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Relationships between policy, teachers' values and professional capital in teacher collaboration in hierarchical Chinese societies

Daphnee Hui Lin Lee (Faculty of Education and Human Development, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

Journal of Professional Capital and Community

ISSN: 2056-9548

Article publication date: 6 October 2021

Issue publication date: 5 April 2022

504

Abstract

Purpose

Both Hong Kong and Singapore leverage teacher collaboration to improve student learning, but state reforms differ in how teacher collaborative capabilities are prioritized. This paper provides a nuanced comparison of Hong Kong and Singapore teachers' values (risk-taking, power distance and uncertainty avoidance) to develop insights into how different policy focuses cultivate teachers' capabilities to focus on improving student learning.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing Hargreaves and Fullan's (2012) concept of professional capital, statistical analyses determine teachers' values profiles of high, medium and low professional capital in the respective contexts. Leveraging related research on Singapore teachers (Lee and Lee, 2018), nuances in teachers' values in the Hong Kong results are identified via cluster analysis and explained via structural equation modelling.

Findings

Medium professional capital Hong Kong teachers' values matched Singapore's, but teachers in other clusters are nuanced. Compared to Singapore teachers with similar levels of professional capital, high professional capital Hong Kong teachers have higher uncertainty avoidance, while low professional capital teachers are the opposite. In Hong Kong, high uncertainty avoidance values positively influence teacher leadership and focus on student learning. Nevertheless, as with their Singapore counterparts, high professional capital Hong Kong teachers have low power distance and high risk-taking values.

Originality/value

This paper raises awareness regarding policy's influence in cultivating teachers' values and their transformational change capabilities. By comparing two hierarchical Chinese societies, the discussion questions whether Chinese and Western cultural influences are mutually exclusive, and whether transformational change in cultural values, if achievable, is necessary.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Daphnee would like to express her gratitude to the following agencies and persons for supporting the research presented in this paper: University Grants Council Hong Kong for research grant ECS28605318; The Academy of Singapore Teachers for their support in data collection; all co-investigators and collaborators of Research Grants Council Singapore OER18/12LWO and Ministry Academies Fund Singapore AFR05-14LHL. Thank you, reviewers and editors for playing an important role as critical friends in improving the quality of the paper.

Citation

Lee, D.H.L. (2022), "Relationships between policy, teachers' values and professional capital in teacher collaboration in hierarchical Chinese societies", Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 159-175. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-04-2021-0024

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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