EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT VIA SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMENT & TEACHER EMPOWERMENT

Purpose: Education development and teacher empowerment has become a focus of attention for School Based Management (SBM) in Asia. The HKSAR Government formally introduced a SBM system in Year-2000 with a view to enhancing the quality of education through the empowerment of teachers and other initiatives. Methodology: This study used quantitative research, asking more than 500 randomly selected teachers to respond to a questionnaire measuring their perception of four constructs under SBM: teacher empowerment, participation in decision-making, collaboration and student achievement under SBM. Findings: Confirmatory factor analysis showed the questionnaire is valid and reliable, with excellent goodness of fit indices. Analyses show that teachers have significant positive perceptions of teacher empowerment, participation in decision-making, collaboration and students’ achievement under SBM. A proposed theoretical model of the relationships between various variables is proposed. Structural Equation Model shows that data fit the model excellently, with teacher empowerment having significant positive effects on the other three variables. Limitations: Schools are in general reluctant to release their public examination results. Hence evaluation of student achievement is difficult. Implications – Practical: The theoretical framework developed can be widely used by schools to improve their teaching effectiveness amongst the Asia countries where education system and culture are similar. Implications – Social: Education is paramount to social development, and hence the implication for the society is highly significant. Originality/Value: This study is the first of its kind to support the proposed benefits of SBM on the quality of education in Hong Kong. It sheds light on the relationships between teacher empowerment, teacher participation, collaboration and student achievement under SBM in Hong Kong.