Do inspections of schools influence head teachers’ leadership?
2013 (English)In: Educational leaders as change agents: Meeting an uncertain future / [ed] Aksu, M., Sabanci, A., & Aksu, T, Ankara: Akdeniz university, Faculty of education , 2013, p. 99-110Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
This paper seeks to describe and discuss the impact of inspections of schools in Sweden. It outlines the political context, based on New Public Management (NPM) theory, according to what role the Schools Inspectorate is supposed to play in order to govern and control. Attention is also devoted, referring an on-going case study, to how inspections influence head teachers and their leadership in their everyday work.
Reports from the Schools inspectorate are public. This forces both politicians and head teachers to take measures. In this case, the head teachers perceived that the inspection reports confirmed what they already knew, but it also gave them an alibi and a tool to push their teachers to take part in everyday school development work. During the first year after the inspection the head teachers mainly strived to adjust formal deficiencies in local steering documents. However, some of the deviations reported from the Schools inspectorate are regarding pedagogical problems that are complicated and difficult to handle. As interventions in many cases will show up much later the results are, for example as increased goal fulfilment, in this case, still an open question. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that the Schools Inspectorate must be seen as a result of the governing philosophy that denotes New Public Management NPM).
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Ankara: Akdeniz university, Faculty of education , 2013. p. 99-110
Keywords [en]
New Public Management, Schools inspectorate, leadership, principal, head teacher
National Category
Pedagogy
Research subject
Research Profiles 2009-2020, Education and Learning
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-13210ISI: 000330144300009ISBN: 978-605-4483-15-0 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-13210DiVA, id: diva2:659646
Conference
The European Network for Improving Research and Development in Education Leadership and Management, ENIRDELM, September 27-29 2012
2013-10-262013-10-262021-11-12Bibliographically approved