EDITORS INTRODUCTION TO THE POLITICS OF ACCOUNTABILITY - CHALLENGES IN RETROSPECT

This collection reports the outcomes of an international policy resear ch project from 1994 to 1997 that was concerned with how power is bein g used in education to construct and discharge obligations between sta keholders, and to suggest how such processes might better serve educat ional ends. Research was commissioned and gathered that examined how t he politics of education at site and systemic levels have been contrib uting to the reconstruction of accountability policies in an internati onal policy context, a context characterised by conceptual disarray, m ultiple reform strategies, blunt administrative instruments, and plura l political cultures. The primary finding of the project is that a res ponsible politics of accountability are needed at all levels to reconn ect the processes and criteria of accountability to learning, teaching , leading, and governing. Such educative politics can both bestow legi timacy and generate improvement.