Innovation as Policy Rhetoric and Practice: A Critical Policy Analysis of Educational Innovation and Leadership in Hong Kong

This chapter critically examines how ‘innovation’ is conceptualized and operationalized in Hong Kong education policy, with particular attention to its implications for leadership practice and policy design. Using critical policy analysis (CPA) informed by critical realism, it analyses key leadership and school improvement texts to examine how innovation is framed and mobilized. The chapter highlights tensions between rhetorical commitments to innovation and the structural constraints of accountability, standardization, and hierarchical leadership cultures. It shows that innovation is predominantly framed in instrumental and performative terms, closely aligned with system management, technological adoption, and national development priorities. Drawing on critical realism, this chapter shows how the leadership of innovation is shaped by underlying structures and policy mechanisms, and proposes an equity-oriented alternative to instrumental policy accounts of innovation.