Exploring the Changing Face of School Inspections

Year 2016, Volume: 16 Issue: 66, 1 - 26, 15.12.2016

Martin Brown Gerry Mcnamara Joe O’hara Shivaun O’brıen

Abstract

Background: A
number of countries have had school inspection for many years. The
origins of these systems date back to the nineteenth century when mass public
schooling was introduced, and education
and other emerging public services were required to comply with centrally
mandated rules and programmes. In
contrast, many countries across the world have only introduced school
inspection over recent decades as the perceived importance of educational
quality as a driver of economic competitiveness has become influential in state
policy. International bodies such as the OECD and, in particular, comparative
evaluations of education systems such as PISA have led to a constant stream of
interventions and reforms designed to deliver higher student performance
outcomes. These factors have driven the growth of inspection.

Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to provide
an analysis of the factors that have led to the rapid rise of inspection as a
school governance mechanism. It goes on to examine how developing conceptualisations of the ways in which
inspection can be employed to achieve the range of outcomes with which it is tasked are leading to an evolving toolkit of
inspection approaches and models. A number of
these are examined in detail with a view not only to description but in terms of
whether some of the demands that they place on schools are, in fact, realistic
in practice.

Sources of Evidence: This study used document analysis of
policy documents and existing research to
deconstruct factors relating to the changing face of school inspection since
the late 1990’s.

Main Argument: Formal processes of school inspection
have become virtually universal. It is also
argued that inspection, as it is now widely understood and practiced,
has moved quite far from its historical roots and purposes. Inspection is now a
complex component of wider modern concepts of public sector management and
governance including quality, improvement, accountability, transparency and
cost effectiveness.

Conclusions: Historically inspection was largely
about compliance with rules and to an extent to judge the work of individual
teachers. Now, at least, in theory, it is as much concerned with creating a
regulatory framework within which schools as organisations can enjoy greater
autonomy while simultaneously being held responsible for student performance
outcomes.

Keywords

school inspection, accountability, school self-evaluation, governance, school development

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