Accountability – Be transparet with your work

It’s been a while since I last wrote about this topic but recently this has been such a recurrent issue around that there was no way to avoid it. ACCOUNTABILITY, the word, the feeling, the idea, the demand and the right when we teach.

Having chosen teaching as a career, all you can do is to be the best you can possibly be, but overall, and above all, there is a reason for that and it is called stakeholders. It’s first your students, then their parents or family, if minors, the school policy, the school administrative staff,etc.

As a teacher, your work is never only in the classroom, it might be mainly in it, but the reflect is so much broader that sometimes we, teachers, may loose track of it. We teach and we have an obligation to make our work be fruitful for life.

There is a need to keep stakeholders well informed of learners’ progress, they must be able to realise that all they are investing in terms of time and finance is worth, or they would simple evade and find elsewhere where their effort might look more appreciated.

Accountability carries with it a sense of responsibility for the work well done, ethics in carrying it out relating to the obligation we have towards the effective learning of our students. Nowadays I would say it is a feature managers seek when looking for new employees. You do not simply work for yourself, there is a chain led by you and this must be not only traceable but responsibly output to people.

We could perhaps translate this word as professionalism when using tools to measure performance and acknowledging results or lack of them and means to overcome difficulties.

I really don’t know if you are all facing this wave of new tendencies and the extreme overload on youngsters shoulders causing so much pain and learning problems. Now, it seems it’s easier to give up studying, give up language courses, give up whatever you do in the name of ‘quality of life’, but, if a student is involved in the process and as a teacher you are accountable for it, and if such a student is involved to the point of being able to understand what s/he is doing and is enjoying it, I believe this student would stay engaged, no matter what.

What we, teachers must actually keep in mind is that for every lesson we teach, its reverberation travels miles and miles and reaches people that we couldn’t even imagine. So we are accountable for our work and for students’ results. Nothing is isolated. We are parts of a clog that caters for certain responsibilities that if not properly done, compromise the proper work of all engine.

Awareness;

Clear aims;

Clear recording;

Output of results;

Understanding;

Note taking;

Talking to students and parents;

Availability;

Balance information to stakeholders;

Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, etc.;

Labouring in favour of your client’s satisfaction;

Impact students’ lives positively;

Team work always present;

Yell the results of your work to the world!

You are responsible for your work, for working under the policy of the institution you have chosen to work, to repay the investment students and parents are making in their lives, for the permanence of the student in the learning and teaching process… We are accountable for what we do!

Beatriz Meneguetti

Mª Beatriz Magalhães Silva Meneguetti Teacher, teacher trainer, school director and sworn translator with over 30 years’ experience, graduated in English, post graduated in methodology, linguistics, school management and marketing. Holder of major proficiency certificates from Cambridge and Michigan Universities and holder of the DELTA and MA in Professional Development for Language Education from Chichester University. Academic director of ABCI - Brazilian Association of Culturas Inglesas.