32.040 - Getting Accountability Right in Teacher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Since the 1980s, accountability has emerged as a major approach to improvement in teacher education and in other areas of education and the public sector. Across domains, the rise in accountability regimes reflects the shift to a competitive knowledge society coupled with neoliberal economics wherein individualism, free markets, and private good(s) have taken precedence over other goals. This session offers a multi-dimensional conceptual framework for unpacking current accountability approaches and policies in teacher education and applies the framework to widely-known U.S. accountability initiatives that are intended to improve teacher preparation. The session also proposes new directions in teacher education by building on cross-disciplinary conceptions of accountability and selected approaches that get particular aspects of teacher education accountability “right.”

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 10: Teaching and Teacher Education Policy and Research

Chair

• Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College

Papers

• Teacher Education Accountability: A Multidimensional Framework - Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College

• Unpacking Teacher Education Accountability: Four Cases - Molly Cummings Carney, Boston College; Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Stonehill College

• The Problem With Accountability: Looking Across the Cases - Stephani Burton, Boston College; Wen-Chia Claire Chang, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Toward Democratic Accountability for Teacher Education - Juan Gabriel Sanchez, Boston College; Maria Beatriz Fernandez Cofre, Universidad Alberto Hurtado

• Reclaiming Accountability: Promising Practices and Directions Forward - Megina Baker, Boston University; Andrew Frederic Miller, Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools Office

Discussant

• A. Lin Goodwin, The University of Hong Kong