- Title
- Constraints and enablements on quality improvement in higher education
- Creator
- Browning, Leanne Elizabeth
- ThesisAdvisor
- McKenna, Sioux
- Subject
- Education, Higher Aims and objectives South Africa
- Subject
- Education, Higher Evaluation
- Subject
- Quality assurance South Africa
- Subject
- Educational evaluation South Africa
- Subject
- Self-evaluation
- Subject
- Critical realism
- Date
- 2021-10-29
- Type
- Academic theses
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294956
- Identifier
- vital:57273
- Identifier
- DOI 10.21504/10962/294956
- Description
- This study contributes to the literature on quality improvement in higher education by examining the structural, cultural and agential constraints and enablements on a quality process at a university in South Africa. It examined four cases and developed an understanding of the complex interaction of structure, culture and agency and the mechanisms that enable or constrain quality improvement in higher education. The study drew on the literature on higher education quality for the theoretical basis for what is known contributes to the way in which quality assurance and improvement is implemented and its impact on the higher education context. Critical Realism provided the ontological framework and conceptual tools to understand and explore the complex social world within which the quality process took place. The literature on the morphogenetic approach provided the analytical framework for the data analysis and findings. The data consisted of a set of documents from a quality process that took place over a five-year period. The data analysis revealed that different departmental contexts impact on how mechanisms are activated. Each school context shapes the way in which people engage with the review process and consequently, processes and procedures are mediated in each context. This research therefore adds to the understanding of the way in which quality processes take place at a micro-level within an institutional context and informs the approach to quality improvement more broadly, nationally and internationally. The research contributes to the knowledge that will inform planning, policies and practices in quality improvement processes in higher education and the findings identify a number of factors (mechanisms) that should inform the way in which a quality process is facilitated, will enable effective self-evaluation and review processes, and consequently are more likely to lead to quality improvement.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, 2021
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (236 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Browning, Leanne Elizabeth
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | BROWNING-PHD-TR21-348.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |