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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
History of Education, Pages: 1 - 21
Swansea University Author: Russell Grigg
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© 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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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...
| Published in: | History of Education |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0046-760X 1464-5130 |
| Published: |
Informa UK Limited
2025
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69803 |
| first_indexed |
2025-06-24T08:31:38Z |
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| last_indexed |
2025-08-01T14:33:09Z |
| id |
cronfa69803 |
| recordtype |
SURis |
| fullrecord |
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2025-07-31T12:53:36.4656596 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 0 1 21 Informa UK Limited 0046-760X 1464-5130 School inspections; teachers; Ofsted; well-being; emotions 30 7 2025 2025-07-30 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 2025-07-31T12:53:36.4656596 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 |
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9701d32adc7c12ae98010199dd338146 |
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9701d32adc7c12ae98010199dd338146_***_Russell Grigg |
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Russell Grigg |
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History of Education |
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2025 |
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Swansea University |
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0046-760X 1464-5130 |
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10.1080/0046760x.2025.2525124 |
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Informa UK Limited |
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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 |
2025-07-30T14:16:51Z |
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1851040529531273216 |
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11.089677 |

