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Institutional work of quality in higher education : a study of cross-border joint programmes

(2020)
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(UGent)
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Abstract
The dissertation explores the dynamics of quality-related developments in transnational higher education. The aim is to develop an enhanced understanding of the relational and situated nature of higher education (HE) quality and its practices by examining how quality in cross-border collaborative arrangements, such as joint programmes (JPs), is constructed, enacted, and with what institutional outcomes. Through the focus on praxis (Jun, 1998), i.e. critical, conscious and socially purposive actions of individual and collective actors, I illuminate the role of agency in advancing and/or maintaining a particular approach to dealing with the issue of quality in HE. A theoretical framework for this study is drawn from the current strand of scholarship in Institutional Work (IW) (Lawrence et al., 2008, 2011). The IW perspective builds on the tenets of institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Scott, 2008b) and the sociology of practice (Bourdieu 1977; 1993; de Certeau 1994; Giddens 1984; Lave and Wenger 1991). Specifically, it shifts the attention from structures and the view of linear institutional change and maintenance, primarily driven by field-level institutional pressures to the recursive relationship of agency and institutions, and, in particular to the actors’ agency, their daily interactions and actions. Joint programme developments, the emergence of its quality discourse and practice are analyzed through the lenses of narrative discourse of inquiry into social experience. A multi-level (Jepperson and Meyer, 2011) study is carried out based on a combination of research methods and data sources. Synthesis of available literature and document analysis have been undertaken to trace major developments of JPs and their quality at a macro level. To study organizational and daily work setting, a single, real-time, qualitative case with embedded units (Stake, 1995) spread across five institutions in multiple countries has been conducted. Twenty- one semi-structured interviews with selected JP staff members were complemented with observational field notes and (inter)organizational documentary data about the JP and its quality-related activities. Combining the analysis of data drawn from multiple levels (Jepperson and Meyer, 2011) enabled the study of idiosyncratic professional activities embedded in the environment of institutional complexity. Attention has been paid to the interplay among actors’ intentions regarding JPs and their quality-driven activities, actions taken and expected outcomes. This research offers an empirical account on how IW is accomplished in transnational HE. JPs and their quality practice in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are found to be a multi-actor, multi-layered, and multi-purpose phenomenon. Due to the multi-layered nature of the phenomenon, the praxis of JP quality is relational. It is an interaction of processes, events and activities taking place in policy (macro level), among and within HE institutions (meso level), and through daily work (micro level). The findings of this study indicate that activities taking place at those levels reinforce each other in the IW of co-creating and maintaining the institutionalized practice of JPs and their quality. The study finds that JPs and their quality practice is constructed by key higher education stakeholders and their intermediary organizations and enacted via inter-organizational arrangements of JP provider institutions and their everyday work. The IW involves a combination of policy work, establishment of networks and associations as well as development of normative frameworks which to a large extent are grounded in organizational ‘best practices’. Quality of JPs is conceptualized as ‘high’, having added value, whereas JP quality practice is tied to the concept of fitness-for-purpose and features a holistic and continuous process of quality assurance that includes assessment, evaluation and enhancement-driven activities. This dominant approach to quality promoted at a macro level is adopted in (inter)organizational and everyday work situations with some variations and specificities. The following key strategies were found to aid organizational adaptation of JP practice: ‘embracing differences’, ‘learning and support from peers’, and ‘developing a shared understanding’. The contributions of this study are the following. First, the study provides a thorough review of JP developments in the EHEA. Second, a ‘new’ lens of IW is applied to the ‘old’ issue of quality in HE in order to contribute to the ongoing debate of quality and its outcomes on teaching and learning in HE. Third, it contributes to the current scholarly debate on the role of agency in IW through the focus on praxis, situated organizing, and the constitutive nature of praxis and institutional logics. Fourth, a case study with units crossing national and organizational boundaries provided an opportunity to study the inter-organizational collaborative setting, which has not been a common research avenue in IW studies.
Keywords
Institutional work, higher education, quality, joint programmes

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Citation

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MLA
Zenkienė, Lina. Institutional Work of Quality in Higher Education : A Study of Cross-Border Joint Programmes. Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen, 2020.
APA
Zenkienė, L. (2020). Institutional work of quality in higher education : a study of cross-border joint programmes. Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen, Vilnius.
Chicago author-date
Zenkienė, Lina. 2020. “Institutional Work of Quality in Higher Education : A Study of Cross-Border Joint Programmes.” Vilnius: Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Zenkienė, Lina. 2020. “Institutional Work of Quality in Higher Education : A Study of Cross-Border Joint Programmes.” Vilnius: Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen.
Vancouver
1.
Zenkienė L. Institutional work of quality in higher education : a study of cross-border joint programmes. [Vilnius]: Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen; 2020.
IEEE
[1]
L. Zenkienė, “Institutional work of quality in higher education : a study of cross-border joint programmes,” Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen, Vilnius, 2020.
@phdthesis{8673328,
  abstract     = {{The dissertation explores the dynamics of quality-related developments in transnational higher education. The aim is to develop an enhanced understanding of the relational and situated nature of higher education (HE) quality and its practices by examining how quality in cross-border collaborative arrangements, such as joint programmes (JPs), is constructed, enacted, and with what institutional outcomes. Through the focus on praxis (Jun, 1998), i.e. critical, conscious and socially purposive actions of individual and collective actors, I illuminate the role of agency in advancing and/or maintaining a particular approach to dealing with the issue of quality in HE.
A theoretical framework for this study is drawn from the current strand of scholarship in Institutional Work (IW) (Lawrence et al., 2008, 2011). The IW perspective builds on the tenets of institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Scott, 2008b) and the sociology of practice (Bourdieu 1977; 1993; de Certeau 1994; Giddens 1984; Lave and Wenger 1991). Specifically, it shifts the attention from structures and the view of linear institutional change and maintenance, primarily driven by field-level institutional pressures to the recursive relationship of agency and institutions, and, in particular to the actors’ agency, their daily interactions and actions.
Joint programme developments, the emergence of its quality discourse and practice are analyzed through the lenses of narrative discourse of inquiry into social experience. A multi-level (Jepperson and Meyer, 2011) study is carried out based on a combination of research methods and data sources. Synthesis of available literature and document analysis have been undertaken to trace major developments of JPs and their quality at a macro level. To study organizational and daily work setting, a single, real-time, qualitative case with embedded units (Stake, 1995) spread across five institutions in multiple countries has been conducted. Twenty- one semi-structured interviews with selected JP staff members were complemented with observational field notes and (inter)organizational documentary data about the JP and its quality-related activities. Combining the analysis of data drawn from multiple levels (Jepperson and Meyer, 2011) enabled the study of idiosyncratic professional activities embedded in the environment of institutional complexity. Attention has been paid to the interplay among actors’ intentions regarding JPs and their quality-driven activities, actions taken and expected outcomes.
This research offers an empirical account on how IW is accomplished in transnational HE. JPs and their quality practice in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are found to be a multi-actor, multi-layered, and multi-purpose phenomenon. Due to the multi-layered nature of the phenomenon, the praxis of JP quality is relational. It is an interaction of processes, events and activities taking place in policy (macro level), among and within HE institutions (meso level), and through daily work (micro level). The findings of this study indicate that activities taking place at those levels reinforce each other in the IW of co-creating and maintaining the institutionalized practice of JPs and their quality. The study finds that JPs and their quality practice is constructed by key higher education stakeholders and their intermediary organizations and enacted via inter-organizational arrangements of JP provider institutions and their everyday work. The IW involves a combination of policy work, establishment of networks and associations as well as development of normative frameworks which to a large extent are grounded in organizational ‘best practices’. Quality of JPs is conceptualized as ‘high’, having added value, whereas JP quality practice is tied to the concept of fitness-for-purpose and features a holistic and continuous process of quality assurance that includes assessment, evaluation and enhancement-driven activities. This dominant approach to quality promoted at a macro level is adopted in (inter)organizational and everyday work situations with some variations and specificities. The following key strategies were found to aid organizational adaptation of JP practice: ‘embracing differences’, ‘learning and support from peers’, and ‘developing a shared understanding’.
The contributions of this study are the following. First, the study provides a thorough review of JP developments in the EHEA. Second, a ‘new’ lens of IW is applied to the ‘old’ issue of quality in HE in order to contribute to the ongoing debate of quality and its outcomes on teaching and learning in HE. Third, it contributes to the current scholarly debate on the role of agency in IW through the focus on praxis, situated organizing, and the constitutive nature of praxis and institutional logics. Fourth, a case study with units crossing national and organizational boundaries provided an opportunity to study the inter-organizational collaborative setting, which has not been a common research avenue in IW studies.}},
  author       = {{Zenkienė, Lina}},
  keywords     = {{Institutional work,higher education,quality,joint programmes}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{xvi, 218}},
  publisher    = {{Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Institutional work of quality in higher education : a study of cross-border joint programmes}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}