Odd One Out? Some views of lay inspection

ABSTRACT

A lay inspector is an essential part of the team conducting an Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspection in England. Evidence from a small research project focusing on interpretations of policy for primary mathematics at different levels of the OFSTED system revealed some tensions and lack of clarity about the role of the lay inspector. While expressing positive feelings about many aspects of lay inspection, primary inspectors interviewed felt, on the whole, that limitations in lay inspectors’ experience of teaching and learning meant that the responsibilities allocated to them relating to subject inspection (in this case mathematics) should also be limited. But boundaries were blurred and extensive experience of lay inspection itself could bring its own, perhaps worrying, form of ‘expertise’. Concerns about variations in the quality of lay inspectors were raised by both inspectors and key personnel in schools, variations which might impact on both the process of the inspection itself and the resulting inspection report