Whose accountability is it? Conceptual metaphor and affinity for learning outcomes based accountability: Comparisons between California PreK-12 and higher education leaders

The strength of leaders' identification with education accountability language framed by Conceptual Metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 2002) was evaluated across California PreK-12 and Higher Education groups. Survey and short-answer data from 549 California college deans, college presidents, PreK-12 superintendents, and PreK-12 school principals revealed that where you work (professional level) was an indicator for the way education leaders believed schools, colleges, and universities should be held accountable. One's political party affiliation was an indicator for how education leaders believed students should be held accountable.;PreK-12 education leaders showed a greater overarching affinity toward school accountability statements than Higher Education leaders. This finding was evidenced by higher levels of Social Identification (Mael & Tetrick, 1992). PreK-12 leaders demonstrated higher affinity for accountability statements framed using hierarchical Nation as a Family (Lakoff, 2008) style metaphoric content and also greater affinity toward language statements rich in quantification metaphoric content . Finally, Education leaders demonstrated differences between professional levels in their use of student learning outcomes data. PreK-12 education leaders used data more frequently than their Higher Education counterparts. An inductive analysis of short answer response content is provided as well as a discussion of theoretical, methodological, and practical applications for conceptual metaphor theory in the context of educational leadership.