ABSTRACT
The period since the 1980s could quite justifiably be called the era of quality and accountability in education. Schools, colleges and universities, both in the UK and internationally, have experienced a period of unprecedented government intervention in terms of the curriculum that is taught and the ways in which educational establishments are monitored. Whilst the terms ‘quality’ and ‘accountability’ would have been familiar to those working in education a generation ago, their relevance to the daily life of work would have been very considerably less than they are today. For many, if not all, of those working as teachers or lecturers prior to the latter years of the twentieth century the central notion that governed their working lives would have been that of the autonomous professional. Once they had received their degree, diploma, or professional certification and some appropriate experience they had a right to consider that they should make decisions about what went on in their classroom or lecture theatre without undue interference from superiors or external agency unless there was some very clear reason for intervention.
