Responses to accountability pressure and support for learner performance improvement : a case study of one school

Includes bibliographical references.This study examines how a township school responded to external pressure and support to improve grade 12 results, in general, and mathematics in particular. The study is theoretically located within scholarship pertaining to forms and effects of accountability measures. The focus is on whether responses to such measures are substantive, i.e. directed towards the goal of general improvement of learning and teaching within the school, or non-substantive, i.e. directed towards compliance with external quantitatively framed measures as an end in itself. The general methodological approach was a case study with ethnographic elements. Data collection strategies included interviews and observation. In general, this study shows that the responses within the school to pressure and support to improve mathematics results were complex, uneven and layered. These external pressures did, often indirectly, contribute to improved grade 12 results. This was facilitated by a degree of internal coherence within leadership practices, i.e. effective and purposeful strategies aligned with substantive goals within the school