Professional accreditation of initial teacher education programmes: Teacher educators' strategies-Between 'accountability' and 'professional responsibility'?

National audit systems have emerged to assure their publics about the quality of pre-service programmes. This paper investigates and critically discusses accounts from interviews with four Irish teacher educators on their experiences with a professional accreditation process through the multi-focal lens of professional responsibility, accountability, survival and coping strategies. Evidence indicates that key actors' navigations between the logic of accountability and responsibility enables them to construct multiple performance scripts of teacher education programmes. We conclude that creative coping through the construction of multiple performance scripts are a vital element of promoting and sustaining professional responsibility among teacher educators.