The “High Inspection” in education: An unknown service of the Spanish educational system

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.3695

Keywords:

Inspection, Inspector, supervision, education system

Abstract

Inspection in schools is carried out by the educational inspection service dependent on the autonomous communities, which have full powers in terms of control, supervision, advice and evaluation. However, the different laws of education that have governed our educational system, include the existence of a “High Inspection” in education, a service dependent on the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and whose competences are explicit in our current educational law. In this article we synthesized an exploratory study on the current situation of the high inspection in Spain through interviews with key informants, whose purpose is to know the access procedure to perform the functions entrusted to the high inspection, their real skills and their coordination with the autonomous educational inspection. The results show that the control competences of this service are reduced, in addition to checking that its functions are limited to inform the Ministry about elements of the autonomic regulations that may contravene the basic regulations, the decision making about the homologation and issuance of titles, in addition to other state competences not transferred. We conclude that the high inspection is a service that develops many functions related to information or verification, which currently, with some exceptions, are not exercising those personal inspector positions and that is an unknown service for many, besides having a name that generates confusion.

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Author Biographies

Carmen Álvarez-Álvarez, Universidad de Cantabria

Doctora en Pedagogía (Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado) por la Universidad de Oviedo, licenciada en Pedagogía y graduada en Magisterio en Educación Primaria. Profesora contratado doctor interino del Departamento de Educación de la Universidad de Cantabria en el área de Didáctica y Organización Escolar. Su línea de investigación principal es la organización escolar en Educación Primaria y Secundaria. 

Marcos Francisco Rodríguez-Bravo, Inspección Educativa de Canarias

Doctor por la ULPGC, Licenciado en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte por la ULPGC, Maestro especialista en Educación Física por la ULL, Funcionario de Carrera del Cuerpo de Profesores de Enseñanza Secundaria del Gobierno de Canarias e Inspector de Educación del Gobierno de Canarias. Su línea de investigación principal es la organización y funcionamiento del servicio de Inspección Educativa.

Alexandre Camacho-Prats, Govern de les Illes Balears

Doctor en Pedagogía (Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado) por la Universidad de Barcelona, Máster Universitario en Dirección y Gestión de Centros Educativos por la Universidad de Deusto, licenciado en Pedagogía por la UNED y maestro por la UIB. Funcionario de carrera del Cuerpo de Maestros y profesor asociado en la UCJC. Su línea de investigación principal es la inspección y la supervisión educativas.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7718-8617

Published

2019-07-15

How to Cite

Álvarez-Álvarez, C., Rodríguez-Bravo, M. F., & Camacho-Prats, A. (2019). The “High Inspection” in education: An unknown service of the Spanish educational system. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27, 82. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.3695

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