The quality assurance of teaching and learning in higher education in South Africa : an analysis of national policy development and stakeholder response

[摘要] The context of this study is the introduction of a new national quality assurancesystem for South African higher education by an agency of the Department ofEducation. The purpose of the study is to conduct a critical policy analysis of theCouncil of Higher Education's Higher Education Quality Committee's policyformulation process. In doing so, the study seeks to understand how the quality ofteaching and learning practice might be enhanced through quality assurance.In order to answer this question the study examines the literature on quality assurancein higher education and proposes a simple conceptual framework for mappingdifferent approaches to quality assurance. The framework is based on a normativejudgment that communicative action is more likely to result in the improvement ofteaching and learning practice than instrumental action.Approaches to policy analysis and evaluation research are explored and it is arguedthat policymaking is a complex multi-faceted process requiring a pluralist researchdesign. This is attempted in the study where a range of research methods areemployed from within a critical social science paradigm.The study analyses data gathered at each of the policy stages: setting the policyagenda, policy formulation, policy adoption and policy reformulation, but stops shortof researching policy implementation in any depth. The study is therefore classified asa formative, clarificatory evaluation. It seeks to evaluate the conceptualization anddesign of instruments for quality assurance, stakeholder contribution to policydevelopment and stakeholder response to policy proposals. In particular the studyseeks to uncover the different values, discourses and ideologies that stakeholderssubscribe to in the policymaking process. The findings of the study show that the HEQC did attempt to work communicativelyand consultatively with the higher education community and that it was, in part, dueto its consultative efforts, that the final policy instruments were greatly improved. Butthe study also shows that the consultative process was only partially successful, withserious differences still existing between the HEQC and some stakeholder groups.Different stakeholder approaches to quality assurance are traced to deeper historical,cultural and ideological differences. The study suggests that these factors are likely tohinder the smooth implementation of the HEQC's policies.The findings of the study also suggest that the challenge of designing a model ofquality assurance that caters adequately for both the improvement and accountabilitypurposes of quality assurance was not entirely met in this policymaking process.Furthermore, the study suggests that because the HEQC's policies were, from theoutset, conceived of as a means of furthering the state's transformation agenda, itsidea of quality and its quality assurance procedures are beginning to workideologically. This has the effect of politicizing the implementation process andundermining the HEQC's efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learningpractice in South African higher education.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University