One aspect of the globalisation of education policies is the development in many European and American countries of new forms of regulation and governance based on external evaluation and accountability (Leithwood & Earl, 2000, Jafaar  & Anderson, 2007, Maroy, 2012).

The aim of this symposium is to explore the diversity of these accountability policies in various contexts to grasp how particular cognitive, political or institutional features in different education areas are shaping the content and the orientations of these policies. How transnational discourses, as the New public management doctrine, are filtered and translated in each policy context? What are the effects of these new regulation imperatives on traditional modes of governance in each context and how do they recompose them? The results will emphasize how these processes affect  not only the “stakes” and consequences of the policy for schools and bodies, but also question the features of the policy itself and those of the governing process in general.

To do so, the symposium provides an interesting diversity of policy contexts (Canada, England, France, French-speaking Belgium, Scotland, Sweden and the United States), some of them being compared within the same research designs. It allows also to stress various effects of accountability policies on the governance of education systems with for instance an increasing State bureaucratisation of the education system in some cases (England, France, Quebec) and the increasing of distrust relationships with professionals in others (England and to a less extend Sweden), or even the possible contradiction in some contexts between these policies and other key source of regulation such as school markets (French-speaking Belgium).

The symposium will thus contribute to enlarge and enrich the comparative discussion on “new accountability” policies in education and their integration in new modes of regulation of education systems.

Leithwood, K., & Earl, L. (2000). Educational Accountability Effects: An International Perspective. Peabody Journal of Education, 75(4), 1-18.

Jaafar, S. B., & Anderson, S. (2007). Policy Trends and Tensions in Accountability for Educational Management and Services in Canada. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53(2), 207-227.

Maroy, C. (2012). Towards Post-Bureaucratic Modes of Governance : A European Perspective. Dans G. Steiner-Khamsi & F. Waldow (dir.), World Yearbook of Education 2012. Policy Borrowing and Lending in Education (p. 62-79). London & New York: Routledge.