This three-year research project, funded by the ESRC and the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) compares the use of school inspection as a form of governing of education in the three systems of Sweden, Scotland and England, in the context of current changes in inspection practices in Europe. We are investigating the tensions between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ governance revealed by analysis of inspection policies and processes. By this we mean tensions between controlling and regulating through technical means like performance data and the rules followed by inspectors in their school assessments, in contrast with using expert knowledge, judgement and persuasion as part of self-regulation. We are mapping the interrelationships of inspection at different system levels and across Sweden, Scotland and England, with a focus on transnational policy learning. We also map inspection processes within local authorities/municipalities and between local policy spaces and schools.

The project is co-ordinated by Jenny Ozga, and the research team includes Linda Crogford, Sotiria Grek and Martin Lawn at CES, along with Professor John Clarke at the Open University, and Professor Christina Segerholm and colleagues at mid-Sweden University. A project website will be constructed shortly.

Jenny Ozga, Linda Croxford, Sotiria Grek and Martin Lawn, CES
Professor John Clarke, Open University
Professor Christina Segerholm and colleagues, mid-Sweden University