ABSTRACT
After framing the issues with an overview of comparative international models of accountability in teacher education (in the US and Australia (e.g. Cochran-Smith et al. 2016, Darling-Hammond and Hyler 2013 and Marshall et al. 2012), this chapter assesses Ofsted in its role as a regulator of quality in educational standards. The absence of an overall national regulator in other countries has a consequence of instituting ‘fear’ as a technology of compliance in the English context. The chapter focuses specifically on one particular inspection of initial teacher education (ITE) courses run by a HE/FE partnership in the West Midlands of England but the conclusions it draws are applicable more widely to the role of Ofsted as a market regulator as it currently operates in the HE and FE sectors (and the education sector as a whole) in England. The inspection took place in March 2013 and this chapter draws on the experiences of HE and FE teacher educators from the partnership to provide a basis for discussion. It will illustrate how the English model of accountability has moved way beyond both US and Australian models. Drawing on the work of Paul Virilio and Francesc Torralba the chapter explores the role fear plays in inspection, positioning it as a key ingredient in the institutional habitus that is introduced and affirmed by Ofsted.
