Abstract:

The concept of audit culture has emerged as a result of neoliberal policies in various sectors, including medicine, education, and science, describing the quality of work and monitoring its implementation. In education, this is reflected in the formulation of various standards, the establishment of internal and external structures that control the fulfillment of the requirements in the form of audits and inspections. It is an increase in bureaucracy that reduces the professional independence of teachers and schools, and it is often not linked to the improvement of learning, an increase in quality that control was initially thought to focus on.

Data describing audit-influenced practices in schools are compiled in an ecological model, describing the interaction of inspections with school practices at the individual, classroom, and school levels, influencing the shift of focus from students and their teaching, to documents that provide information for testing, or against complaints. The data were obtained 10 years ago, 2 years ago and now, thus allowing us to see the impact of Covid-19 on the somewhat common audit culture implemented so far.

The controls implemented, the unannounced inspections, the responsibilities of school leaders and teachers during Covid - 19 affect the understanding of who is a professional leader, a professional teacher, creating new identities. The issues that come into the lives of teachers and school leaders (taking Covid tests, monitoring epidemiological rules, etc.) take time to think about working with students, so we need to keep an eye on how these new identities affect teaching and learning at school.

Keywords:

Audit culture, school, practices, identities.