Unresolved Tensions in United Kingdom Policy and Practice Informed by Different Ideological Approaches Leading to an Imbalance in Assessment as it Affects, Teaching and Pupils’ Learning through Inspection and Standardized Testing

This chapter explores the relationship between inspection and assessment research through the eyes of a person with experience of these practices [1]. It is a description of one person's attempt to comprehend the directive nature of educational change since 1988 and its impact on teaching pedagogy and students' learning. By locating a place within that process, the author tries to influence those factors that are changeable and minimize those that are not [2]. The theoretical values underpinning government ministers’ approach to assessment are identified as systems rationalist [3]. This theory, the author contends, underpins inspection practice and a testing culture in the United Kingdom leading to tensions with those in education who choose a different approach i.e., subjective interpretivist [4]. Examples are drawn from the writer’s experience of combining roles as a teacher-researcher [5] and an OFSTED inspector and independent researcher.