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“A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024

Russell Grigg

History of Education, Volume: 54, Issue: 6, Pages: 620 - 640

Swansea University Author: Russell Grigg

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/0046760x.2025.2525124

Abstract

This article addresses the lack of historical perspectives in recent discussions about the impact of school inspections on teachers’ well-being. Viewed through the lens of emotional history, it explores the significance of school inspectors’ styles and personalities in shaping teachers’ emotional ex...

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Published in: History of Education
ISSN: 0046-760X 1464-5130
Published: Informa UK Limited 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69803
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spelling 2026-01-22T12:53:12.0832240 v2 69803 2025-06-24 “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024 9701d32adc7c12ae98010199dd338146 Russell Grigg Russell Grigg true false 2025-06-24 SOSS This article addresses the lack of historical perspectives in recent discussions about the impact of school inspections on teachers’ well-being. Viewed through the lens of emotional history, it explores the significance of school inspectors’ styles and personalities in shaping teachers’ emotional experiences of inspection. Based on wide-ranging sources, the findings show that teachers have experienced inspection-related anxiety and fear over a very long period. But they have also enjoyed moments of mutual respect, pride and satisfaction. The paper illustrates how inspectors’ roles, styles and personalities interacted and were key to either promoting or undermining teachers’ emotional well-being. It also highlights insights from the past to inform current debates about school inspections. The research breaks new ground in offering a long-term perspective and has relevance to those interested in the intersection of inspection practices, teacher well-being, and educational accountability. Journal Article History of Education 54 6 620 640 Informa UK Limited 0046-760X 1464-5130 School inspections; teachers; Ofsted; well-being; emotions 1 11 2025 2025-11-01 10.1080/0046760x.2025.2525124 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2026-01-22T12:53:12.0832240 2025-06-24T09:29:04.5108156 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies Russell Grigg 1 69803__34889__98c8c43742864b03b0865791b51a5243.pdf 69803.VoR.pdf 2025-07-31T12:51:54.4358438 Output 1088938 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
spellingShingle “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
Russell Grigg
title_short “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
title_full “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
title_fullStr “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
title_full_unstemmed “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
title_sort “A Fever of Anxiety and Fear”? Historical Perspectives on School Inspections and Teachers’ Well-Being in England and Wales: 1839–2024
author_id_str_mv 9701d32adc7c12ae98010199dd338146
author_id_fullname_str_mv 9701d32adc7c12ae98010199dd338146_***_Russell Grigg
author Russell Grigg
author2 Russell Grigg
format Journal article
container_title History of Education
container_volume 54
container_issue 6
container_start_page 620
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0046-760X
1464-5130
doi_str_mv 10.1080/0046760x.2025.2525124
publisher Informa UK Limited
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies
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description This article addresses the lack of historical perspectives in recent discussions about the impact of school inspections on teachers’ well-being. Viewed through the lens of emotional history, it explores the significance of school inspectors’ styles and personalities in shaping teachers’ emotional experiences of inspection. Based on wide-ranging sources, the findings show that teachers have experienced inspection-related anxiety and fear over a very long period. But they have also enjoyed moments of mutual respect, pride and satisfaction. The paper illustrates how inspectors’ roles, styles and personalities interacted and were key to either promoting or undermining teachers’ emotional well-being. It also highlights insights from the past to inform current debates about school inspections. The research breaks new ground in offering a long-term perspective and has relevance to those interested in the intersection of inspection practices, teacher well-being, and educational accountability.
published_date 2025-11-01T05:29:36Z
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score 11.095862

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