Power bases and power tensions: a critical analysis of education inspection policies and practices in China

Meng Tian

doi:10.1080/15700763.2020.1833940

Power bases and power tensions: a critical analysis of education inspection policies and practices in China

Meng Tian

Teacher Education

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Abstract

This paper explores power bases and power tensions among education bureaux, inspection offices, and schools in China. The six bases of social power were applied as the analytical framework to scrutinize 13 policy documents and eight interviews with inspectors. The study uncovered three types of power tensions: education bureau’s informational power versus inspection office’s legitimate power, inspectors’ expert power versus referent power, and school’s expert power versus inspection office and education bureau’s legitimate power. China is developing a high-stakes accountability-based inspection system. Inspectors and schools are pressured to deliver prescribed educational goals. Education bureaux remains powerful in the power structure.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6-20
Number of pages	15
Journal	Leadership and Policy in Schools
Volume	20
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2020.1833940
Publication status	Published - 8 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

Education inspection
ideology
power
China
critical policy analysis
expert interviews

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Strategy and Management

Access to Document

10.1080/15700763.2020.1833940

TianM2021Power
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Leadership and Policy in Schools. Meng Tian (2021) Power Bases and Power Tensions: A Critical Analysis of Education Inspection Policies and Practices in China, Leadership and Policy in Schools, 20:1, 6-20, DOI: 10.1080/15700763.2020.1833940. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Accepted author manuscript, 665 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

Cite this

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Power bases and power tensions: a critical analysis of education inspection policies and practices in China

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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