Exploring Chinese stakeholders’ perceptions of school inspection criteria in demonstrating educational quality: Do discrepancies in opinions reflect different school contexts?

Abstract

This study investigates whether discrepancies exist in stakeholder perceptions of the, importance and relevance of school inspection criteria for demonstrating educational, quality in different school contexts in one Chinese city, as well as the underlying factors, that may explain any identified discrepancies. A mixed-methods design was employed, involving a stakeholder questionnaire conducted in 10 schools (n = 364) followed by, interviews (n = 13). The findings demonstrated that differences do exist between, schools in teachers’ priorities for school inspection indicators and in particular there, were statistically significant differences between one urban low-performing school and all other schools. The interview evidence from the urban low-performing school was, contrasted with perspectives from local policy makers and teachers in other schools., Overall, the findings demonstrate that inspection processes and school improvement, could be better promoted by more involvement of teachers and local stakeholders’, voices, acknowledging local contexts and strengthening teaching and learning, processes, particularly for disadvantaged schools.