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).
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, and what role Schools Inspectorate is supposed to play in order to govern and control. Special attention is devoted, referring to an on-going case study, to how inspections influence head teachers and their leadership.
As the reports from the Schools inspectorate are made public, the politicians will be forced to act. They then try to pressure the head teachers to take measures. The head teachers perceived, however, from their point of view, that the report gave them a confirmation of what they already knew, but also as a tool to push on the development of their school. During the first year after the inspection, the head teachers mainly strived to adjusting deficiencies in formal documents and later on started various types of development works. The result of this, for example in terms of increased goal fulfilment, is still an open question, despite there are research that in most cases show small improvement in this aspect.
Boken beskriver hur förskolechefer och rektorer kan utöva sitt pedagogiska ledarskap genom att använda metoder som Learning study och forskningscirklar för att utveckla fungerande digitala lärandemiljöer.