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

PurposeBoth 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/approachEmploying 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.FindingsMedium 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/valueThis 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.

Online Selection of a Physician by Patients: The Impression Formation Perspective (Preprint)

BACKGROUND With the rapid development of online healthcare communities, an increasing number of physicians provide services in the online healthcare communities that enable patients to consult online. However, it is difficult for patients to determine the professional level of doctors before consultation and diagnosis because of information asymmetry. A wealth of information about physicians displayed in their profile as a new means to help patients evaluate and select quickly and accurately. OBJECTIVE This research explores how the profile information presented in the online healthcare communities affects patients' impression formation, especially the perception of professional capital (i.e., status capital and decisional capital). The impression further affects their consultation intention, partially mediated by the initial trust. Toulmin’s model of argumentation is used to understand the strength of the argument presented in physicians’ homepage information and divide it into claim, data, and backing. METHODS This study conducts an internet experiment and recruits 386 subjects on the internet to explore the effect of impression formation on online selection behavior by a patient. RESULTS The results show that the strength of argument has a significant positive association with the perception of professional capital. Perceptions of professional capital are highest when a fully composed argument (claim/data/backing) is included in a profile, with claim/data being the next highest and claim only the lowest. Recommendations from connections have the strongest impact. The professional capital perception, in turn, influences patients’ selection decisions, which is partially mediated by initial trust. CONCLUSIONS This study is of great significance to the implication for theory and practice. On the one hand, this research contributes to the online health community literature and suggests that the perception of professional capital on physicians be pre-presumed and built on the basis of the information before in-person interactive online. On the other hand, this study is helpful to understand the effect of various components included in the profile information on perceiving physicians’ ability, and not all information is of the same importance.

Organisational and professional challenges amid the evolution of sustainability reporting: a theoretical framework and an agenda for future research

Purpose This paper aims to trace subsequent steps of the sustainability reporting evolution in terms of changes in the organisation fields and professional jurisdictions involved. As such, it highlights the (interrelated) organisational and professional challenges associated with the progressive incorporation of “sustainability” within corporate reporting. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on Suddaby and Viale’s (2011) theorisation of how professionals reshape organisational fields to highlight how organisational spaces, actors, rules and professional capital evolve alongside the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting. Findings The paper shows organisational spaces, actors, rules and professional capital mobilised during the recent evolution of sustainability reporting, starting from a period in which there was no space for sustainability, to more recent periods in which sustainability gained increasing momentum beyond initial niches, and culminating in more integrated forms of sustainability reporting. Research limitations/implications Although the analysis is limited to empirical evidence collected by prior research and practice on sustainability reporting, the paper offers a view to imagine how the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting relies on and affects organisational fields and professional jurisdictions. Originality/value The paper offers a lens to interpret corporate and professional challenges associated with the more recent evolutions of sustainability reporting practice and standard setting. It also allows framing the papers accepted in the special issue on “new challenges in sustainability reporting” and concludes by suggesting an agenda for future research.

Predictors of Swedish Teachers’ Attitudes and Willingness towards Research-based Teaching: Results of a Survey Study

Teachers´ and special educators’ attitudes towards research-based work differ but remains poorly understudied. This study predicts Swedish teachers´ and special educators´ attitudes towards (a) research-based work and (b) inviting researchers to schools. The data comes from a survey with a convenience sample of more than 300 teachers and special educators. The analysis combines methods such as: factor analysis, bootstrapped linear regression, and ordinal regression. Theoretically, this study derives predictions from professional capital theory. First, the results show how teachers and special educators differ in attitudes towards research-based work. Second, the results show how teachers with greater social capital have a higher probability of willingness to invite researchers to the school. This study concludes support for professional capital theory.

Elevating Teachers' Professional Capital: Effects of Teachers' Engagement in Professional Learning and Job Satisfaction

Building Teachers' Professional Capital @ Primary Schools through Positive School Climate & Professional Identities<br>