Creeping anglicisation: school inspection in Scotland and Ireland

This article makes a comparative textual analysis of current school inspection frameworks in Scotland, Ireland and England, drawing out the commonalities between these. The article demonstrates how these commonalities can be traced to a significant shared influence: the school inspection system in England. As such, the work shows a shared trajectory in Scottish and Irish education: towards an English inspection model. At the same time, the paper demonstrates how this direction of travel is disguised under the cloak of “appropriative legitimation” (Courtney and Mann 2021, 401), whereby this is presented not as radical anglicisation, but instead as within the best traditions of Scottish and Irish education.