Building a communitarian policy of educative accountability using a critical pragmatist epistemology

This paper reports a policy research project intended to clarify the accountability processes and criteria that should be used to collect data, report and improve the quality of learning, teaching and leadership in Tasmania. Its outcomes informed the design of a new three-year school review process that seeks to integrate local governance, school planning, action research evaluation, external reviews, and systemic performance monitoring. Behind the recommended policy is a touchstone set of processes and criteria that comprise a theory of mutual and educative accountability. This theory represents an attempt to reconcile centralism with pluralism, exhibits liberal, democratic and limited forms of community government, anticipates educative forms of leadership, and values communitarian over collegial and individualistic forms of professionalism.