State school inspection in Norway is currently changing with targeted schools becoming subject to more complex methods of inquiry. Not only school principals but middle leaders are exposed to this shifting system, for the latter are in the frontline of their schools' everyday practices. The article examines how state school inspection is used as…

This article presents the results of a follow-up study on the attitudes of German principals towards receiving feedback from school inspections. In a first study, we explored the attitudes of 50 principals towards feedback from school inspections [Quality Analysis (QA) in North Rhine-Westphalia] before school inspections took place at these…

The Government of South Sudan, through the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI) and its development partners, has made efforts over the past decade to rebuild South Sudan's primary education system. Challenges to the delivery of education have persisted, both within the education system and external to it. The Time to Teach study…

The beginning of a new school year can be hectic, but it is an opportune and critical time for teachers, supervisors, administrators, and school systems to establish proper safety procedures and practices. It can be more difficult to correct inappropriate behaviors or unsafe habits later in the year. This is especially true if a safety accident…

In recent years, school inspections have been newly introduced or adapted to the evidence-based governance logic in many European countries. So far, empirical research on the impact of school inspections has produced inconclusive results. Methodologically, it has mainly focussed on analysis of a national inspection model and used cross-sectional…

Due to national and international policy drivers The Dutch Inspectorate of Education is reforming its supervision with a mission to promote school improvement in all Dutch schools. One of the chosen mechanisms to achieve this is the provision of feedback by inspectors to school leaders, special educational needs coordinators, and teachers…

International research has shown that school inspection and the media are both powerful influences on education policy. Since 2010 the government has sought to implement radical changes to the English education system, creating a new system of autonomous schools that support one another through formal or informal partnerships. These changes have…

This chapter describes how Inspectorates of Education operationalize different inspection goals (control, improvement, and liaison) in their inspection indicator frameworks. The chapter provides an overview and examples of the indicators used across a number of countries and how these are incorporated in inspection frameworks to evaluate and…

This paper presents a critical analysis of a report by the Office for Standards in Education in England based on a survey of practitioners' perspectives of play, focusing on children age 2--5 years in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The report, 'Teaching and play in the early years -- a balancing act? A good practice survey to explore…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges of school-based counselling and its future direction in Nigeria. In this endeavour, the author discusses the following possible challenges militating against the smooth running of effective school-based counselling services to include inadequate counselling materials and work tools, deployment…

From the very early periods of accepting management as a science, main goal of inspection is seen as a control mechanism. Classical management approach evaluated staff as people who need strict inspections by experts to better perform since they are perceived as unreliable and irresponsible on their duties. Later on, expertise areas related to…

COVID has highlighted significant weaknesses in how the education system in England is currently managed and resourced. England needs to build a more resilient education system post-pandemic. The Institute of Education's project, "Learning Through Disruption," set out to explore what headteachers, teachers, other school staff and parents…

Lesson observations involving judgements of teaching quality are a regular feature of classroom life. Such observations and judgements are made by senior and middle managers in schools and also, very significantly, by Ofsted inspectors as a major component of their judgement on the quality of teaching in a school. Using the example of Ofsted…

School inspections have become an important instrument of quality assurance and quality development in many European countries. So far, the focus of empirical research on school inspections has been on the acceptance of the procedure among the school-internal actors, its influence for internal quality development and its effects on student…

The relationship between school inspection and school self-evaluation in Ireland has shifted from a largely theoretical one to that of a regulatory requirement where schools are mandated to engage with an externally devised process of self-evaluation. The conduct of self-evaluation in schools is quality assured by the inspectorate. It is not clear…