GOOD SCHOOL BAD SCHOOL - PARADOX AND FABRICATION

This paper, drawn from an ESRC-funded research project, deploys data f rom one secondary school to raise some general issues about the develo pment of disciplinary technologies of surveillance and uses of perform ativity in education. It is argued that the use of Total Quality Manag ement, School Development Planning and Ofsted (The Office for Standard s in Education) Inspections, individually and collectively produce an intensification of teachers' work, submit teachers more directly to th e 'gaze' of policy, and encourage schools and teachers to 'fabricate' themselves for the purposes of evaluation and comparison. The paper is premised on the argument that schools cannot be represented adequatel y within research (or evaluation) by simple stories or single essentia lising tags; 'good/bad', 'successful/failing'-they are inherently para doxical institutions.