Understanding accountability in education: A review of common typologies

Accountability in education has been an increasingly prominent policy topic in comparative education research and global education practice. Research on accountability has seen a sharp increase since the rise of the New Right in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s, which called for new public management and better value for money. However, the increased research on accountability has not led to clarity of accountability as a concept in education. At times, accountability is presented solely as accountability, without a descriptor. Used this way, the term can mean many things in many contexts. To better nuance the various forms of accountability, a number of typologies have been put forward. This chapter attempts to clarify the literature on accountability through an examination of accountability definitions in education and broader social science research, as well as a review of typologies prominent in comparative education. The chapter further contributes to research on accountability by introducing a model for understanding and situating accountability in education policy, reinforcing how accountability, in any of its forms, should not be an aim in itself, but used constructively as a mechanism to achieve other educational aims.