The idea of quality in higher education

A Conceptual Approach

Bibliographic Data

ID2935453
AuthorsOurania Filippakou (University of Nottingham, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume32
Issue1
Pages15-28
Publication date2011-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01596306.2011.537068
OpenAlexW2064678472
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited18

The paper suggests that the idea of quality in higher education is ideologically constructed and conducted. In a spiral of mutual reinforcements, quality regimes naturalise experience, while the theories of that practice legitimise the naturalness of ‘quality’. I shall suggest that quality regimes provide too narrow readings of higher education. The central concepts, which I propose to use – discourse and power – emphasise the connectedness of ideology and quality in higher education. In particular, I suggest that the ideological character of the idea of quality in higher education is evident in discourses – which themselves are interlinked in networks. These discourses and networks are backed up by power and this helps to sustain their ideological character. Thus, this paper attempts two things: to outline a conceptual framework concerning the ideological character of the idea of quality in higher education and to draw attention to the organisation of that ideological formation

Epistemology · Ideology · Naturalness · Political science · Politics · Social connectedness · Social science · Sociology · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education Governance and Development · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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