ABSTRACT
This book section illustrates schools’ and teachers’ responsibility and duties related to a law on students’ psychosocial environment, Chapter 9A of the Norwegian Education Act. Chapter 9A’s enactment brings about extended accountability and new responsibilities, but so far there is little insight in teachers’ perception of and approach to these changes. The book section aims to explore how this development relates to teachers’ professional ethics and working conditions. It highlights characteristics of the so-called ‘bullying paragraph’ and elaborates on how accountability mechanisms, accountability relations, and teacher responsibility are constituted in the work with Chapter 9A. A quantitative study pertaining to teachers’ view indicates that possible consequences and vague responsibility as well as teachers’ self-efficacy relate to how difficult they perceive setting in motion 9A procedures and how likely they are to do so. These findings have implications for accountability, responsibility, and teacher self-efficacy in the work with 9A. The book section underlines the significance of acknowledging conditions of teachers’ ethics and professionalism in changed accountability environments. Thus, the reflections in this book section also have relevance beyond the context of the Norwegian education system.
