Quality and school inspection: representations of different educational actors

Abstract

This investigation aims to know the representations of teachers, headmasters, and school inspectors regarding the role of the Portuguese school inspection system (IGEC, by its acronym in Portuguese) in the improvement of the quality of education in the Portuguese Education System. This qualitative research, with a phenomenological-interpretative approach, constitutes a multiple case study, and involves teachers and directors of five schools and five inspectors, in a total of 135 participants. The data collection instruments were the semi-structured interview and the survey. Content analysis, using the NVivo12 software, was the technique used in the treatment of the interviews, and the questionnaires were analyzed statistically, using the SPSS program. It was possible to conclude that the inspection action is more intense in the organizational dimension and less accentuated in the pedagogical one. The representations created about IGEC are strongly influenced by the place of power from which IGEC acts.

Quality; School Inspection; Headmaster; Teachers; Inspectors