Teaching and the Role of Ofsted
An investigation
- Format:
- Paperback / softback, 148 pages, 234 mm x 156 mm
- ISBN:
- 9781782772897
- Published:
- 29 Apr 2020
- Imprint:
- UCL IOE Press
Helena McVeigh draws on extensive practice as an inspector and consultant to chart the development of Ofsted and investigate its influence on primary teaching in England. Following a brief history of inspection and the genesis of Ofsted, she reflects on the role of Ofsted handbooks, annual reports, case studies and inspections in relation to teaching, and shows how their influence has changed over time. Interviews with HMIs, primary headteachers and teachers, and the author’s own experience, inform an analysis of impact and relationships that is grounded in the work of Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Drawing on this evidence, the book offers a tension between acknowledging a positive contribution made by Ofsted to teaching in English schools, and recognition of less productive impacts such as teacher stress and the ‘performativity’ of teaching to perceived Ofsted expectations.
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Helena McVeigh
Now an independent education consultant, Dr Helena McVeigh has been involved in inspecting and reviewing schools for many years, as a former HMI and Ofsted inspector, and currently as a lead reviewer for Challenge Partners.
Foreword; 1. Introduction; 2 History of inspection and the coming of Ofsted; 3. Performativity and accountability; 4. Ofsted criteria and guidance on the quality of teaching; 5. How the teaching criteria were written and what influenced them; 6. How schools view and use Ofsted’s teaching criteria; 7. In conclusion … is Ofsted a force for improvement?; References; Index.