Kilian, Katie;
Perryman, Jane;
Bradbury, Alice;
Calvert, Graham;
(2025)
Fearing the ‘Clipboard Police’: Exploring How Marginalised Schools Experience Ofsted Inspections in an Era of Precarity.
British Journal of Educational Studies
pp. 1-20.
10.1080/00071005.2025.2489952.
(In press).
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Abstract
Research suggests that the inspection service in England, Ofsted, has negative impacts on teachers and creates a culture of fear and performativity. Of particular concern is Ofsted’s potential to harm schools and educators as they are navigating the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, growing child poverty, and crises relating to teacher retention, SEND, and mental health. This paper draws on data collected as part of a national survey and focus groups to explore how Ofsted’s inspections and judgements cause stress in schools with the highest student needs and how these schools are situated in the context of wider societal neglect. We focus on the perspectives of teachers that work in schools labelled ‘Special Measures’, ‘Inadequate’, or ‘Requires Improvement’, and teachers serving large numbers of disadvantaged students. This paper argues that Ofsted marginalises the most vulnerable schools, and that school improvement is incompatible with Ofsted’s culture of fear and deficit model of accountability.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Fearing the ‘Clipboard Police’: Exploring How Marginalised Schools Experience Ofsted Inspections in an Era of Precarity |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00071005.2025.2489952 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2025.2489952 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Ofsted inspections, accountability systems, education policy, marginalisation |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Centre for Doctoral Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207565 |
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