Educational tug‐of‐war: internal and external accountability of principals in varied contexts

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Principals face shifting accountability pressures from many sources. The most notable recent change in the USA has been the growing pressure from state and federal government. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which the accountability pressures experienced by principals in one American state were the same as those reported in research documenting "objective" changes in those pressures. Design/methodology/approach -This qualitative study uses interviews with New Jersey middle school principals. The purposeful sample includes principals who had been in their buildings at least three years and enhances variation on socioeconomic status (as measured by New Jersey's rating of "district factor groups") and school achievement. The authors averaged three years of achievement data and controlled for variation in poverty, ethnicity, language proficiency, and enrollment. A total of 37 principals were contacted; 25 were interviewed. Principals first rank ordered seven sources of accountability. They were then interviewed to learn why the one they ranked highest was most important. Findings -The most frequent top source of accountability was "your own conscience." Principals who selected this option highlighted a sense of personal responsibility, responsibility to the children in their charge, and how conscience mediates among competing accountabilities. Accountability to one's conscience was most prevalent in high achieving schools. Originality/value -Frequent reference to internal responsibility among leaders suggests that they continue to feel a strong sense of internal accountability in spite of increasing external pressures. It also illustrates the range of external, often conflicting pressures that principals face which include pressures from the public and the district office as well as state and federal government. In this increasingly prescriptive and contradictory environment the principal's moral code is important to her or his school.

Accountability, autonomy and stress: principal responses to superintendent change in a large US urban school district

“…Studies have also demonstrated how urban principals used and essentially manipulated external accountabilities (such as test scores) as means to compel their school communities towards improvement (Knapp and Feldman 2012). Other scholars have emphasised how internal accountabilities such as personal integrity and conscience remain central motivators of principals (Gonzalez and Firestone 2013;Mintrop 2012). Terosky (2014) profiled how New York City principals asserted individual agency in order to follow a 'learning imperative' (1) rather than merely a managerial imperative, thus overcoming what other scholars have described as urban school principals' sense of 'limited control' amidst 'relentless accountability' (West, Peck, and Reitzug 2010, 238).…”

Role of integrity system, internal control system and leadership practices on the accountability practices in the public sectors of Malaysia

“…Therefore, when the behaviour of the leader is too different from the expectations of the followers, undesirable consequences can happen and weaken individual and work group performance (Subramaniam et al, 2010). Gonzalez and Firestone (2013) conducted the qualitative study of the meaning of accountability to principals as a leader in examining few aspects of principal accountability. Study was conducted among New Jersey public middle school principals who had served in the same school for minimum period of three years.…”

Leadership and Management Accountability of Public Universities in South Nation and Nationalities People Regional State

“…In supporting Gonzalez and his colleague finding, Hall and his colleagues and depicted that the competence of leaders has impact on the degree of formal accountability mechanisms for their work-related decisions and actions [39]. This highlights the complex relationships that appear between leader competence, and accountability, which can facilitate leader performance and effectiveness.…”