Standards-based accountability: Refication, responsibility and the ethical subject

Journal article


Kostogriz, Alexander and Doecke, Brenton. (2011). Standards-based accountability: Refication, responsibility and the ethical subject. Teaching Education. 22(4), pp. 397 - 412. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2011.587870
AuthorsKostogriz, Alexander and Doecke, Brenton
Abstract

Over the last two decades, teachers in Australia have witnessed multiple incarnations of the idea of ‘educational accountability’ and its enactment. Research into this phenomenon of educational policy and practice has revealed various layers of the concept, particularly its professional, bureaucratic, political and cultural dimensions that are central to the restructuring of educational governance and the reorganization of teachers’ work. Today, accountability constitutes a core concept of neoliberal policy-making in education, both fashioning and normalizing what counts as teacher professionalism in the ‘audit society.’ This article focuses specifically on the recent introduction by the Australian Federal Government of standardised literacy testing in all states across Australia, and raises questions about the impact of this reform on the work practices of English literacy teachers in primary and secondary schools. We draw on data collected as part of a major research project funded by the Australian Research Council, involving interviews with teachers about their experiences of implementing standardised testing. The article traces the ways in which teachers’ work is increasingly being mediated by standardised literacy testing to show how these teachers grapple with the tensions between state-wide mandates and a sense of their professional responsibility for their students.

Keywordsstandards-based accountability; reification; professional responsibility; ethics
Year2011
JournalTeaching Education
Journal citation22 (4), pp. 397 - 412
PublisherRoutledge
ISSN1047-6210
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2011.587870
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84055174921
Page range397 - 412
Research GroupSchool of Education
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/86v8y/standards-based-accountability-refication-responsibility-and-the-ethical-subject

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