Accountability Agenda Research Articles

Overcoming the Barriers to the Diffusion of Sustainability Reporting in Italian LGOs: Better Stick or Carrot?

The role of public-sector organizations (PSOs) in promoting the agenda of sustainability accounting and accountability is not often adequately considered. In the public sector realm, local governments are close to their communities and thus have a particularly important role to play in the pursuit of sustainability goals. Hence, further research is needed to understand if Local Government Organizations (LGOs) are using reporting tools to promote sustainable development. The empirical data showed that the Sustainability Report (SR) is not being as widely used as in past years. Over time, the majority of Italian municipalities have not initiated or continued sustainability reporting due to some barriers including cost reduction, voluntariness, and low SR effectiveness. The findings suggest the popularity of SRs in Italy is falling and the SR tool appears to be “mere trend reporting based on descriptive indicators leading to decreasing interest from internal and external audiences”. The carrot has been unsuccessful. Perhaps the implementation of mandatory requirements could alternatively be used as a stick.

Reshaping the world order of higher education: the role and impact of rankings on national and global systems

ABSTRACTHigher education (HE) is a global enterprise. Its success (or failure) is integral to and a powerful indicator of the knowledge-producing and talent-attracting capacity of nations. But, the landscape in which HE operates today has become extremely complex; there are many more demands and many constituencies, each with an impact on and a voice in shaping HE’s role and purpose. Since the millennium, university rankings have become one of these influencing voices. But, they are no longer about enhancing student choice, but increasingly about the geopolitical positioning for universities and nations. The extent to which they are transforming the relationship between the state and HE, with implications for today, are explored in this article. There are three parts. Part 1 looks at the transformation of rankings from a statistical-technical phenomenon influencing institutional decision-making to being a policy instrument driving competition at institutional, national and global levels. Part 2 examines how rankings have impacted on and altered the relationship between HE and the state, looking at the accountability agenda, and the geopolitics of HE. Finally, Part 3 discusses some implications and options in the context of recent social-political developments, and the challenges they pose to HE.

Fighting Against Impunity: the Federal Prosecution Service and the Gomes Lund Case

Abstract Recently, the Federal Prosecution Service has embraced the agenda of individual criminal accountability for human rights violations committed by the military dictatorship. This article aims to reconstruct such process of institutional change, analyzing the effects of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ ruling on the Gomes Lund case, and how it has favored a more progressive group of pro-compliance prosecutors.

Bridging the legitimacy gap: a proposal for the international legal recognition of INGOs

In this paper, we argue that there is a gap between the de facto and de jure legitimacy of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that requires more consideration from scholars studying their role in the international system. The gradual acceptance of INGOs as de facto legitimate actors can be seen in the long-term expansion of their role in international norm deliberation. Despite this development, most INGOs still lack international legal recognition, and thus de jure legitimacy. We argue that this gap between de facto and de jure legitimacy creates problems for both INGOs and members of international society. In seeking to address this disjunction, we highlight the limits of the current literature in understanding legitimacy as primarily sociological phenomena through an examination of the accountability agenda. We then propose a template for INGO legal recognition based on the principles that underpin the regulation of charities in English law as a first step in a gradualist argument for the institution of their international de jure legitimacy.

Moral Leadership in an Age of School Accountability

Although a sense of moral purpose is a strong motivational force for school leaders, it can be at odds with the prevailing political agenda of performativity and accountability. The current paper seeks to reassert moral leadership as a foundation stone for school leaders and policy makers. Through consistent ethical action the moral leader must do what is right as well as what is effective. There is robust empirical evidence that strong values are a key characteristic of outstanding leaders, contributing to improved student outcomes. In the face of transient accountability measures, enacting a moral leadership approach may prove not only the right thing to do, but it may also lead to the outcomes sought by politicians.

Connecting Chemistry with Global Challenges through Data Standards

Abstract The new millennium, now almost 20 years old, has been characterised by a recognition within the research community of the importance of the free flow of research data; not simply in the ability to access the data, but also in the understanding that this valuable resource needs to be reused and built upon. We believe there have been at least two main drivers for this. First, those who pay for the research want to know it is leading to useful outcomes with impact–the transparency and accountability agenda. Second is an appreciation that the major global concerns (food, health, climate, economy) are extraordinarily complex (‘wicked’) problems, [1] whose solution requires interdisciplinary teams able to exchange data, information, and knowledge across domains. Moreover, ensuring data are understandable by other researchers, a hard-enough proposition in its own right, is no longer sufficient. The scale of modern data-intensive research is now only possible using computational techniques that require data to also be understandable by machines. There is a broad consensus across expert groups and scientific organisations that mutually-agreed data standards are essential to achieving these aims. [2, 3, 4]

Students’ beliefs and experiences of interdisciplinary learning

This study explored senior secondary students’ beliefs and experiences of learning an interdisciplinary curriculum, Liberal Studies, in Hong Kong. Through the analysis of focus-group interviews with 168 students, most of the students were found to enjoy or at least not resist interdisciplinary learning, and preferred to study real-world contemporary issues. More than half of the students, however, expressed their relative lack of confidence in interdisciplinary learning because of the difficulties they encountered in Independent Enquiry Studies and the public examination. The students were also found to have undertaken examination-oriented activities when the public examination approached. The study sheds light on the realization of interdisciplinary learning in secondary education in contexts where teacher-centred pedagogy and an accountability agenda remain influential.

Teachers’ Conceptions of Improvisation in Teaching: Inherent Human Quality or a Professional Teaching Skill?

ABSTRACTThis article is based on a qualitative case study of teachers’ conceptions of improvisation in teaching. Empirical data are master student teachers’ texts (transcripts, reflections) based on observations and interviews of practising teachers. The texts were analysed in an abductive process. We can identify four specific characteristics of how improvisation in teaching is conceived; improvisation of design, improvisation in communication, and improvisation dependent on repertoire and context. However, teachers experience severe challenges in their improvisational practices, e.g. with regard to their knowledge base, the accountability agenda and teacher autonomy. Therefore, we argue that improvisation should be part of teacher education.

NGOs, trust, and the accountability agenda

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are undergoing an alleged crisis of trustworthiness. The past decades have seen an increase in both academic and practitioner scepticism, particularly given the transformations many NGOs have undergone in size, professionalism, and political importance. The accountability agenda, which stresses transparency and external oversight, has gained a significant amount of traction as a means to solve this crisis. But the causal link between the implementation of these recommendations and increased trustworthiness among donors has never been considered. This article bridges this gap by drawing on theoretical innovations in trust research to put forward three arguments. First, the proponents of the accountability agenda are implicitly working with a rational model of trust. Second, this model does not reflect important social characteristics of trust between donors and NGOs. Third, this mismatch means that the accountability agenda might do more to harm trust in NGOs than to help it.

Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast

A major aim of this paper is to draw attention to the insidious manner in which the deficit discourse and practices associated with neoliberal reform are de- or re-professionalising educationists through an acculturation process. In the context of Ireland, as elsewhere, the author identifies how the three ‘technologies’ of Market, Management and Performance have inconspicuously but harmfully changed the subjective experience of education at all levels. It is argued that the power of privatisation in service delivery gives rise to change in education as part of a slow burn; how management is altering social connections and power relations to less democratic and caring forms, and how performativity and accountability agendas are radically undermining the professionalism of teachers in the hunt for measures, targets, benchmarks, tests, tables, audits to feed the system in the name of improvement. The paper adopts a personal tenor exhorting all educationists to become increasingly critically reflexive, politically aware and urging them to reawaken to their real educational work – the ethical and moral project that most signed up to but which has since become lost.

Extent of Disclosure in the Annual Reports of Malaysian Federal Statutory Bodies

Federal statutory bodies in Malaysia are public sector organizations that adopt a corporate style-management, where annual report serves as an important accountability medium. This study aimed at determining the extent of accountability information disclosed by these bodies in their annual reports. Using a disclosure index derived from the public accountability paradigm, 106 annual reports were analysed. Findings suggest that these bodies provided a moderate level of disclosure in their reports. The highest disclosure was found in the Performance category while the least disclosure was detected in the Governance category. In this regard, more efforts are required in ensuring that the annual reports of such federal statutory bodies serve more effectively as a mechanism by which public accountability agenda can be achieved and fulfilled. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2p158

Evaluating the quality of learning environments and teaching Äpractice in special schools

This article reports on findings of a study which objective is the development of an instrument for systematic evaluation and improvement of the quality of teaching in special schools. The article describes the research process which led to the construction of the instrument as well as the way teachers can use the instrument to improve the quality of their teaching. The article advocates a practice perspective to professional development in special schools, as special schools in Denmark are under pressure by three international educational agendas: the agenda of accountability, the agenda of standards and the agenda of inclusion. The instrument suggests that professional development is teacher driven and not driven by the accountability agenda. The research approach was collaborative as 35 teachers and principals from 16 special schools participated in the research process. Their perceptions of quality in the practice of teaching in special schools and research literature on the quality of teaching in both mainstream schools and special schools have shaped the development of the instrument. Thus, the instrument is based on the finding, that teaching methods in general and special education are not as different as assumed. This finding is reflected in the instrument.

Leading with intent: cultivating community conversation to create shared understanding

ABSTRACTSchool improvement is a central focus for school leaders. Whilst measures such as high-stakes testing and other government accountability agendas have at times marred the discourse of school improvement, how schools develop their capacity to ultimately improve the core business of student learning remains important. As an extensive area of scholarship, much has been written to support leaders in improving learning and teaching in their school. Indeed, studies demonstrate the value of establishing schoolwide goals and expectations and the importance of using evidence to improve teaching practice. This article presents qualitative data from 4 independent schools in the state of New South Wales (NSW) Australia which suggest that whilst the concept of school improvement is not new, the capacity of schools to embrace some key concepts found in this area of study is limited. The article proposes that through cultivating conversations within their communities, schools can foster shared understanding and enhance their capacity for improvement.

It is time to balance communitarianism and individualism in South African medical education

To the Editor: Recent well-meaning global and South African (SA) reforms in medical education primarily consider an agenda of social accountability. We are concerned that this approach may be the result of an excessive focus on the purpose of education to meet community needs (communitarianism) at the expense of the purpose of education to meet individual learner’s needs (individualism). If communitarianism and individualism are viewed as being at the opposite ends of a pendulum swing, we believe the pendulum is currently swinging too far away from individualism towards communitarianism, and that there should be a balance between these two.

Patient-facing data is essential in the digital era

I t would be easy to read the article from Westaby and colleagues and come to the conclusion that UK medical policymakers had completely lost the plot. If you take what the authors say at face value, the programme to publish named surgeons’ outcomes has proved to be a terrible mistake in the US and is now creating carnage in the UK. What you might also conclude is that the RCS has been ‘duped’ into giving support to a fatally flawed initiative. Why is there such a difference in perspective? The public accountability agenda in surgery is unpopular with some surgeons. It is part of a wider initiative of transparency driven by the government. But it was not, as Westaby suggests, the government that was originally responsible for the recommendation to report surgeons’ outcomes as a ‘punitive post-Bristol political directive’. It came from Sir Ian Kennedy, a lawyer, in the Bristol Public Inquiry report back in 2001. Those recommendations were fulfilled for adult cardiac surgery in 2005, but other specialties lagged behind. When Robert Francis heard the evidence associated with the events at Mid Staffs, he came up with a similar view. The current consultant outcomes publication programme across 13 specialties is the response. So is this all directly antagonistic to the evidence from the US? The argument is, of course, much more subtle. Public reporting was introduced in the US in New York State in 1990 and has been in place in some other states also. The pertinent questions posed by Hannan et al in a recent review of the NY experiences are: Does it improve quality? Are there unintended negative consequences? Does it act to maintain trust in hospitals and the medical profession? There are quite a lot of data on all of this, but they are generally of fairly low level and not all of them are cited by Westaby and colleagues. For example, some major database studies have shown

Desegregation, Minimum Competency Testing, and the Origins of Accountability: North Carolina and the Nation

During the long history of the Civil Rights Movement, public education was a significant battleground in the struggle for racial equality. As the courts ordered officials to dismantle a system of educational apartheid, whites resisted, bringing blacks and whites together in ways that disillusioned many African Americans. Hoping to transcend what he called “the trauma of desegregation,” in 1977, North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt proposed that all students be required to pass a minimum competency test (MCT) to receive a high school diploma. Hunt was part of a generation of moderate New South politicians who crafted a new racially neutral educational discourse that emphasized accountability and achievement rather than equality and access. Capitalizing on the perception that the quality of education had declined, these New South moderates built biracial coalitions that established high school MCTs in every southern state by 1986, replacing a civil rights agenda of opportunity with an accountability agenda of individual student responsibility.

A concept in flux: questioning accountability in the context of global health cooperation.

BackgroundAccountability in global health is a commonly invoked though less commonly questioned concept. Critically reflecting on the concept and how it is put into practice, this paper focuses on the who, what, how, and where of accountability, mapping its defining features and considering them with respect to real-world circumstances. Changing dynamics in global health cooperation - such as the emergence of new health public-private partnerships and the formal inclusion of non-state actors in policy making processes - provides the backdrop to this discussion.DiscussionAccountability is frequently reduced to one set of actors holding another to account. Changes in the global health landscape and in relations between actors have however made the practice of accountability more complex and contested. Currently undergoing a reframing process, participation and transparency have become core elements of a new accountability agenda alongside evaluation and redress or enforcement mechanisms. However, while accountability is about holding actors responsible for their actions, the mechanisms through which this might be done vary substantially and are far from politically neutral.Accountability in global health cooperation involves multipolar relationships between a large number of stakeholders with varying degrees of power and influence, where not all interests are realised in that relationship. Moreover, accountability differs across finance, programme and governance subfields, where each has its own set of policy processes, institutional structures, accountability relations and power asymmetries to contend with. With reference to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this paper contributes to discussions on accountability by mapping out key elements of the concept and how it is put into practice, where different types of accountability battle for recognition and legitimacy.SummaryIn mapping some defining features, accountability in global health cooperation is shown to be a complex problem not necessarily reducible to one set of actors holding another to account. Clear tensions are observed between multi-stakeholder participatory models and more traditional vertical models that prioritise accountability upwards to donors, both of which are embodied in initiatives like the Global Fund. For multi-constituency organisations, this poses challenges not only for future financing but also for future legitimacy.

Disrespect and abuse of women in childbirth: challenging the global quality and accountability agendas

Disrespect and abuse of women in childbirth: challenging the global quality and accountability agendas

How can medical schools contribute to bringing about health equity?

The role of medical schools is in a process of change. The World Health Organization has declared that they can no longer be ivory towers whose primary focus is the production of specialist physicians and cutting edge laboratory research. They must also be socially accountable and direct their activities towards meeting the priority health concerns of the areas they serve. The agenda must be set in partnership with stakeholders including governments, health care organisations and the public.The concept of social accountability has particular resonance for the Bar Ilan Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Israel’s newest medical school, which was established with a purpose of reducing health inequities in the Region. As a way of exploring and understanding the issues, discussions were held with international experts in the field who visited the Galilee. A symposium involving representatives from other medical schools in Israel was also held to extend the discourse. Deliberations that took place are reported here.The meaning of social accountability was discussed, and how it could be achieved. Three forms of action were the principal foci – augmentation of the medical curriculum, direct action through community engagement and political advocacy. A platform was set for taking the social accountability agenda forward, with the hope that it will impact on health inequalities in Israel and contribute to discussions elsewhere.

Investigating Mandatory Peer Review Of Teaching In Schools

Accountability agendas are influencing the secondary education sector. Analysis of student achievement, student feedback mechanisms and personal reflection are forming part of these agendas as methods of teacher evaluation. Additionally, and more recently, teacher evaluation through 'peer review' is emerging as a tool for evaluating teacher quality. Peer review of teaching encompasses educators working and learning together to improve teaching practices and student learning. A plethora of literature currently exists on peer review of teaching for formative purposes. While there are a number of studies examining the role of peer review of teaching within higher education, there are very few studies in the secondary school sector. Furthermore, there are no studies published on the mandatory nature of peer review of teaching. This study critically examined the reasons behind the implementation of mandatory peer review of teaching at a regional high school. Specifically, the study investigated the ways in which mandatory peer review of teaching engaged with an array of discourses, including those of 'professionalism' and 'managerialism.' This study consisted of a case study of a regional secondary school which implemented mandatory peer review of teaching for all teaching staff in 2012. The key method of data collection was interviews with key stakeholders. Analysis of the data indicated that the rationale behind mandatory peer review resides along a continuum of discourses that range from professionalism, quality enhancement and managerialism.