Taking Teacher Responsibility Into Account(ability): Explicating Its Multiple Components and Theoretical Status

Abstract

Accountability systems have important implications for schooling. Missing from discussions about their implementation, however, are ways they affect teacher responsibility. Responsibility has been insufficiently explicated in the education literature, including its impact on teacher motivation, emotion, and behavior. We propose that a multidimensional approach is required to capture the complexity of teacher responsibility and describe the extensive connections between teacher responsibility and existing psychological frameworks. Directions for future research and implications for teachers’ professional lives are discussed.