The Politics of Accountability: Research in Prospect

This collection of articles has reported international policy research on how power is being used in education to build and discharge obligations between stakeholders: the politics of accountability. The research reported shows well how the politics of education at site and systemic levels have been helping to reconstruct accountability policies. This concluding article offers afresh angle on the research reported by examining the extent to which the processes of reconstructing accountability policies might yet help improve the quality of politics in education. It finds that the politics of accountability need to be respected and developed as part of policy coherence testing in systems and schools and as central to the process of legitimating practices.