Abstract
This article describes the use of a Learning Commission to experiment with conceptualising and implementing richer modes of educational accountability. A Learning Commission is a form for collaborative thinking that brings different kinds of knowledge and expertise to bear in relation to a common matter of concern: the role of schools in relation to the communities they serve. As part of a broader research project, we used a Learning Commission to co-produce knowledge about community expectations of schools in a regional area of Queensland, Australia. We analysed data generated through this process using a narrative approach and synthesised the findings in a conceptualisation of rich accountabilities that offers an alternative to top-down, test-based modes of accountability. Rich accountabilities raise anew the questions of who should be accountable, what counts and whose practices should be changed by accountability systems. The article thus describes (a) an alternative model of accountability in education and (b) an alternative theorisation of accountability informed by the implementation of this model as a method for co-producing research about schools and communities. The article provides significant conceptual and methodological resources for further experiments in enriching educational accountability.
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Notes
The PETRA project was funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage scheme (100200841). The research team included Professor Bob Lingard, Professor Peter Renshaw, Professor Martin Mills, Dr Sam Sellar, Dr Aspa Baroutsis, Dr Sue Monk, Dr Richard Waters (The University of Queensland), Professor Marie Brennan, Dr Lew Zipin (Victoria University), Dr John Dungan and other members of the Strategic Policy and Research Division (Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment).
The My School (myschool.edu.au) website makes public a range of school-level data about every school in Australia, including the aggregated school results of the National Assessment Program.
The Alice Springs Education Declaration articulates goals for all Australian schools as agreed to by all education systems and the federal government. It builds from earlier such Declarations, the most recent of which was the Melbourne Declaration of 2008.
The study was conducted in a rural/regional part of Queensland; therefore, we note that perceptions of these social skills might be articulated in different ways across the nation. We were surprised at the emphasis given to handwriting in this digital age.
Centrelink is an Australian Government agency responsible for the delivery social, health and child support services and payments for a variety of groups including the unemployed.
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Lingard, B., Baroutsis, A. & Sellar, S. Enriching educational accountabilities through collaborative public conversations: Conceptual and methodological insights from the Learning Commission approach. J Educ Change 22, 565–587 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09407-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09407-x