1st Edition
Getting Schools to Work Better Educational Accountability and Teacher Support in India and China
Yifei Yan’s ambitious multi-method case study of government middle schools in Beijing and Delhi provides fresh insights into how educational accountability can be designed to work, in part and as a whole.
Getting schools to work better is a challenge just about everywhere. Many policy experts prescribe measures for strengthening school accountability, either through government command and control or through alternative market and societal actors. In challenging this conventional wisdom, this book examines how China and India are tackling the challenge with a specific focus on supporting teachers along with traditional accountability-strengthening measures. The book draws implications from its case studies for how education systems can be designed towards the fulfilment of Sustainable Development Goal 4. It further develops the concept of "Accountability 3.0" to elucidate a novel and more holistic reconceptualisation of the appropriate means needed to fulfil multiple purposes of accountability, in which providing support to frontline workers is viewed as an integral component.
This book will appeal to a wide spectrum of scholars and practitioners in the fields of comparative education, public administration, public policy and development studies, among others. It will be especially interesting to those from the developing world facing similar accountability challenges as described.
Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
1. Introduction: Reimagining the Quest Of Getting Schools To Work Better 2. Towards A More Holistic Understanding of Accountability In Education 3. Educational Governance in Beijing And Delhi: An Overview 4. Supporting Teachers in Delhi: Practice And Perceptions 5. Supporting Teachers in Beijing: Practice And Perceptions 6. Making "Accountability 3.0" Work: Evidence Synthesis and Design-Oriented Reflections 7. Conclusion: Make Educational Accountability Great Again, Again 8. Appendix: The Journey of Researching Government Middle Schools In Beijing And Delhi
Biography
Yifei Yan is a Lecturer in Public Administration and Public Policy at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. She received her PhD degree from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her doctoral dissertation, on which this book is based, is the recipient of the Best PhD Dissertation Award from the Indian Public Policy Network (IPPN) in 2019.
A compelling study that challenges conventional perceptions of teacher accountability in schools, demystifying the raison d’etre of poor quality of learning outcomes. Based on an in-depth, empirical and comparative analysis of two large education systems – India and China, Yan deconstructs and re-conceptualizes teacher accountability, designing a holistic approach built not exclusively on bureaucratic but on a professionally motivated teacher support system. With the timely emphasis that a competent and soundly supported teaching workforce is essential for educational improvement, the book offers a fresh, non-Western perspective on educational governance and is an invaluable contribution to the larger theory of public administration.
Anjana Mangalagiri, Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
Accountability is a key issue in the field of education. In this timely and original book, Dr Yifei Yan addresses education accountability in two of the world’s largest developing countries, China and India. The book provides a novel conceptualisation of accountability, in which the support provided to teachers is seen as a crucial component. Through surveys and interviews with teachers, school principals, government officials and NGO workers in Beijing and Delhi, Yifei Yan shines a light on support provided to teachers, policy challenges, potential solutions, and implications for accountability. This important book should be key reading for policy makers, teachers, teacher trainers, scholars and others concerned with strengthening education governance and school systems.
Anne West, Professor of Education Policy, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science
This is a brilliant and innovative book on how to improve school quality and performance through a focus on teachers. Based on a multidimensional concept of accountability 3.0 and a deep, fine-grained, and compelling comparative study of India and China, Yifei Yan shows how it would be possible to improve policy design in support of educators to make schools work better. This is a book that needs to be read because of its ability to show how well-done analysis can lead to promising and potentially highly effective policy solutions.
Giliberto Capano, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Bologna, Italy
