Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Of Accountability and Interdependence

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Accountability is one of those tough issues in education and raises issues of "who we are accountable to in our day-to-day lives and who should be accountable to us." It's especially relevant, writes Ann Gagné, at the end of the semester and assignments are due. It also comes up in the context of things like collaborative projects, when students are (we are told) accountable to each other. In this post, accountability is depicted as being related to one's level of education ("how much someone actually understands, considers, and values interdependence") and ethics ("the most grounded, community informed, social justice aware spaces are the ones where folk see themselves as accountable to others"). But I think the concept is an often convenient bludgeon. After all, there's a world of difference between accountability we freely choose (such as entering into a marriage or contract), accountability that just arises out of nature (such as parenting a child), and accountability that is imposed on us (by a government or authority). Image: Rhythm Systems.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 4:51 p.m.

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