ABSTRACT
The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspection process is intended to form part of the new pattern of ‘checks and balances’ that have characterized the education service in the United Kingdom in recent years. OFSTED is no ‘toothless tiger’, and its powers of inspection have led it to penetrate some of the hidden areas of the school sector and, more recently, those of local education authorities and higher education establishments. Nowhere is this scrutiny more evident, however, than within the context of the classroom, where the traditional autonomy of the teacher has been challenged by the publicized judgements of OFSTED inspectors. All areas of the teacher’s domain and spheres of responsibility are exposed as the inspection process makes its impact upon the school.
