Depending on the kindness of strangers: the affective dimension of inspection visits to low-performing schools in Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT School inspections constitute a common instrument of Performance-Based Accountability (PBA) policies but are rarely studied beyond its effects on practices and results. This paper examines inspection from an affective perspective through a qualitative case study of three low-performing schools in Chile, exploring to what extent the emotions and relationship between inspectors and school leaders encourage school actors to make sense of performance feedback received during inspections visit between 2016 and 2019. Results suggest that the affective and cognitive responses to performance evaluation of schools, together with the emotional and relational aspects of the inspection visit, influence the extent to which school leaders made sense of and translated the recommendations offered by inspectors into their improvement strategy, identifying kindness as a main affective force mediating sensemaking from school actors. Finally, we discuss the implications of employing the affective dimension as a novel way of understanding processes of policymaking in education.