Whatever Happened to Good Advice? Service and inspection after the Education Reform Act

Abstract

AbstractThe 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA) changed dramatically the relationships between central government, local education authorities (LEAs) and teachers in state schools in England and Wales. This report focuses on the nature of these changes, particularly those between LEAs and teachers, and considers their consequences for the ‘quality’ of the curriculum that schools can provide. Albeit tentatively, the analysis suggests that changes in the relationships between central government, LEAs and schools represent an extension of the central state's ideological powers of surveillance and centralised control over schools, rather than a move towards participatory democracy and the improvement in educational standards in schools. To illustrate this, the report addresses (i) the ‘effects’ of ERA legislation on the ‘dynamic’ of inspection, advice and in‐service education and training (INSET) support, and how this complex relationship is perceived by teachers in schools; and (ii) The Schools Act 1992, and the relationships between the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspections, in‐service support and curriculum provision. The analysis calls on data gathered during the 1992‐93 academic year as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) research project investigating the impact of the ERA on the provision of physical education (PE) and sport in schools.