We draw on a number of rich intellectual foundations to inform our focus areas - leadership, education policy, and teacher and school development.
Our teaching and academic expertise covers a variety of disciplines. It includes sociology of education; psychology; politics; policy studies; teacher development and professionalization; comparative education; school leadership and management; educational change and innovation; citizenship; moral and values education; and education law. It also cuts across various levels of education, such as early childhood education; primary and secondary education; higher education; vocational education; and international education.
In order to cultivate a collaborative environment within the department and uphold our dedication to world-class research, we have initiated four research clusters at EPL:
| Research Cluster | Introduction |
Teacher and Teacher Education
Dr TSANG, Kwok Kuen Members:
|
The Teacher and Teacher Education Research Cluster addresses a central challenge of our time: preparing students for uncertain futures within rapidly changing educational landscapes. We believe that teachers are the pivotal agents of this transformation. Our core focus is teacher transformative agency—the capacity to develop and enact innovative practices despite constraints. We investigate the psychological, social, and institutional factors that enable or hinder teachers’ willingness and readiness for change. Through integrated theoretical and empirical research, we explore key themes that underpin this agency, including: teacher identity, emotion, resilience and well-being; professional development and learning; and leadership, innovation, and creativity. Our work extends to examining teacher education and policy that shape these pillars. Our mission is to generate critical insights that empower teachers as expert practitioners, reflective leaders, and change agents. By understanding the dynamics of agency, we aim to shape more effective, equitable, and supportive educational environments. Ultimately, the cluster serves as a hub for scholarship dedicated to understanding and empowering the teaching profession, ensuring teachers are not only prepared for the future but are actively shaping it. |
Leadership and Governance
|
The Leadership and Governance Research Cluster is dedicated to advancing scholarly and practical understanding of how effective leadership and governance can transform education systems from K–12 to higher education. Our research interrogates the interplay between leadership practices, institutional cultures, and policy frameworks to strengthen equity, inclusion, and excellence across learning environments. Anchored in the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4 on Quality Education and SDG 16 on strong, accountable institutions, the cluster investigates how education leaders can drive sustainable educational reform. We explore issues such as leadership capacity building, participatory governance, data-driven decision-making, and the role of innovation in enhancing educational resilience. Through collaborative, evidence-based inquiry, we aim to generate insights that not only inform leadership preparation and institutional effectiveness but also contribute to building just, inclusive, and future-ready education systems capable of addressing global challenges and nurturing lifelong learning for all. |
Equity and Social Justice
Dr LEE, Tsz Lok Trevor
|
The Equity and Social Justice Research Cluster cultivates a vibrant community of educational researchers dedicated to advancing equity and social justice in and through education. A key focus is generating evidence-based knowledge and frameworks that challenge common assumptions about educational systems and address systemic inequities. Through sustained, cross-disciplinary collaboration among faculty from fields such as the sociology of education, philosophy, critical theory, multicultural education, and public policy, this cluster strengthens our collective research capacity and fosters a platform for academic exchange in the field. Through these efforts, the cluster contributes to the broader mission of transforming education into a dynamic force for inclusion and positive societal change, ensuring the pursuit of equity and justice is embedded in both everyday classroom practice and overarching educational policies and contexts. |
International and Comparative Education
Dr ALUD, Euan
|
The International and Comparative Education Research Cluster focus explores how education systems are responding to global pressures and opportunities, including the climate crisis, rapid technological change and shifting geopolitical configurations. Our team investigates how ideas about educational quality, governance and system improvement are developed, adapted and institutionalised within particular political and cultural settings. They examine processes of internationalisation in education, including cross‑border partnerships, transnational programmes, and academic and student mobility, and how these recalibrate institutional priorities, reshape academic work and reconfigure higher education institutions. Collectively, this research elucidates the evolving relationship between global reform agendas and locally embedded educational practices. Within these themes, equity and inclusion constitutes a central analytic focus. We examine how migration patterns, socioeconomic stratification and cultural diversity generate differentiated educational opportunities, and how schools, families and communities in Chinese and wider Asian contexts mediate these conditions. In parallel, our team explores how education is used to forge a sense of civic identity and global awareness amid heightened social and environmental uncertainty, and how curriculum, pedagogy and school culture might be used to cultivate ethical reasoning and intercultural understanding. Undergirding these interests, is research on leadership and organisational learning to understand how institutions build capacity for coherent, sustained improvement, informing more inclusive and future‑oriented education systems. |
In addition to direct department work, EPL colleagues contribute significantly to the leadership, research and development activities of several other units and affiliated centres.
|
Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) |
The APCLC stresses the importance of leadership and leadership development for achieving sustainable change in school systems. It builds on a strong regional foundation of leadership development by contributing new research grounded in the region. It also creates and transforms knowledge gained from research into practical tools. |
 |
 Academy for Educational Development and Innovation (AEDI) |
|
 |
 Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies (CHELPS) |
The Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies (CHELPS) represents the first and only higher education centre in Hong Kong building relationships with others in Mainland China, East Asia and worldwide. CHELPS is led by Professor Bruce Macfarlane and Professor Anatoly Oleksiyneko and draws on expertise in higher education studies from across The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). CHELPS enhances the quality of research communication and collaborations while connecting scholars and innovative practitioners in the Greater Bay Area, Greater China, Asia, and the world. Our open access journals provide a platform for intellectual debate and exchange between higher education scholars worldwide. The Centre's academic and development programmes include a Master of Arts in Global Higher Education from September 2024, an executive higher education leadership programme, a summer institute, and an intellectual leadership programme. CHELPS welcomes international scholars and institutional leaders eager to learn from Chinese and Asian experiences, as well as building stronger research networks in the field of regional and global higher education. |  |
|
Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) |
The APCLC stresses the importance of leadership and leadership development for achieving sustainable change in school systems. It builds on a strong regional foundation of leadership development by contributing new research grounded in the region. It also creates and transforms knowledge gained from research into practical tools. |
|
Academy for Educational Development and Innovation (AEDI) |
|
|
Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies (CHELPS) |
The Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies (CHELPS) represents the first and only higher education centre in Hong Kong building relationships with others in Mainland China, East Asia and worldwide. CHELPS is led by Professor Bruce Macfarlane and Professor Anatoly Oleksiyneko and draws on expertise in higher education studies from across The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). CHELPS enhances the quality of research communication and collaborations while connecting scholars and innovative practitioners in the Greater Bay Area, Greater China, Asia, and the world. Our open access journals provide a platform for intellectual debate and exchange between higher education scholars worldwide. The Centre's academic and development programmes include a Master of Arts in Global Higher Education from September 2024, an executive higher education leadership programme, a summer institute, and an intellectual leadership programme. CHELPS welcomes international scholars and institutional leaders eager to learn from Chinese and Asian experiences, as well as building stronger research networks in the field of regional and global higher education. | |
|
