{"title":"No time for improvement? The chronopolitics of quality assurance","authors":"Oliver Vettori","doi":"10.1080/13538322.2023.2189454","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Time is an omnipresent key dimension in everyone’s life, yet academic time has only recently found scholarly attention. The temporal aspects of quality assurance, in particular, are basically unchartered territory. Taking a chronopolitical perspective, this article aims to close the gap, by critically examining how temporalities are firmly embedded in many quality assurance schemes and routines. Using various examples from internal and external quality assurance, the author demonstrates and discusses how such mechanisms are not only binding time but regulating and governing it, imposing temporal norms regarding tempo, rhythm, time-spans, time-scales and time ownership on higher education institutions and the people working and learning there. Concludingly, the article advocates a more reflective approach towards the notion of time in quality assurance, as latent temporalities appear to be far more consequential for the effectiveness of quality assurance than methodological micro-differences.","PeriodicalId":46354,"journal":{"name":"Quality in Higher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Quality in Higher Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2023.2189454","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Time is an omnipresent key dimension in everyone’s life, yet academic time has only recently found scholarly attention. The temporal aspects of quality assurance, in particular, are basically unchartered territory. Taking a chronopolitical perspective, this article aims to close the gap, by critically examining how temporalities are firmly embedded in many quality assurance schemes and routines. Using various examples from internal and external quality assurance, the author demonstrates and discusses how such mechanisms are not only binding time but regulating and governing it, imposing temporal norms regarding tempo, rhythm, time-spans, time-scales and time ownership on higher education institutions and the people working and learning there. Concludingly, the article advocates a more reflective approach towards the notion of time in quality assurance, as latent temporalities appear to be far more consequential for the effectiveness of quality assurance than methodological micro-differences.
期刊介绍:
Quality in Higher Education is aimed at those interested in the theory, practice and policies relating to the control, management and improvement of quality in higher education. The journal is receptive to critical, phenomenological as well as positivistic studies. The journal would like to publish more studies that use hermeneutic, semiotic, ethnographic or dialectical research as well as the more traditional studies based on quantitative surveys and in-depth interviews and focus groups. Papers that have empirical research content are particularly welcome. The editor especially wishes to encourage papers on: reported research results, especially where these assess the impact of quality assurance systems, procedures and methodologies; theoretical analyses of quality and quality initiatives in higher education; comparative evaluation and international aspects of practice and policy with a view to identifying transportable methods, systems and good practice; quality assurance and standards monitoring of transnational higher education; the nature and impact and student feedback; improvements in learning and teaching that impact on quality and standards; links between quality assurance and employability; evaluations of the impact of quality procedures at national level, backed up by research evidence.