Prof. Allan David Walker
Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China
Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership
Head of Department of Education Policy and Leadership
Director, The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change
Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China
- Known internationally for his passion for school leadership, innovative approaches to leader development and the promotion of leader control and accountability for their own professional learning
- Chair Professor of Educational Administration and Policy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (worked for 16 years)
- Worked at Universities in Australia, the United States and Singapore (Nanyang Technological University)
- Made a Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leadership (2010) for his contribution to educational leadership research and development globally, but especially in South and Southeast Asia
- Areas of Expertise: Educational leadership and management; International education; Leader learning and professional development; School improvement and educational change (has been at the forefront of a group of scholars investigating how school leadership is framed and enacted in different contexts and cultures internationally, and using this knowledge to broaden understanding and build leader capacity)
- Won four GRF grants and 20 other competitive research grants
- Research focuses on expanding knowledge of school leadership in Chinese and other Asian societies and disseminating this internationally. He believes research findings from the region have as much to offer the broader field as those produced in Western societies but have for too long been undervalued.
- Has been instrumental in designing and implementing a number of pioneering academic and leader learning programmes for local principals and leaders and also for one of Asia’s top international school systems, widely recognised internationally and have engaged thousands of local, regional and international school leaders, including all beginning principals in Hong Kong since 2002
- The Key Qualities of the Principalship in Hong Kong which he co-wrote is used as the framework for all principal preparation and development programmes
- Acted as a consultant/advisor on large-scale research, numerous other academic projects, and development activities in countries including Australia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Norway, Finland, Vietnam, Malaysia, Netherlands, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia
- Serves on the editorial boards of the top ranked journals in his field and has published over 300 books and articles with international publishers and in the world’s most prestigious academic journals
