Accountability and Culture of School Teachers and Principals: An Eight-country Comparative Study

Description

Accountability and Culture of School Teachers and Principals studies the degree to which teachers and principals in eight countries view themselves as taking responsibility, working by clear standards, reporting transparently, and accepting feedback at work. The book focuses on cultural values that explain variation in accountability levels of school educators, drawing on data from Canada, China, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It addresses the question of whether cultural values, specifically collectivism and individualism, are related to teachers’ and principals’ external and internal accountability dispositions. It also explores the intriguing role of organizational support and key school personnel in school reforms across the world, providing a new way to understand school accountability. The book will be of great interest for academics, post-graduate students, and scholars in the field of education policy and international and comparative studies in education. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of tables, figures, and appendices Contributing chapter authors Contributing researchers Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Preoccupation with educational accountability as a panacea for educational ills Development of accountability theory 2 Teachers’ and principals’ accountability: theoretical background Conceptualizing accountability Accountability and cultural values Accountability and organizational support 3 Study methods Introduction Data collection Study measures Analytical approach Appendix 3.1: handling of missing data Appendix 3.2: the questionnaires used in the study (English version) Appendix 3.3: psychometric and questionnaire position of study variables Appendix 3.4: check on leveled structure teacher data Appendix 3.5a: models for teachers’ external accountability Appendix 3.5b: models for teachers’ internal accountability Appendix 3.6a: models for teachers’ accountability toward parents Appendix 3.6b: models for teachers’ accountability toward school management 4 Study findings Introduction Accountability distribution Cultural values distribution Organizational support distribution Prediction of teachers’ and principals’ external and internal accountability Prediction of accountability: summary 5 Discussion of study findings Introduction The two dimensions of accountability: external and internal Accountability audiences: parents and school management Effect of principals’ accountability on teachers’ accountability Predicting accountability by personal individualism and collectivism Accountability at a country level Organizational support as a predictor of accountability disposition 6 Concluding thoughts Educators’ accountability versus school accountability Focus on internal accountability Cultural values and accountability – theoretical and practical implications The contingent role of the accountability audience Team accountability: a future research direction References Index