The Inspection Visit, its Badly Hurt Function

Abstract

This paper stems from a qualitative and hermeneutic investigation implemented in the Balearic Islands (Spain) for three courses, which includes an empirical study concerning the functions and tasks of supervisors. To do this, a case study was applied with deep interviews to inspectors as well as focus groups with school principals were implemented to contrast what inspectors said. The results of the study indicate that inspectors do not perform pedagogical action in the classroom as they are expected, evaluating and advising teachers and principals. Consequently, the inspection visit, understood as the star attribution of these officials, is lacklustre and reduced to a minimum. The study concludes that it urges a review of inspectors’ functions and tasks so that both are aligned in a more evaluator and advisor task, for which a necessary revision of the importance of classroom visitation stands so that it can contribute to improving educational quality.