A dialogue about the quality of education
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Pages | 101-109 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889710165161 |
| Author | Tove Nagel,Tone Kvernbekk |
| Subject Matter | Education |
A
There is a longstanding debate about quality
in education; one frequently encounters
expressions like “quality assurance”, “quality
assessment”, “quality control”, and so on.
The notion of quality is linked to such notions
as worthwhileness, standards, excellence and
accountability, so it isn’t always easy to see
what this debate is about.
B
Right! It isn’t always easy to identify the
phenomena to which the term “quality”
supposedly pertains, either. Is it the school?
The educational system? The teaching? The
performance of students on various tests?
A
But is there a general theory of quality? Or are
there many definitions? Traditionally quality
in education has been defined in terms of
standards of excellence. It is associated not
only with properties thought to be valuable,
but also with pre-eminence in these properties
(Peters, 1969). This sense of “quality” surely
pertains to student performances and
achievements.
B
There are other approaches as well. For
instance, there is a consumer-based approach,
where the quality of something is judged
according to whether it meets the needs and
wants of the consumer. There is also a value-
based approach, where quality is judged in
terms of “value for money”. Christopher
Winch (1996) argues that in education there
has been a shift to consumer-based approaches.
A
That doesn’t make things clearer. Who are the
consumers?
B
I think it must be fair to say that there are
many groups of actors expressing contrasting
claims about quality in education. Many
social groups and society at large have vested
interests in education.
A
I have no trouble with that. I just want us to be
more specific about who might legitimately be
viewed as the consumers of education, as I
think that is an important question. First, of
course, we have the students, and through
101
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 5 · Number 2 · 1997 · pp. 101–109
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0968-4883
A dialogue about the
quality of education
Tove Nagel and
Tone Kvernbekk
The authors
Tove Nagelis Senior Lecturer at the Agricultural Universi-
ty of Norway, Institute of Economic and Social Sciences,
Norway.
Tone Kvernbekkis post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the
University of Oslo, Institute of Educational Research, Oslo.
Abstract
Explores the concept of quality in education, by means of a
dialogue. Discusses different conceptions and dimensions
of quality, and shows how they are largely contingent on
different views of what education is all about. Attempts to
transcend commonly encountered dichotomies by propos-
ing an alternative approach, taking the notions of arête
and phronesis as points of departure. Assessing education-
al quality implies high complexity if the approach is going
to be comprehensive and holistic, and take both external
and internal factors into account. The framework of the
discussion is the political context, on the assumption that
this is the right context for questions concerning the
worthwhileness, values in and quality of education. The
authors hope that this dialogue illustrates the irenic mode
of communication briefly discussed in the paper.
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