Accountability: Towards Reconstructing a 'Politically Incorrect' Policy Issue

Accountability, it is claimed, has become a 'politically incorrect' issue because: governments have encountered the limitations of simplistic market thinking just as the economic and political pressure for intervention in education has waned; parental desire to participate in governance has been largely satiated; and teachers are reasserting their view of professionalism. Despite all this, is it argued that accepting responsibility in education implies public accountability; accountability in education implies formative evaluation, educative reporting relationships and politically sensitive planning; and that educational leaders need to help legitimate stakeholders produce educative accountability policies that will help to improve the quality of learning, teaching and leadership. © 1996 SAGE Publication.