Mr Sandro Spiteri, Senior Executive at the Quality Assurance Unit, University of Malta, recently presented a paper at the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) held this year in Glasgow, Scotland. The title of the paper was: 'From inspection of schools to quality assurance in schools? External quality assurance for school improvement in a post-colonial micro-state: Malta'.
During the conference this paper received the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change Best Paper Award, intended for doctoral students or early career researchers whose original paper is deemed to have made a significant contribution to their field. Mr Spiteri was also invited to become an Associate of the Robert Owen Centre.
The Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, which is part of Glasgow University, aims to promote more equitable education systems through theory-driven, applied research underpinned by a commitment to the principles of social justice and lifelong learning.
The paper discussed the development of the Panoptical Inspection Paradigm in 19th century colonial Malta, and how it remained active even after Independence in 1964 due to the coloniality of inspectorial power. It then discussed the rise of a new paradigm that since the 1970s has challenged and gradually overtaken the old one: the Quality Assurance Paradigm. This is significant because Malta did not go down the route of the marketisation of education as in England, the erstwhile colonial power,that affected also the inspection regime. The paper argued that this was due to Malta’s particular characteristics as a post-colonial micro-state.