In recent decades, a growing number of countries have adopted standardized tests, which are increasingly used to measure the performance of schools and educators, and to hold educational actors accountable for performance (Author(s), 2019). While usually introduced or strengthened with the ambition of re-orienting educators’ behaviour, research shows that the impact of performance-based accountability on school organization and instructional practices varies significantly. In line with the policy enactment perspective (Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012), it is increasingly recognized that school actors’ responses to performance-based accountability depend on both policy design factors and the ways in which educators perceive, experience and make sense of performance data and accountability demands. Whereas a number of studies show how educators tend to hold rather critical attitudes towards performance-based accountability (e.g. Jones & Egley, 2004; Müller & Hernández, 2010), other studies report how some educators have come to embrace and even embody performance metrics in their daily practices (e.g. Holloway & Brass, 2018; Lewis & Holloway, 2017). Currently, a limited understanding prevails of the social mechanisms and conditions that contribute to different interpretations and lived experiences of performance data and accountability demands. With the aim of contributing to this understanding, this paper reports on a comparative study on the interpretations and experiences of primary school teachers in Chile and Norway, two countries with diverging accountability regimes, levels of marketization and school choice regulations. The methodology of the paper is mixed. On the one hand, the analysis relies on quantitative data derived from the administration of an electronic survey with a representative sample of 1,100 teachers in each country. On the other hand, the analysis relies on qualitative data derived from in-depth interviews with teachers in both countries (n=30). The study provides original insights into the emotional and felt effects of performance data and accountability demands. Specifically, the study analyzes the mediating role of policy design and institutional regimes, as well as of existing broader conceptions of teacher professionalism, on teachers’ interpretations and lived experiences with performance-based accountability.

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