Department of Curriculum & Comparative Education

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Browsing Department of Curriculum & Comparative Education by Subject "accountability"

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    Accountability for Curriculum Implementation in Primary Schools of East Wollega Administrative Zone, Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2025) Feyera Beyessa; Ambissa Kenea
    The study aims to investigate accountability for curriculum implementation in primary schools in the East Wollega administrative Zone, Ethiopia. The system theoretical framework and World Development Report (2004) conceptual framework served as the study's orientations, as it explored the current accountability relationships among the key stakeholders in the primary education system. To achieve the study’s objectives, an exploratory case study type and a multiple case study (holistic) research design were employed. A purposive sampling technique was used. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources using semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, and document analysis. Data was collected from 6 primary schools, which includes 6 school principals, 6 Parent-teacher Associations (PTAs), 3 supervisors, 12 students, 12 teachers, 12 parents, 6 curriculum and instructional (C and I) experts of Woreda Education Offices (WEOs), and 2 curriculum developers of Regional Education Bureau (REB). The subject of the study is 59. The collected data were qualitatively analyzed using a thematic approach. The findings of the study reveal that the voice accountability relationship between curriculum users and the curriculum developers and experts can often be characterized as meaningless due to several interrelated factors such as lack of rich information and communication, absence of media and technology platforms, cultural barriers, limited curriculum users’ involvement in decision-making, unclear representative of the electoral connection linking with curriculum implementation to voting behaviors, no formal and informal participation of the curriculum users, and week feedback mechanism. The study further reveals that the long route compact accountability relationships between school curriculum implementers, and both curriculum developers and experts are weak and frequently characterized by thick authority, poor enabling environment, absence of appropriate reporting, contractual agreement, meager implementers’ autonomy, and the politicization of the experts’ responsibilities to focus on top-down subordinate directives. This accountability relationship was effectively exercised to hold school curriculum implementers accountable for easily counted scores and politically attractive reports rather than the implementation of the school curricula. The short route students’ power accountability relationship was masked by the hopeless students themselves, the poor response of School Management Bodies (SMBs) to students’ concerns, little information, no legal and official written accountability policies…and fear of the school's political pollution which limited students' ability to hold school curriculum implementers accountable. Parents’ power accountability relationships were challenged by local norms and awareness, resistance from SMBs, variability in engagement levels, limited knowledge, lack of transparency, a limited information. This study confirms that management accountability relationships between SMBs and teachers were strongly working for report-driven, creating mistrust and an incomplete accountability relationship that diverts teachers’ focus from implementing the curriculum. The study depicts that wastage of instructional time, lack of autonomy, an enabling environment, appropriate reporting techniques, and accountability mechanisms, and the absence of an accountability policy had paralyzed management accountability relationships. The study affirms that soft and forgiving accountability mechanisms were the convincing consequences. Finally, the existing system accountability relationships for curriculum implementation were loosely coupled. Hence, in addition to valuable recommendations, reasonably, I proposed a school-based accountability model for reducing system fragmentation of accountability relationships that may serve for better implementation of the curriculum. Keywords: accountability, compact, curriculum implementation, curriculum users, management, power, primary education, system, and voice