Pedagogical professionalism and its implication in educational accountability

This study intended to explore pedagogical professionalism and its implications for educational accountability. This was a qualitative study employing an exploratory case study design, and it involved two (2) educational officials, 10 headteachers, six (6) school committee members, and 90 classroom teachers, with 108 participants in total. Data was collected through interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), open-ended questionnaires, and documentary review and was analysed through tables, frequencies, percentages, and semantic analysis. The findings indicate that teachers stood against being accountable to the school committees, as its members constituted people outside the teaching profession. The findings also indicate that teachers preferred to be supervised by headteachers, School Quality (SQ) assurers, and Ward Education Officers (WEOs) as they belong to the same profession. However, it was found that these professionals concentrated on checking the schemes of work, lesson plans, subject logbooks, and pupils' exercise books without helping the teacher in the classroom, which could have been the added value from professional expertise. It is argued that if teachers are to be accountable and improve pupils' learning, headteachers, SQ assurers, and WEOs have to help them in the classroom, and outsiders from the profession may be consulted if they are to facilitate the environment from which teachers as professionals can be accountable for pupils' learning.