This
article examines the reforms of basic education inspection in China since 1977,
which is accomplished by drawing from a historical institutionalism approach. The
empirical analysis is based on policy documents and laws and is supplemented with interview
materials. Throughout
this work, we have identified three distinct periods: the restoration stage
from 1977 until the 1990s, the formalization stage from the 1990s until 2007,
and the transition stage from 2007 onwards. The changes of education inspections
indicate there is a perceptible path dependency, especially in the change from
the first stage to the second one, where the expansion of education inspections
was to consolidate the selected path by enhancing its jurisdictive power and
promoting its disposition in the educational system. Reforming these inspections
to some extent proves the historical stance of “positive feedback” as coined by
Pierson (2004) for the growing stage of an organization, but in fact, the
expansion of the system appears also to be significantly more problematic or
complex than a linear development that is based on positive feedback. From the
transition stage, interaction with global players is increasing, with
implications for the development of the school inspection system. The finding
shows that by 2015, the collaboration with global players influenced the
development of Jiance system - a
large scale assessment of students’ academic achievement at grade four and
eight – which the inspection sector managed to incorporate into itself. The
article argues that this decision to extend the spectrum of education
inspection to assessment practices reflects the aspiration of the inspection
authorities to reinforce the capacities to survive and thrive in the changing local
and global environments of educational quality assurance and evaluation.