, but less eventfully, Ka-ming applied to study medicine at HKU after his first degree
in biology. Although he was psychologically prepared to spend another five years in university,
starting again from year one, to become a doctor, he was not accepted by the Faculty of Medicine.
Teaching was only his second choice. With no other alternative, he then looked for teaching
vacancies in schools.
When Patrick was about to graduate in music, he planned to continue with a higher degree
in that subject. That year, however, due to a shortage of funds, the university did not offer music,
so Patrick registered to read a higher degree in theology. At this juncture, his father stepped in.
He did not think the nominated version of theology was suitable and advised Patrick against the
course. Instead, his father arranged for him to teach music in a school ran by the same church.
In Patrick’s words, he was “sold” by his father to the profession in which he had a lot of previous
experience.
He stayed in this post for seven years, working very hard in the job and suffering burnout. He
then quit and worked part-time in music for three years for the extra-mural department of CUHK.
Not being happy with the part-time work and, at his wife’s urging, he left CHUK to join the
Education Department as a music inspector. Later, his close relationship with the church gave
him a further opportunity to become head of a secondary school.
Not everyone’s initial experience of teaching was positive. Jean, for example, had her moments
of doubt when, in her second year, she went to teach in a Grant school. She was very much
influenced by one of her colleagues:
In St Joan’s there was an experienced English Literature teacher... This teacher was cynical
because after years of teaching she was frustrated and fed up with the education system. She
was unhappy, cynical towards everything, including towards life. She had a failed marriage,
and she felt bitter about it. Somehow, I didn’t know why, she greatly affected me. She taught
very well. She made me feel inferior... Being affected by this teacher, I also felt quite frustrated
with the system. In the year I left, I was already promoted to chair the English panel. Her
cynicism affected me. I was under her shadow. At that time, I didn’t enjoy being the panel
chair because I had to review other English teachers’ marking. I didn’t believe in this sort of
thing. Also, maybe I was quite young then and was given such a big responsibility, I therefore
felt quite unhappy about it.
She quit the school and enrolled herself in a full-time certificate course in education to see if she
still liked teaching. She was offered a job in her present school after her Certificate in Education.
Here she recovered her enthusiasm and commitment. She was promoted to be panel head again
in 1976 and, ten years later, she became the deputy principal. The Sisters were grooming her to
take up the principalship of the school.
The making of nine principals

Of the nine informants, Man-wah, Kao-yuen and Jack were appointed principals quite early in
their careers. They did not go through normal process of promotion into senior teacher and/or
deputy head. Their teaching experiences were very short when appointed.
During his three years at university, Man-wah took up private tuition and taught in a number
CHAPTER 3 45
of private schools. When he graduated he was already quite a mature and experienced teacher:
at the end of his year in an aided school in Choi Hung Estate, for example, he was asked to head
the discipline committee. In this new post he learnt a great deal from the negative examples of
the principal and the things he should not do when he became a principal. Interestingly, this
seems to be his way of learning - always from the negative examples. During these early years, he
maintained close contact with Park Yiu College, the private school that he had long served. Two
years later he was invited back as principal. He was quite young to be a secondary principal,
although it was a small school of about 300 students.
From the beginning, Man-wah realized that the problem with many schools was their poor
management. He asked for full authority to run the school and was given it. Management, for
him, meant managing students and teachers, streamlining the procedures, clarifying the
objectives and building up a team spirit. He described his approach:
I joined teachers in their activities. When I went out to attend meetings, I always took back
some snacks to share with teachers. It was team-building and I wanted to build a human
environment. In the second year, I fought for a salary rise for teachers in the middle of the
year. I was all along a salaried staff member, and I was able to convince the school’s owner to
give a raise to the teachers’ salary. Teachers who were more highly paid got a smaller
percentage increase, although the difference was only $10. Better paid teachers got $10 less,
and others got $10 more. I was very socialist, and perhaps still so even today.
Four years later, when the owner migrated to Canada, he bought the school from her. A year later,
in 1974, he expanded it to Yuen Long, a district in the New Territories, and began his career as a
principal and owner of a chain of private secondary schools.
For Kao-yuen, his experience in assisting Pastor Cheung was quite extraordinary. While he
was reading for his Masters degree in Chinese History, he knew that he was not cut out for
research. During this time, the church decided to train principals for new schools. He took the
course and later helped the Church to develop new schools. The involvement was a crash course
on school administration and he became quite familiar, for example, with architectural plans.
In 1975, after serving two secondary schools run by the Church, he was made the founding
principal of the school in Tai Po. Kao-yuen did not have a rich teaching experience, but the
Church felt he had potential and offered him the post. He became a principal without first being
a senior teacher, which was unusual for aided schools. In the 1970s, the minimum requirement
for an aided secondary school principalship was five years teaching experience. In practice, while
the Education Department always required some prior administrative experience, the sponsoring
body could always argue for special consideration. If the applicant was a priest, the requirement
was different.
This was Jack’s experience. Being a priest, he knew that he would be appointed the principal
of one of the religious order schools. The education of youth was the mission of his order. Jack
was a former student of the school where he is now the principal. After his education in Rome,
he returned to Hong Kong and taught in a seminary. He learnt that the long serving principal of
the school was about to retire. He asked his supervisor to send him back to the school to help,
knowing that he would become the principal after the serving one retired. Two years later, he was
made the principal. Jack believed his priestly training and education were sufficient for him to
do the job of both teaching and school administration. He saw working with people, particularly
students, as his working priority.
Other than these three speedy cases, it took the rest a while to become principals. There was,
of course, the element of chance. In the normal course of events, when they became principals
they had already acquired a wealth of teaching and administrative experience.
Jean was handpicked by the supervisor to succeed her after her retirement in 1991, 24 years
after graduating from university. Jean was not an ambitious person. She had been in her present
school since 1974. With experience and involvement with the advisory council of the school, she
began to expand her scope. It was during on-the-job training that she began to like school
administration and to feel confident about the work. The change of sponsorship from the original
religious order was the turning point for her career. After the change she was made the vice-
principal, a post she then felt was natural to take up as she enjoyed a high status among her
colleagues. At this time the Sisters planned to move out of education to devote themselves to
missionary work in China. They had set their eyes on Jean and were grooming her for
principalship. There was, of course, the issue of the religious faith of the teacher concerned,
which even today is an important consideration in Hong Kong church schools. Another
consideration was the fact that Jean was a past student of the school. This was important,
particularly with Grant schools with long histories and many graduates, as Jean reflected:
... I knew they [the Sisters] had difficulty in selecting between the other vice-principal and
me for the post. If based on seniority, the post should be given to the other vice-principal. I
think that the other vice-principal was not happy when they chose me at that time ... The
Sisters decided to choose me because I was a past student. She is not a Catholic but I am. All
these were important qualities to the Sisters. The Sisters told me that they would not give up
the school if I rejected the offer.
Under her leadership, the school undertook a number of initiatives, including innovations in IT,
and became more prosperous.
Both Ho-fai and Wai-keung had similar experiences in taking up the principalships of their
schools. They were promoted from within. After they had gained key experiences in their first
schools, they left for new challenges.
Ho-fai spent three years at St. John’s College, another Grant School. Initially he worked
happily there. The school did not require him to do many other things, so he focused on teaching.
During these years, he completed his Diploma of Education. But then he began to feel bored, as
he recalled:
... life in St John’s had its frustration for me. You can’t really do much with bright students.
They are just bright on their own. In some ways, the system there was rather boring, not
giving you challenge. I wasn’t very happy working with other teachers at St John’s as well. The
year I left, there were ten for Biology in just one class in F.5. But I wanted to have new
development.
Ho-fai began looking for another school. The Christian school in Shatin, a new school in its
second year, wanted teachers, so he moved there. Here, he was one of the few with experience
and was naturally given administrative responsibilities. In his first year he headed the extra-
curricular activities team and the religious education team. Later he had charge of academic
matters. It was through his administrative work that Mr Chow, the principal, knew Ho-fai’s ability.
Ho-fai regarded him as his mentor. In 1990 Mr. Chow migrated to USA to study theology and
CHAPTER 3 47
recommended Ho-fai as his successor. There were other applicants, but Ho-fai got the position.
Partly due to his relative inexperience, his internal promotion made it difficult for him in the early
years, as he recalled:
In those early years of my principalship, some teachers tried to take advantage of me. They
were more quick-minded about things like time-tabling. I could only figure out what
happened afterwards, but before I could do that, at the meeting, they already had me
ridiculed. They would sometimes make me lose face ... In this school I simply have to work
harder, and I don’t want the staff to fall into cliques. There were then a lot of vacancies to make
use of, but I didn’t want to do this. I still believe people can be changed. Now I feel I have very
good working relationship with the staff. Of course, I had been lucky, for some have gone
elsewhere for their own development.
In this period when the school had been successful in a number of innovations and became
known in the community, his teachers would caution him not to be carried away by a few
successes. They sometimes blamed him for being vain. It took him quite a few years to win back
his confidence.
Although also promoted from within, Wai-keung’s experience was very different. Influenced
by the teachers in his primary and secondary schools, He was very active as a teacher in Cheung
Shiu Kam College, where he took his first teaching job. As a former teacher, he built in a lesson
a week for the form teacher period. He organized a debating club for the students, played them
patriotic songs and took them to exhibitions. The latter activities were regarded by many at that
time as being of the “Left”. He also initiated social service and tried to widen the experience of
the students. The later arrival of a conservative principal caused him frustration so he left the
school the following year and changed to Chan Pak Man Secondary School that was relatively
new.
In the same year he did what many teachers who were serious about school administration
would do: he enrolled in an MA in educational administration. His chance in school
administration came with the departure of the panel chair in mathematics. Two years later he was
vice-principal. He applied for principalships when there were vacancies in other schools, but each
time he was unsuccessful.
Finally, his chance arrived, but it was not without some struggle. In mid-1994 the principal
left to work in a tertiary institution. By then Wai-keung was the most senior teacher in line for
the post so he submitted his application. He was interviewed together with other applicants. The
school management committee (SMC) did not have much confidence in him and asked him to
act in the position. A few months later, the SMC advertised again. Wai-keung was embarrassed,
but again he applied. Wanting more information on Wai-keung, the SMC conducted a survey
among the teachers on his suitability as principal, a rather uncommon practice. This action
showed the SMC’s reluctance. Fortunately, Wai-keung had the support of over half of the teachers
and the SMC finally offered him the post in 1995. Wai-keung proved to be a capable head. He
had many insightful views on education and, in 1999, was seconded to serve for a year as the
special advisor to the Director of Education.
If one followed Patrick’s early career path, one would not readily see an opportunity for
Patrick to become a principal. Nor did his music subject help him. Patrick resigned from his first
school where he had worked for seven years. He was a very diligent worker but he felt he was
suffering burnout and quit the job. He switched to part-time work developing music with the
extra-mural department of a higher institute. He then married and his wife wanted him to work
full-time. He joined the Education Department and became an advisory inspector in music. He
was unhappy with his work there, however, for he lacked the support of senior colleagues for
some initiatives in helping schools with music.
In 1988 his chance came. His good friend, Lee Kin Sun, left the school in the New Territory,
a small school with only 13 classes, for a larger secondary school. He invited Patrick to apply for
the vacancy. It was a Christian school and the SMC consisted entirely of pastors. With his church
connection and the fact that his father was a pastor, though not of the same church, Patrick was
appointed as principal. Under his leadership, the school gradually embraced many new ideas and
was considered one of Hong Kong’s innovative schools.
The last informant to become a principal, mainly because of his weaker academic school
record, was Kin-wai, in 1998. Probably for this reason, Kin-wai was very anxious to improve
himself. He was the most diligent of the nine and enrolled in courses while teaching full-time.
Early on, as a private school teacher, Kin-wai studied part-time for an industrial chemistry
certificate in a polytechnic. He then obtained the full-time teaching certificate from Northcote
College of Education and was fully qualified. After joining the staff of an aided school in Kwun
Tong, he continued to study for different diplomas in teachers’ college. In 1983, after six years
part-time study, he was awarded his first bachelors degree. He was promoted to vice-principal in
1992 but continued his studies. From 1994-96 he took the PCEd at HKU and followed it up with
the MEd in educational administration the following two years. Like Wai-keung, after becoming
the vice-principal, he applied for principal vacancies. In 1998, in his second attempt with the
same sponsoring body, he became principal of his present school.
Attitudes towards training

On the whole, the nine principals did not have a high opinion of training, particularly
principalship training. Most thought that training, such as the nine-day course offered by the ED
for new principals, was too short and that the university MEd course in educational
administration was too theoretical. These courses were considered inadequate in helping
principals handle their daily problems of schools. Instead, some stressed the importance of
learning on the job, and some valued the opportunities provided by their supervisors who served
as their mentors, along with their fellow principals who listened to their problems and shared
their experiences.
Jack was one who emphasised learning on the job. He also believed that his education in
philosophy and theology was sufficient to prepare him for teaching and administration. He placed
practical knowledge ahead of theory:
Training, on the one hand, can be important but in teaching a great deal depends upon a
person’s character... You learn most by teaching and as you teach you learn to improve your
teaching. A lot of theories and theorising is often not all that useful in making you a better
teacher. It is the practical experience that matters.
Man-wah learned teaching and management from the negative examples he had encountered in
early life. As a student he had been upset with his school experience in the Hong Kong
Government Secondary School. Hence, when he became principal, he listened to the students
and let them have a voice. Later, he learnt from the principal who shouted “quiet boys!” all the
time. He tried to get the support of the teachers by being friendly with them and built up team-
CHAPTER 3 49
work. Although he studied for his in Diploma of Education, he did not think highly of the
teaching.
Kin-wai took a MEd degree in educational administration to prepare for his career. The course
was not very helpful although he read a lot. Like the others, he believed MEd courses helped
students only at a theoretical level. Information about social relationships, the way to motivate
colleagues to work or the processes in forming a shared division, were not often covered in these
courses.
Jean thought similarly. Responding to a question on the need for training, she commented:
It’s really difficult to say. There should be a proper way of doing things. I don’t know. Apart
from learning theories ... It depends on the leadership quality one has. Regarding qualities,
it’s impossible by just being told what one should do. It relates to one’s personality. This can
be very subjective. One can become a very good leader in a particular context. However, he
or she may fail to do so in another context. To me, theory remains theory. The principal’s self-
awareness and sensitivity are important. Looking back, one will know where one belongs to,
what sort of personality one is and the context s/he is in.
Patrick looked at the issue from a very pragmatic point of view. He considered the training he
received as an inspector, which taught him how to write formal letters to prevent being
challenged, to decide what to say and what not to say, more useful. Psychologically, since the same
training was offered together with the district education officers (DEOs), he felt they did not
frighten him when he became the principal.
Ho-fai thought training in management helpful but yearned for a mentorship. He also found
sharing experiences and grievances with his fellow principals more useful. He opined:
I don’t think training in management will help me very much in my experience in this school
in the first years. If a mentor were available, that would have been better. Recently I have been
talking with my peers (those who became principals at around the same time), and we all felt
we were unfortunate not to have mentors. So we all had to scrape through. In the difficult
time in my early days I really wanted to have someone to ask. The mentor would be someone
who listens and discusses things with you.
Sponsorship
Sponsors who are either religious bodies or voluntary agencies run schools. In each school, the
sponsoring body appoints a school management committee (SMC), which is given legal and
financial power to manage the school. Members of the SMC are usually selected from within the
sponsoring bodies. In Hong Kong, the recruitment of principals is done by the SMC, and the
principals will in turn recruit the teachers. The Government only prescribes minimum academic
and professional qualifications; the selection criteria, procedures and panel membership are all
determined by the SMC. Not surprisingly, as revealed in this study, a close relationship of the
candidates with the sponsoring body is likely to affect his or her success in securing an
appointment. As Wai-keung suggested, this relationship is “the prerequisite to becoming a
principal”.
In the eight aided schools in this study, none of the principals recruited was without some
connection with the sponsoring body or SMC. Patrick, Kao-yuen and Ka-ming had direct or
indirect connections with some members of the SMC. Whether Kin-wai was connected with the
SMC is not known, but he belonged to the same denomination of the church school of which he
is the principal. For those principals recruited from within, the SMC, often the supervisor, would
know their performance prior to promotion. In the case of Jack who is a priest of the religious
body that runs the school, and Jean who is an alumnus of her school, they did not even have to
compete with outsiders. The only exception is Wai-keung. He encountered difficulties in securing
his principalship despite the fact that he had been the acting role for more than a year. In the
end, he still needed the strong support of the supervisor and the fact that his teachers gave him
a vote of confidence.
The role of the outgoing principals is also important in the appointment of principals in some
cases. For internal appointment, the outgoing principals knew the performance of subordinates
and could identify strong internal candidates and recommend them to the SMC. This was the
case for Jean, Wai-keung, Man-wai and Ho-fai. Among the five internal appointees, only Jack’s
case did not involve the sponsorship of his predecessor. On the other hand, outgoing principals
could also identify and recommend external candidates to succeed them. This happened to
Patrick who was clearly sponsored by his predecessor who was a personal friend.
Age
With regard to age, in chapter two, Pashiardis and Ribbins observe that in Cyprus principals are
not normally appointed until their mid-fifties. In Hong Kong none were appointed in their fifties.
Two secured their first principalships in their late twenties, five were promoted in their thirties
and the remaining two in their forties. This is largely due to the rapid expansion of education in
the Seventies and Eighties that created a huge demand for qualified principals. Not many
experienced teachers who were then over 50 had attended university. As a result, younger
graduate teachers had greater opportunities of becoming principals. This reason may not fully
explain such early appointments to principalships, however, since four of the nine principals
interviewed were promoted in the Nineties when there were clearly teachers over 50 with
university degrees. Another possible explanation is the demand of great energy if improvement
is to be made in the school and 50 or above is regarded too old for this important task. Jean thinks
that “it’s better for a person to attain this stage in her/his forties” and Kin-wai also shares such a
view: “People would not hire a person who is quite old to be a principal”.
Gender
Gender attracts the interest of many researchers in studying teachers’ careers. In 1998, the ratio
of male and female graduate teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools was about 1:1, but only
31 per cent of secondary school principals were female (Education Department 1999b). Taken
at face value, these data seem to indicate that female teachers in Hong Kong have less chance of
appointment to principalships. When the data are scrutinized closely, however, the situation of
gender inequality in the making of Hong Kong principals may not be as great as appears.
To some extent, the imbalance is a product of historical gender inequality in education, rather
than the result of unequal opportunity or discrimination against women. It is true that in the past,
females were discriminated against in Hong Kong. In the Sixties and Seventies the number of
women attending higher education was significantly less than men. The percentages of female
undergraduates at HKU and CUHK, for example, in 1971, 1981 and 1990 were 28.4, 34.0, 41.2,
and 38.7, 35.6, 51.3 respectively (Choi 1995). It is therefore highly likely that there are more male
than female secondary teachers in senior age groups. Evidence for this lies in the age medians of
male and female of secondary school teachers. According to the Education Department, (1999b)
CHAPTER 3 51
the figures stood at 37 and 34 for male and female teachers respectively. More male principals
were probably selected simply because there were more male candidates, although discrimination
against female candidates cannot be completely ruled out.
Interestingly, two principals in this study claimed that there was no gender inequality in
principal selection. Jean, the only female principal, remarked: “It’s the selection of a person who
has the capability”. She attributes equality of appointment to the fact that, like men in Hong
Kong, “women have the chance to receive higher education, and they have the opportunity to
prove themselves”. Kin-wai concurred that gender did not influence principal selection in Hong
Kong. More research needs to be done, however, before firm conclusions can be drawn.
Christian beliefs
Religious adherence was a necessary condition for a principalship appointment in the seven
Roman Catholic or Christian schools, although in two cases an open recruitment exercise was
conducted beforehand. All of the seven principals are Christians, although not necessarily
members of the same orders or denominations as their schools. Closeness to church bodies was
the main reason for their appointment. Jean described such a requirement as natural, logical and
reasonable. She further elaborated: “The reason is to preserve the religion of the school and its
tradition. If you are not of the same religion, it’s not convincing, is it? ... How can you retain the
spirit? ... I think it’s simply not proper if the head of the school does not have the same religious
faith.” Kin Wai shared similar views but pointed out that while this is true of most Christian
schools, it does not mean principals must belong to the same church or association of the
sponsoring body. Nonetheless, Christian schools in Hong Kong are exclusively headed by
Christians, either Protestant or Catholic. In this regard, being a Christian is an advantage when
seeking a Hong Kong principalship, especially when over 60 per cent of aided schools are run by
Christian bodies and only 7.5 per cent of the population is Christian (Hong Kong Yearbook
2001).
5. Final Thoughts
As a colony for over 150 years, Hong Kong has been considerably influenced by the British ways
of doing things. The British left behind two legacies after their departure on 1 July, 1997: the rule
of law and the education system7. Yet, British ways in Hong Kong have been constrained and
enriched by the Chinese culture and values.
There are two kinds of Chinese cultural influence on the education system. The first is the
high value attached to schooling by parents. Like many Chinese parents, Hong Kong parents
tolerate considerable inconvenience and sometimes suffering for the education of their children.
In this chapter, we have seen how their parents in schooling encouraged the majority of the nine
principals, although they themselves had little education. Each year, the many long queues of
parents lined up in front of some famous kindergartens, primary or secondary schools are
spectacular sights in Hong Kong. The other feature is the trust accorded examinations. China
had a centuries-old practice of public examination for selecting scholars for the civil service.
Behind this system lies a deeply held belief in one’s own efforts. The Chinese regards the public
examination as the most equitable means of measuring ability. It has provided the opportunity
for many Chinese of humble origin to climb the social ladder. In Hong Kong education, public
examinations also play an important part in the interface between primary and secondary, and
between secondary and post-secondary, education. In this chapter, we saw how education had
changed the status of the majority of the principals who came from low-income families.
The rapid expansion of the Hong Kong economy and education created many opportunities
for teachers. Some were made principals during this period, even in their mid-thirties if not
younger. The different experiences of the nine principals on their road to the principalship also
reflected the virtual absolute discretionary power of the supervisor and SMC in appointing
principals, a feature not often seen in most other systems.
Issues of smallness and isolation

Over the past 50 years, Hong Kong has developed into a sophisticated and cosmopolitan urban
centre. With nearly seven million people and a GDP of more than $HK2000m, Hong Kong is
comparable to many medium-sized nations. Economically, it is a giant. Moreover, in 2000, there
were 719 primary schools, 519 secondary schools8 with 444,711 and 456,693 pupils respectively.
Yet when one tries to locate Hong Kong on a map, one finds only a tiny dot on the south China
coast. In a physical sense, Hong Kong is very small: the island and the peninsula measure only
1,100 square kilometres. There is a real sense of over-crowdedness. This lack of space means Hong
Kong schools are small premises compared with their counterparts in China or elsewhere.
On the other hand, Hong Kong’s geographical position means it is far from isolated. Besides,
being a commercial and financial centre, Hong Kong has a large volume of imports and exports,
and it maintains very efficient and sophisticated communication links with different parts of the
world. Each year, it attracts some 9 million travellers from around the world. It is a city full of life
and vitality.
Of the four islands in this project, Hong Kong resembles Singapore rather than Cyprus and
Malta. Despite its similarity, however, Singapore has a planned economy with an emphasis on order
and discipline. The government of Singapore intervenes much more in the activities of its people.
Hong Kong, by contrast, is much more westernised in style, if not in language (although people
who have lived in Hong Kong know it is a monolingual society with Cantonese the dominant
dialect) and its people are much more individualistic. The Government of Hong Kong interfered
minimally and has allowed its people considerable freedom of speech and other freedoms.
Since 1997, the Hong Kong SAR Government has been stepping up its influence. In education,
Mr. Tung, the Chief Executive, set up a $5 billion fund to support innovation in schools and many
meaningful activities have been supported at the school level although many activities were not
as productive as planned. In 1997, Mr. Tung asked the Education Commission to review the entire
education system with a view to its improvement. It has recently recommended a number of far-
reaching changes which principals are once again being called upon to respond to and implement
(Education Commission, 1999).
Notes
1
Later variations of the OCDQ were developed with varied degree of sophistication. For example there are questionnaires attempting to understand
the culture of schools.
2
Currently, the proportion of Government schools has been reduced to about 10%.
3
The others include the Government schools. The difference between the aided schools and the Government Schools is that while both are 100 per
cent funded by the Government, the former are sponsored and administered by church bodies or voluntary agencies.
4
Taishan is the village in Southern China known for its large number of immigrants. In the early history the USA, Chinese migrants largely came from
Taishan and migrants from other part of China had to learn the Taishan dialect in order to survive in US “Chinatown” communities.
5
The resettlement estate was the early version of the Government’s public housing scheme. It was crude. Each family was housed in a cubical measuring
15 to 25 square metres. There was only one door and one window on the same side as the door. There were no kitchens and toilets inside the cubical.
Families shared a public toilet and cooked meals in the common corridor.
CHAPTER 3 53
6
Mr. Wong asked the students to copy some mottos to remind them to improve their life.
7
One noticeable development in education after the handover in 1997 has been the attention accorded to schools in China, particularly in Shanghai.
There has been a marked increase in the number of visits of school personnel and ED officials to Shanghai to learn from its “good” examples.
8
The number includes Government, Aided and Private schools.
References
Choi, P. K. (1995) Women and Education in Hong Kong, Pearson, V and Leung, V (eds.) Women in Hong Kong,
Hong Kong: Open University Press, 101-132.
Education Department (1999a) Leadership Training Programme for Principals - Consultation Document, Hong
Kong: Education Department
Education Department (1999b) Teacher Survey, Hong Kong: Education Department
Education and Manpower Branch and Education Department, (1991) The School Management Initiative, Setting
the Framework for Quality in Hong Kong Schools, Hong Kong: Education Department.
Education Commission, (1999) Learning for life: Review of education system, framework for educational reform,
Hong Kong: The Printing Department.
Hong Kong Government (1963) Report of Education Commission, Hong Kong: The Printing Department
Hong Kong Government, (1974) Secondary Education in Hong Kong over the Next Decade, Hong Kong: The
Printing Department
Hong Kong Government, (1978) The Development of Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education, Hong Kong: The
Printing Department
Information Services Department (2000) Hong Kong 2000, Hong Kong: The Printing Department
Ng, Ho-Ming (2001) A model on continuous professional development of school leaders, International Studies in
Educational Administration, 29,2, 73-87.
Rayner, S. and Ribbins, P. (1999) Headteachers and Leadership in Special Education, London: Cassell.
Ribbins, P. and Marland, M. (1994) Headship Matters, London: Longman
Ribbins, P. (1998) Professional careers and the development of school leaders in Britain and Cyprus, Cyprus
Educational Administration Society Magazine, 6, 1, 7-10
Task Group on Training and Development of School Heads, (1999) Leadership Training Programme for Principals:
Consultation Paper, Education Department, Hong Kong.
Wong, Kam-Cheung (2001a) What kind of leaders do we need? The case of Hong Kong, International Studies in
Educational Administration, 29,2, 2-12.
Wong, Kam-Cheung (2001b) Preparing for education leadership for Hong Kong schools, Pashiardis, P. (eds)
International Perspectives on Educational Leadership, Centre for Educational Leadership, University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, 93-105.
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Special issue on the making of secondary school principals on

Article · April 2003

Petros Pashiardis Peter Michael Ribbins

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Special Issue on The Making of Secondary School

Special Issue on The Making of Secondary School Principals

VINCENT CASSAR is an organisational psychologist and lectures in the Department of

PETER GRONN is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash University,

PETROS PASHIARDIS is Associate Professor of Educational Administration in the Department of

KAM-CHEUNG WONG is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre of Educational

Petros Pashiardis and Peter Ribbins

Petros Pashiardis edpetros@ucy.ac.cy

The Making of Secondary School

These studies share a commitment to a biographical orientation (Ribbins, 2003) in general

normally be expected to take place at the school of the interviewee. In practice no

Appendix 1: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

On Cyprus: The Making of

The making of eight people

His father wanted his children educated because he:

Influence of other members of the family

Influence of peer groups and the local community

Influence of wives and husbands

The making of eight students

Attitudes to studying and learning

The political situation and the schools

The how and why of teaching?

The how and why of promotion?

What then of the promotions system? Mr Georgiou emphasises its limitations:

Mr. Costa called for open competition:

The making of eight principals

Given this, why should anybody wish to be a principal?

Preparing for principalship

On Hong Kong: The Making of

The making of nine people

The influence of Christian beliefs

The making of nine students

4. Accession: From Teacher to Principal

Similarly, the nuns at Maryknoll left Jean with a fond impression:

The making of nine principals

Attitudes towards training

Issues of smallness and isolation

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