Practices of accountability in newly built school environments: principals negotiating the competing demands of hierarchical and collegial responsibility

This article explores accountability in newly built school settings, highlighting the tension between hierarchical expectations and collaborative, collegial accountability. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures, we reveal how accountability is enacted as complex, embodied practices in which principals and teachers negotiate multiple, sometimes conflicting responsibilities. The study is based on unstructured interviews with 20 school leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand. The findings illustrate how school leaders simultaneously respond to top-down mandates and cultivate teacher agency through collegial inquiry, coaching conversations and professional development initiatives. Accountability practices, ranging from formal performance evaluations to peer-based support, form dynamic ‘ecologies of practice’ that both reproduce hierarchical norms and enable collaborative leadership cultures. These ecologies of accountability function as ‘practice-changing practices’, driving shifts in power relations, professional norms and the organization of teaching and learning. By articulating how accountability discourses interweave with material and social arrangements in schools, this study contributes a nuanced understanding of leadership, offering insights for those seeking to balance external demands with local professional values.