Implementing Internal Quality Assurance Systems in the In-Service Teacher Education Programmes in Zimbabwean Universities

The Quality Discourse

Bibliographic Data

ID22257119
AuthorsAlbert Mufanechiya (0000-0001-9628-3356, University of the Free State, corresponding author), Bekithemba Dube (0000-0002-6780-5669, University of the Free State)
Year2023
Pages862-878
Publication date2023-07-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueE-Journal of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2720-7722 • E-ISSN: 2720-7722
PublisherNoyam Publishers (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.38159/ehass.2023477
OpenAlexW4385417588
LanguageEN
References cited29

The emerging discourses in the Zimbabwean teacher education system have been on the capacity of in–service teachers to be transformative through their preparation at university. The call, then, has been on universities to improve their quality assurance and its effective implementation for quality programmes and learning outcomes. There have been growing indications and expectations that university in–service teacher graduates should lead in transforming the educational and economic systems of nations presenting a strong explanation for effective quality assurance structures in universities. In this article, the researchers contended that without robust quality assurance systems at Zimbabwean universities’ teacher education programmes, the nation may not achieve the desired educational vision. The paper reports, analyses practices and lessons learnt on the implementation of internal quality assurance systems on in-service teacher education programmes at one state university in Zimbabwe. Underpinned by the sociocultural theory, the qualitative case study used semi–structured interviews and open–ended questionnaires. One quality assurance directorate, four departmental quality assurance lecturers drawn from each of the four School of Education departments and twelve final years in-service students were purposefully sampled. The results indicated that the university had weak internal quality assurance management structures failing to continuously monitor and evaluate in-service programmes and their implementation. The study recommended that the institution reconstitutes the quality assurance body by bringing together all stakeholders including in-service students to a dialogue table to discuss how quality assurance standards and practices can be designed, implemented and evaluated. Keywords: Implementation, internal quality assurance, university, teacher education, in-service

Business · Higher education · Medical education · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Quality assurance · Quality management · Sociology · Education and Communication Studies · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Medicine · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies · Marketing