ABSTRACT
Classroom observation has emerged as a pivotal tool for measuring, assuring and improving the professional skills and knowledge base of teachers in colleges and schools in recent years. Understanding why and how observation emerged as a key instrument requires an insight into the socio-political and historical contexts in which this occurred. As James and Biesta (2007: 11) remark:
Teaching and learning cannot be decontextualized from broader social, economic and political forces, both current and historic, and that addressing this complexity directly is the most likely route to acquiring an understanding that will be most useful to policy and practice.
