Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Whilst a significant body of research exists related to quality assurance in UK\nhigher education (HE), few questions appear to have been raised about the\ncommonplace practice of validation or approval of degree courses. Overall,\ncurrent research tends to focus on complications arising from the procedural\neffects of the process, rather than exploring ways that staff dealt with the\ndemands of these systems. This study examined staff experiences of course\napproval within Allied Health Profession degree courses in a UK university. The\nresearch focused on how governance structures surrounding the regulation of\nhealth professionals and universities shaped the practice(s) of approval, alongside\nways in which this experience affected staff.\nInfluenced by the work of theorists in critical and social theory traditions, this indepth\nstudy adopted narrative inquiry. Purposive sampling was used to locate\ntwelve participants and included academics, manager-academics, staff who\nworked in professional bodies and within teams supporting quality in HE. In order\nto examine the issues related to the approval process, data was collected through\ninterview conversations, participants’ drawings and prose, along with documentary\nanalysis.\nThis research revealed the narrative of approval as complex and akin to a journey\ninvolving a series of challenges, contradictions and multiplicity of stakeholders.\nInterpretation of the data illustrated that those participating were both\nconstituted by, and contributed to the nature of approval. In other words, rather\nthan being docile recipients’ of policy, it was apparent that staff appeared to take\nvarious approaches to thinking, acting and relating. A sense of adopting a position\n(termed here as positional identities) emerged and influenced not only\nparticipants’ journey through the approval process, but also that of others, as well\nas the shape and nature of courses being approved. Four positional identities were\nidentified, namely: the Governance Trustee, Professional Guardian, Enabling\nStrategist and Boundary Broker. Each of these positions was subsequently explored\nthrough an exploratory conceptual map of positional identity. The emergent map\nstimulated the re-assessment of current conditions. Consequently, future\npossibilities in which approval scenarios may evolve are presented.\nConsidering how policy changes within HE have promoted increasingly performative\npractices, and the ways in which participants in approval events have presented\nthem ‘selves’, it is likely that the positional identities adopted by staff here may\nhave resonance for academics across the sector, and that this study will inform wider debates about policy and validation of courses within HE in general.
Author: Rebecca E. Khanna
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1038292711