In England, a substantial proportion of school inspections are conducted by current school leaders. This may lead to concerns that this gives their school (about 2% of schools) an advantage in the inspection process when it is their turn to be inspected. Yet scant evidence exists on this issue. This paper thus presents the first evidence on this…

Accountability in education takes many forms. One of the most prominent in the Welsh context is school inspection, which is considered an important measure of school performance and a way of holding schools accountable for the public money they receive. However, inspections are not accepted as adding value to the system without exception, and much…

In England and Wales, diocesan inspectors are charged with assessing the overall quality of Catholic education provided by Catholic schools. As part of this assessment, inspectors are required to give an account of the liturgical life of the school. Often the reports which result from these inspections refer to the degree of students' "active…

This article presents an empirical study on a new training program for the professional development of school inspectors and principals. The international literature reviews show that training based on the learning of managerial skills has limits. Another approach to training based on professional difficulties experienced and on authentic practice…

Headship (School Principal) is a challenging role within a complex and ever-changing policy climate. This article explores the factors which influence headteacher resilience and their mental health. Existing research focuses on teacher resilience but there is a paucity of literature exploring the factors which influence headteacher resilience.…

Distance education has received a lot of attention in contemporary policy as something that makes it possible for more students to participate, but also involves a certain set of challenges. When it comes to distance education, Swedish municipal adult education (MAE) stands out with its long history of flexible education, often provided on…

This article explores the underpinning assumptions about the changing definition and parameters of early reading that are contained in successive UK Departments for Education (DfE, DfES, DfEE) documentation since 1995 and in Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) reports and official blogs during the same…

This paper explores the regulators' perspective and demonstrates how legitimacy deficits of private universities outweigh performance results in decisions regarding university inspections. We examined the period when the regulator had an urgent claim on Russian universities, particularly during the campaign to 'clean the system of higher…

In 2019 Ofsted introduced cultural capital (CC) into the Early Years Inspection Handbook and defined it as 'essential knowledge' related to 'educated citizenship'. This paper investigates Ofsted's use of CC to critically examine the potential implications for early years work. Due to the feminised nature of early years work, a critical feminist…

Network governance's increasing adoption in education has significantly challenged collaborative networks' external accountability. While educational inspection in network governance has been discussed, research focusing on microlevel educational inspection practices is rare. This study uses evidence from collaborative school turnaround to explore…

The Conservative Dual Criteria (CDC) method is known to improve decision-making accuracy in users when interpreting graphed data. The effectiveness of this method with in-service special education teachers, however, has not been investigated. The present study examined the effects of a virtual training package designed to improve the data-based…

In England, there is a National Curriculum in place which is intended to outline what will be taught and learned in each of the required subjects in state schools, music being one of these subjects. However, for some years, a right-wing conservative government has been working on systemic change, which removes many schools from state control and…

In what are often described as modern Western school systems, the supervision of elementary schools generally shifted from the hands of clerical administrators to genuine state officials during the nineteenth century. The Prussian state, like other predominantly Protestant states, relied on clerical personnel and church supervision structures to…

Over the past 2 decades, worldwide research has established that the district office of education matters. Various policy initiatives are directing district offices to shift from limited managerial functions and begin to directly support learner instruction. The intention of this article, therefore, was to tease the question: How do school…

The document analysis method was used in the current study conducted to investigate the complaints against educational institutions and their stakeholders. To this end, the data obtained within the framework of the research questions were coded and categorized by using the descriptive analysis technique in the study, in which a total of two…