The first project paper from the JC InnoPower Education Fellowship project, led by Dr Jiafang Lu, was presented at the AERA 2026 Annual Meeting. Titled “Transformational Leadership, Principal Self-Efficacy, and Organizational Learning: Rethinking Humility and Overconfidence in School Leadership,” the study examined how transformational leadership influences organizational learning in Hong Kong K–12 schools. The findings highlighted the importance of alignment between principal self-efficacy and teachers’ perceptions of leadership effectiveness. The presentation attracted strong engagement from international scholars and enhanced EdUHK’s research visibility in educational leadership. The second project paper presentation “Leading Professional Learning Networks of Future Ready School Leaders in Hong Kong: Expert Principals' Perspective” is one of the project paper under the JC InnoPower Education Fellowship. It was presented at the AERA Annual Conference 2026 on April 10 2026 in Los Angeles, California. EPL associate professor Dr Jiafang Lu and research assistant Dr Yixing YANG co-presented the work.
During the session, the team introduced the details of the JC InnoPower Education Fellowship programme and five crucial roles of expert educators to facilitate cross-school professional learning networks (PLNs) through the programme. They highlighted the characterised activities of cross-boundary learning, shared sense of purpose, collaborative work and learning, and reciprocal Learning and leading for expert educators to facilitate meaningful cross-school PLNs. Besides, their findings inform policymakers about how meaningful learning can be designed and maintained, and the coaching strategies to achieve cross-school PLNs in leadership development programme.
The presentation received strong interest from conference participants, positive feedback and numerous inquiries about the programme design and its practical implementation.