Quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) in Scotland: promoting self‐evaluation within and beyond the country

Abstract

This article looks at policy for quality assurance and evaluation in Scotland, its history and more recent developments, and in particular, at the emphasis on school self‐evaluation. It examines the history of the concept, its constituent elements and the role of the Inspectorate in establishing it. Further, the article discusses the Scottish self‐evaluation model as a means of promoting the country’s distinctive identity in education within a European frame. It discusses the role of the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates as a major forum for the transmission of ideas about self‐evaluation that illuminates the role of networks in promoting Europeanisation.

Keywords:

• European education space
• Inspectorate
• quality assurance
• Scotland
• school improvement
• self‐evaluation

Notes

1. This article draws on research in progress on the ESRC‐funded project ‘Governing by Numbers: data and education governance in Scotland and England’ RES‐‐00‐23‐1385, which is part of the Eurocores ‘Fabricating Quality in European Education’ project of the European Science Foundation.

2. The ‘Performance Indicators’ used in the early versions of HGIOS? were renamed ‘Quality Indicators’ in revised versions in 2002 and 2007.

3. These were England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech republic, Portugal, France, the French‐speaking community of Belgium, Hesse, Saxony and Denmark – Denmark, although it does not have an inspection system, has a long tradition of quality assurance processes. Therefore, the focus in Denmark was on the role of the Danish national advisors.