Application of Participatory Perspective to the Texas Accountability System

This study focuses on the current version of Texas style school accountability which is not much different from the original version implemented in 1993, because of the "hope" of the Texas style school accountability impacting Obama administration in the US, and Lee administration in Korea. Texas accountability system was analyzed through two conceptual lenses, a rational-technical perspective and a critical perspective tending to emphasize the opposing sides of the structure-agency debate. This study attempts to outline another perspective, a participatory perspective, which attempts to grapple with the structure-agency problem by introducing a reflexive actor into a world of durable, but not permanently structured relationships. This study draws from the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and of activist Paulo Freire, who articulate the possibilities for resistance to dominating relationships through a deliberate linking of reflexivity and practice. It is this potential of praxis on the part of the individual that underpins this distinct perspective on accountability. Then, this paper provides insight into a particular contentious policy issue in Korea, a call for transforming into learning organization.