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Preface With the breakneck speed of educational development and the everincreasing expenditure required to feed its voracious appetite for resources and trained personnel, the role of administrators is of vital importance. The Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration (CCEA) makes it possible for educational administrators to be part of a wide, supportive network providing a comprehensive resource base for professional expertise, professional growth and consultation. CCEA aims at partnership, not dependence. Nowhere were these objectives better illustrated than at the Seventh Regional CCEA Conference so magnificently organized by the Hong Kong Council for Educational Administration in August 1992. Within the conference theme of 'Educational Administrators - Facing the Challenges of the Future' and its various sub-themes 'The New Challenges in the 90's', Policies and Strategies to Cope with Future Development', 'Professionalism and Professionalization', and 'Research and Development', participants from twenty-two countries sampled from an exotic smorgasbord of over eighty keynote papers, panel discussions, case studies, and paper or workshop presentations. From this smorgasbord the editors have chosen twenty papers for this important publication. Being aware of the momentous events ahead for Hong Kong, especially as 1997 draws nearer, readers may wish to obtain an early appreciation of the 'local' fare partaken by conference participants by concentrating on the chapters by Cheng Kai Ming, Andrew Wong, Alex Fung and colleagues from China. A reoccurring theme in these and other chapters is the desirability of recognizing diversity, of acknowledging that multiple ways to be and to act is a potential source of strength to a culture. Elliott Eisner (1991:142) xii Preface makes this point as follows: 'The importance of diversity in a population can be analogized to the importance of the instruments in an orchestra. With only violins, regardless of how broad their range, our musical experience would be impoverished. Each instrument, both individually and in concert with others, makes its distinctive contribution to the whole.' The Seventh CCEA Regional Conference in Hong Kong and this resulting publication has contributed not only to a recognition of the importance of diversity but also to enhancing our educational network and partnership. I commend the publication to you. Bill Mulford CCEA Former President University of Tasmania Australia ...

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