Accountability of Educational Networks: Findings From Four Case Studies

• In Event: 25.084 - MTCC Roundtable Session Seven
  In Roundtable Session: 25.084-9 - International Networks for Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of various forms of external accountability on the functioning and performance of networks in England, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Northern Ireland. The conclusions from this study argue that while holding networks to account can have positive impacts, there are also unintended side effects, suggesting that external accountability of networks is most effective when 1) single member and network-level accountability are well aligned, 2) external accountability and monitoring is responsive to the purpose, properties and the development of the network, 3) and focuses on the performance of networks (instead of compliance to regulation), and 4) where there is high trust between schools, network, external agent who holds the network to account(and active management of that trust).

Authors

• Melanie Ehren, University College London

• Joe O'Hara, Dublin City University

• Martin Brown, Dublin City University

• J Svensson

• Rossitsa Simeonova, Sofia University

• Gerry P. Mcnamara, Dublin City University

• David Godfrey

• Yonka Parvanova