Wing On Lee
Short Biography & Significant Contribution
Wing On Lee is at present Executive Director of the Institute for Adult Learning Singapore and concurrently serves as a Professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Before that, he was Distinguished Professor and Director of the International and Comparative Education Research Centre and the Central Plains Education Research Centre at Zhengzhou University, China. Besides having served as Vice President and Chair Professor of Comparative Education at the Open University of Hong Kong and Dean of Education Research at Singapore’s National Institute of Education, Wing On has held senior management positions in internationally renowned higher education institutions over a span of two decades. In the late 1990s to 2010, he assumed positions at the Education University of Hong Kong (formerly HKIEd) as Vice President (Academic) and Deputy to the President. He first joined HKIEd in 1998, having served as Founding Dean of the School of Foundations in Education, Head of Department of Educational Policy and Administration, Head of Department of Social Sciences, and Co-Head of Centre for Citizenship Education. In 2005, he moved to the University of Sydney to be Professor of Education at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, and Director (International) at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Prior to his service at HKIEd, he had served as Associate Dean of Education, and Founding Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong.
Professor Lee is a world-renowned scholar in the fields of comparative education, citizenship education, and moral and values education. He has published widely in the areas of comparative education and civic and moral education. He has been Visiting/Honorary Professor for a number of universities in the UK, the USA and Chinese Mainland. Lee has served as a consultant for World Bank and Asian Development Bank projects, and is at present a member of the International Advisory Board of Mongolian Education Alliance. Within Hong Kong, he has served on various committees in the Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Quality Education Fund (QEF) and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). In 2003, Lee received the Medal of Honour awarded by the Hong Kong Government. He was also awarded the Bronze Education Award and Education Innovation Award from the Educational Art Research Association and the Educational Development Forum in Beijing.
Lee's research interests cover comparative education, values education, citizenship education and China education. He has served as President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) and as President of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong. He has also served as an advisor/member of a number of government committees, including Personal, Social and Humanities Education Key Learning Area Committee, Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education, School Examinations Board of the Hong Kong Examinations Committee, Civic Education Subject Committee (Secondary). He has chaired the Sub-committee on Basic Education of the CDC and the Assessment Sub-Committee of the Steering Committee of Quality Education Fund (QEF) and the Dissemination and Promotion Sub-committee for QEF. He is also serving as Chair of the Editorial Board of the ICAC Journal of Moral Education, an external assessor for the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, an external referee for a number of local and overseas journals, and an external examiner of PhD and M.Phil. theses for various universities.
Lee's contribution to the development of civic, moral and values education is well known. Within Hong Kong, he has served as a key drafter of the conceptual and curriculum frameworks of the Guidelines on Civic Education in School (1996) and a member of the committee designing the civic education subject syllabus for junior secondary schools (1998). Nationally, he is a member of the moral education committee of the China Educational Research Association. Internationally, he has served as a member of the International Steering Committee of the IEA Civic Education Study (1995-2002). The cross-national research and assessment studies conducted by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) are an integral part of comparative education.
Educational Background
PhD (Durham); DipEd (CUHK); BA (Hons.) (HKU)
Professional Background
Executive Director, Institute for Adult Learning Singapore (March 2019 - )
Professor, Singapore University of Social Sciences (March 2019 - )
Distinguished Professor and Director, International and Comparative Education Research Centre and the Central Plains Education Research Centre at Zhengzhou University, China (2018 – Feb 2019)
Vice President, Administration and Development, Open University of Hong Kong (December 2014 -2018)
Dean, Education Research, Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore (April 2010-November 2014)
Vice-President (Academic), Hong Kong Institute of Education (May
Professor of Education, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney (2005-07)
Director (International), Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sydney (July 2005 - Dec 2006)
Professor & Head, Department of Educational Policy and Administration, Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002-05)
Professor & Head, Department of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002)
Head, Centre for Citizenship Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education (1999-2005)
Professor & Dean, School of Foundations in Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education (1998-2001)
Associate Professor of Education & Associate Dean of Education, University of Hong Kong (1996-98)
Chairman, Hong Kong Centre for IEA Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong (1995-97)
Affiliations (associations, organizations, institutions)
Editor, Asia Pacific Journal of Education (Singapore)
President, World Council of Comparative Education Societies (2010-2013)
Chief Regional Editor (Asia), Citizenship Teaching and Learning: A Journal of citiZED (UK)
Member, International Advisory Board, Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education (UK)
Corresponding Editor, International Journal of Comparative Religious Education and Values (Germany)
President, Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (1996-98)
Director, Comparative Education Research Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong (1994-96)
Selected Publications
Lee, W.O., Napier, D.B., with Manzon, M. (Guest Editors) (2014). The Dialectics of Comparative Education: Issues in the Asia-Pacific Region. Special Issue of Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Vol. 34, No.2.
Lee, W.O. & Manzon, M. (2014). Comparing Values. In Bray, M., Adamson, B., & Mason, M. (Eds.), Comparative Education Research: Approaches and Methods (pp. 259-283). Hong Kong: Springer & Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.
Lee, W.O. & Kennedy, K.J. (Guest Editors) (2006): Citizenship Education in Asia. Special Issue of Citizenship Teaching and Learning (UK), Vol. 2, No. 2.
Lee, W.O. & Fouts, J. (eds.) (2005): Education and Social Citizenship: Teachers' Perceptions in USA, Australia, England, Russia and China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 289pp.
Lee, W.O. (2005): “Aspirations for democracy in the absence of a democracy: Civic education in Hong Kong before and after 1997”, Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 61-85.
Lee, W.O., Grossman, D.L., Kennedy, K.J. & Fairbrother, G.P. (eds.) (2004): Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong/Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 313 pp.
Lee, W.O. & Gu, R. (eds.) (2003): Global Perspectives and Citizenship Education (in Chinese). Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 263 pp
Lee, W.O. (Li Rongan) (2002): "School curriculum reform in Asian countries in the 1990s", Comparative Education Review (Beijing), Vol. 23, No. 9, September 2002, pp. 23-25. (In Chinese)
Lee, W.O. (2002): Equity and Access to Education: Themes, Tensions and Policies. "Education in Developing Asia" Series. Manila: Asian Development Bank/Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong, 101pp.
Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.) (2001): Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. (2nd edition, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong, 228pp.
Lee, W.O., Lo, Joe & Fang, J. (eds.) (
Lee, W.O. (1998): "Equity and access to education in developing Asia". Manila: Asia Development Bank, 90pp. [Report prepared for the Asian Development Bank, as a part of the consultancy project: "Study of Trends, Issues and Politics in Education in the Asian Development Banks' Developing Member Countries".]
Lee, W.O. (1996): "From depoliticisation to politicisation: The reform of civic education in Hong Kong in political transition". In Chinese Comparative Education Society – Taipei et al. (eds.), Educational Reform – From Tradition to Modernity. Taipei: Shi Ta Publishers Co., 1996, pp. 295-328
Lee, W.O. (1996): "The cultural context for the Asian learners: conceptions of learning in the Confucian tradition". In David Watkins & John Biggs (eds.), The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong/Camberwell, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research, pp. 25-41.
Created:
Updated: 4/1/19
Contributed By: Maria Manzon
