The Human Side of Accountability: Dilemmas of Reaching All Learners

Abstract

This portraiture-informed study by Taeyeon Kim challenges the dominant discourse of accountability, which often focuses on high-stakes policies at the expense of relational aspects of accountability in schools. Building on working theories of accountability, humanizing leadership, and paradox theory, Kim theor izes the "human side of accountability," where leaders simultaneously address the tensions of multiple demands and implement policy mandates in ways that attempt to mitigate their unintended harm to stu dents, particularly minoritized students. Using interviews, shadowing, photoelicited focus groups, and arti facts generated from a year long qualitative study of three US elementary school principals, Kim explores how school principals make meaning of accountability in their daily practices and how they address dilemmas created by competing demands. The analysis suggests that leaders' enactment of accountability can be understood as a daily bala ncing act of promoting equity to provide missing and overlooked support in policy mandates. This article thus challenges existing policy approaches and provides strategies for rethinking how proc esses of accountability can be imagined in school settings.