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Book part
Publication date: 3 July 2018

Mobarak Hossain

School inspection or supervision is one of the core institutional mechanisms for ensuring the quality of education. While analyzing the practices of this quality assurance tool at…

Abstract

School inspection or supervision is one of the core institutional mechanisms for ensuring the quality of education. While analyzing the practices of this quality assurance tool at the basic education level in six developing and emerging economies, this paper found that there has been a major shift in exercising supervision system pushed by the policy dynamics of both international actors and state institutions. The school supervision system has been shaped by decentralization, school-based management, monitoring, data gathering, and output-focused governance. These are also known as the elements of New Public Management (NPM). The growing practice of NPM in all these countries has made the external supervision a less prioritized issue, which is evident in its stagnated and sometimes deteriorated state. On the other hand, the pro-NPM management system advocating for greater autonomy, decentralization and results has not evidently yielded any major positive outcomes, especially in lower-income countries. Thus, the absence of an effective supervision system, both support and control, has created a vacuum in the educational quality assurance instruments. By oversimplifying local contexts in situating NPM, this foreign-emerged management system also has shown reluctance toward fundamental crises of weak institutions in lower-income countries, including resource constraints, skills shortage, and service recipients’ lack of trust, among others. In short, developmental level and institutional capacity matter for the successful implementation of NPM.

Details

Cross-nationally Comparative, Evidence-based Educational Policymaking and Reform
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-767-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2016

Amal Al Qubaisi, Masood Badri, Jihad Mohaidat, Hamad Al Dhaheri, Guang Yang, Asma Al Rashedi and Kenneth Greer

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytic hierarchy planning-based framework to establish criteria weights and to develop a school performance system commonly called…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytic hierarchy planning-based framework to establish criteria weights and to develop a school performance system commonly called school inspections.

Design/methodology/approach

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model uses pairwise comparisons and a measurement scale to generate the weights for the criteria. The validity of the approach is confirmed by comparing the outputs of school inspection and the outputs of the model in a sample of schools.

Findings

The framework proposed enables school management to address several issues pertaining to its competitive advantage with other schools, the two most important being establishing its performance ranking in the marketplace and identifying the service elements that most require improvement. This study develops a cohesive approach to identify which quality attributes or dimensions require attention.

Research limitations/implications

For school inspections, the data collection and computational problems would increase with the increase in the number of criteria and sub-criteria, as well as the number of schools considered in the selection. Although the range of reported AHP applications is extensive in many disciplines, examples in school quality and inspection remain still rare; as a result, this study could not compare its results with other AHP applications in school inspection or assessment.

Practical implications

The AHP method has the distinct advantage that it decomposes a decision problem into its constituent parts and builds hierarchies of criteria. AHP enables assessors to capture both subjective and objective evaluation measures of school quality. By providing a useful mechanism for assessing the consistency of the evaluation measures and alternatives, the AHP reduces bias in decision making.

Social implications

The AHP model also provides a more systematic evaluation of a given school’s qualitative performance criteria. The proposed AHP model is attractive to assessors and decision makers because its pairwise comparison procedure enables them to offer a relative (rather than absolute) individual criterion assessment on those qualitative factors.

Originality/value

The AHP model could become a sustainable component of overall school system quality improvement by maturing over time. The AHP annual scores could be used as realistic and measureable gauges for measuring school improvement.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2010

Stefan Brauckmann and Petros Pashiardis

The main purpose of this paper is to examine more closely the tension between, on the one hand, forms of internal school improvement based on internal evaluation measures and, on…

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Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this paper is to examine more closely the tension between, on the one hand, forms of internal school improvement based on internal evaluation measures and, on the other hand, control and legitimisation needs grounded on external evaluation measures.

Design/methodology/approach

The clash of these forms of evaluation is at the core of the paper, dealing in particular with the changing evaluation systems in the Cypriot education system. Therefore, the case study approach is utilised here. More specifically, the case of Cyprus is used as a system under transition in order to move from a primarily teacher inspection system, which is externally driven, to a combination of a teacher/school inspection system, which is based on both external and internal processes and is directed at both formative and summative evaluation processes.

Findings

It is asserted that the new proposed appraisal system for Cyprus addresses the deficiencies of the current evaluation system and generally aims at achieving a balance between external and internal processes. Finally, the conditions for the acceptance and successful implementation of new evaluation systems are described.

Originality/value

The results of the study constitute a rich setting of future developments for Cyprus schools with regard to important issues such as school accountability, school improvement, teacher evaluation, internal school evaluation and external inspection, through the proposed appraisal system. Therefore, the paper provides an important source of information for those who have the responsibility of creating educational policy and planning for the years to come in the area of teacher appraisal.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

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Article
Publication date: 10 March 2020

Hong Zheng

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and issues within the policy context of education and the school inspection system which might affect education quality in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and issues within the policy context of education and the school inspection system which might affect education quality in China and examine stakeholder perceptions of inspection content and context in one city region in China.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed-methods design was used. In all, 365 teachers, headteachers and administrative staff from ten schools across the urban and rural area have responded the questionnaires. A total of 13 interviewees including teachers and headteachers from two urban schools and a rural school, city and national inspectors and an educational officer were conducted. The interview instrument was informed by both international and local literature and some of the quantitative findings.

Findings

This paper argues that student non-academic outcomes were perceived by participants to be more important than academic achievements in demonstrating education quality. The prevailing exam-oriented evaluation system still sets barriers for student all-round development. Educational equity in student performance has not drawn sufficient attention from the inspectorates of Shandong province.

Practical implications

School inspection standards remain to be improved to better support student all-round development and equity in educational outcomes within and between schools, and better accommodate policy contexts and local needs.

Originality/value

This study examines the school effectiveness factors which have been rarely tested in Chinese context and collects new empirical evidence to explore participants’ perceptions on the quality of school inspection criteria and education quality in Shandong province.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2017

Heloísa Helena Pimenta Rocha and Henrique Mendonça da Silva

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of school medical inspection (SMI) in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil) during the 1910s, in a process aligned…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of school medical inspection (SMI) in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil) during the 1910s, in a process aligned with the international debate that, since the late nineteenth century, sustained the need of services that focused on the sanitary inspection of schools and their students. It analyzes the purposes guiding the creation of these services and their connections to the spheres of public health and education, highlighting the role taken by the concerns about issues such as the control of infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis.

Design/methodology/approach

The study consists of a historical analysis using as sources the legislation and documents produced by the SMI. The documents are examined in correlation with the positions defended at international conferences held at the period.

Findings

The study evidences the intricacies of the introduction of SMI services in the Brazilian states that were pioneers in this area. It examines their relations to guidelines established in international forums, which certainly played an important role in the Brazilian efforts. It also allowed to highlight the relations between efforts to create medical inspections in school and those aiming at fighting infectious diseases.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to a better comprehension of the efforts regarding social hygiene and particularly the hygiene of schools and their students in a period in which the state takes greater responsibilities for its population.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 46 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 2004

Norrel A. London

The article investigates the language and rhetoric used by school inspectors as leverage in determining the direction for professional practice among teachers in colonial Trinidad…

Abstract

The article investigates the language and rhetoric used by school inspectors as leverage in determining the direction for professional practice among teachers in colonial Trinidad and Tobago. The approach is ethnohistorical, and the database comprises major evaluation reports of the inspectors in question in respect of one school over a 20‐year period. The research reveals that the rhetoric employed in reporting was a major vehicle in transmitting important messages about professional practice which local teachers could not afford to ignore. The practice adopted imparted distinctiveness to the schooling system at the time, and a significant observation in the process is that the rhetoric used was laced with the language of “performativity” spawned and justified within a technical rationalism constructed and put to work in the colonial period”. Technical rhetoric, the paper argues however, is not the type of medium required to do justice to education, generally recognized as a social practice enterprise.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1974

N.M. LOGAN

Despite general agreement amongst educators, both in Australia and other countries, that an authoritarian inspection system, whatever its virtues, has outlived some of its…

Abstract

Despite general agreement amongst educators, both in Australia and other countries, that an authoritarian inspection system, whatever its virtues, has outlived some of its original purpose, reformist demands in this aspect of school administration have been slow to be met. In N.S.W. inspectors of schools have advanced proposals for change and the Department of Education has implemented some of these, together with other recommendations from its own committee of inquiry into the inspectorial system. The result has been a further liberalization of school inspection, although some traditional aspects remain. Arising out of the reforms are questions about whether inspections are necessary, how accountability and promotion are to be managed if they are not, and whether inspectors are justified in feeling insecure. The view is held that the growing professionalism of teachers will assist them to become more accountable directly to those they serve, but that regional education officers will still perform indispensable functions aimed at improving the educational quality of schools.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Article
Publication date: 15 April 2022

Sonia Ben Jaafar, Khadeegha Alzouebi and Virginia Bodolica

Over the past decades, there has been an intensifying movement to privatize education in Western nations, with equal concern about the quality of education for all. This article…

Abstract

Purpose

Over the past decades, there has been an intensifying movement to privatize education in Western nations, with equal concern about the quality of education for all. This article adds to a global understanding of school inspections as a governance mechanism to promote educational quality in an entirely open K-12 educational marketplace.

Design/methodology/approach

The role of school inspections as a quality assurance device is examined from a market accountability perspective. The Emirate of Dubai is used as an illustrative example of market accountability, where the educational landscape constitutes primarily a private open market.

Findings

Dubai proves that market accountability can address the needs of all families, assuring the provision of a sufficient quality standard of education, while allowing for competition to drive improvement. There are two lessons that Dubai offers a global audience that has been debating the merits of privatizing education: a fully free unregulated market does not promote an education system that provides a minimum standard of education for all; and a private education system can address stakeholder concerns and operate successfully in parallel to a public sector.

Originality/value

The idiosyncratic United Arab Emirates (UAE) education sector calls for a balance between flexibility and quality assurance across semi-independent jurisdictions. Hosting a majority of non-Emirati resident families, Dubai has developed a public inspection system for a private education market for quality assurance across 17 curricula offered in 215 private schools with diverse profit models. That most Dubai school-aged children are in private schools demanded accommodating an atypical landscape for K-12 education that affords insights into how a free market can operate. The authors encourage future research that may build a more comprehensive framework for better understanding the public–private education debate.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 36 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2009

Carolyn Fowler

The purpose of this paper is to document the types of and any changes in the budgeting and performance management practices of New Zealand primary educational organisations and…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to document the types of and any changes in the budgeting and performance management practices of New Zealand primary educational organisations and explain why they occurred using an institutional theory framework. In doing so, it will provide an understanding of past budgeting and performance measurement and reporting practice, as well as consider the policy implications for the contemporary public‐provided primary education system.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a historical archival‐based case study approach.

Findings

The historical evidence suggests that from 1844 until 1859 budgeting and performance management practices in educational organisations changed as the provision and control of education moved from not‐for‐profit community‐based organisations to become a predominantly public function. The budgeting, inspection and performance management practices and changes observed in the primary education providers were directly related to their need to obtain legitimacy and procure resources.

Practical implications

The detailed information regarding historical budgeting and performance management practices provides rich background material for researchers as well as suggesting that split responsibility and control between the community and government for education creates a tension between the two controlling bodies.

Originality/value

This paper is the first study of internal accounting and performance reporting practices in a mid‐nineteenth century New Zealand education context.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1994

Valerie E. Emmett

Considers the future of health education in relation to schools;explores the continuing need for health education of young people andhence the priorities for schools; and…

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Abstract

Considers the future of health education in relation to schools; explores the continuing need for health education of young people and hence the priorities for schools; and addresses the current dilemmas, uncertainties and opportunities that affect the provision of health education in schools. Relates principally to health education in schools in England. Reviews the impact of recent Education Acts on the provision of health education in schools and examines how the new system of inspection of schools could and should work in relation to health education. Summarizes the early work on the health‐promoting schools project.

Details

Health Education, vol. 94 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-4283

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