Sep 30, 2017 - year (UGC 2016). While Singh did not solely focus on the question of quality directly and the difficulty in its maintenance through the affiliated ...
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Teachers’ Perspectives on Higher Education Policies Matthew A Witenstein
The faculty/teaching base that predominates the Indian higher education system should be tapped to enhance quality at affiliated colleges.
Matthew A Witenstein (matthew_witenstein@ redlands.edu) is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Redlands, Redlands, California.
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hile recently resifting through a set of data I collected on Indian higher education quality issues, I re-engaged with previous literature that struck me as I reflected on policy creation and implementation and how it affects quality, particularly at affiliated colleges. I mused particularly on Amrik Singh’s article titled “Academic Standards in Indian Universities: Ravages of Affiliation,” published in this journal about the “ravages of affiliation” (Singh 2003) which have bloated the already gigantic, continuously growing system. It left me wondering what his reflections might be after dispensing meaningful insights regarding mechanisms for shoring up the system. Surely, he would not have aspired for the affiliated system to
balloon to the whopping total of 41,435 institutions by the 2015–16 academic year, a growth of nearly 5,900 institutions just since the 2011–12 academic year (UGC 2016). While Singh did not solely focus on the question of quality directly and the difficulty in its maintenance through the affiliated system, it is clearly a fundamentally underlying issue in his argument regarding the system’s ills, and furthermore, one of the components that needs to be interrogated in order to improve the system. Ironically, this system, instituted in 1857 by the coloniser (initially with three universities in English medium) in the design of the University of London’s “federal university” which affiliated colleges (Agarwal 2006), was disbanded at the University of London itself in 1858, the year following its Indian establishment (Singh 2003). Mired in this system for nearly 160 years, the quality issues at affiliated colleges can in large part be attributed to exponential growth, politics and questionable, if not shoddy governance decisions
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(Altbach 2009; Carnoy and Dossani 2013; Chattopadhyay 2009; Kapur 2010). This prompts questions like—how can affiliated colleges effectively navigate a system with multiple layers of entangled bureaucracy without reducing quality (Altbach 2009; Sunder 2011). This bodes poorly for the system considering the reality is that affiliated colleges own the mother lode of students and employ 89.46% of the higher education system’s teachers (UGC 2016). And I will come back to this in a bit, but what about the perspective of teachers regarding affiliated college quality and how it plays out? Whether the system is to remain or change, why are they seldom (at best) included in sharing ideas and solutions to enhance quality? Outlining a Response Fourteen years later, the two critical questions Singh (2003) posed just before his section on potential prescriptive solutions seem to ring largely unresolved— first, “Is the affiliating system in a position to take any further load? Second, is the existing system flexible enough to adjust to the growing load?” (Singh 2003: 3207). Moreover, I continuously return to these questions considering the current context as they relate to quality and the policies affecting it. But first, what is this broad term quality? The term is bandied about in so many vocal discussions and in written forms without clearly articulating, particularly as it relates to the point a speaker or an author is trying to convey. For the purposes of this discussion, quality is operationally defined as “the effective delivery and assessment of curriculum and instruction at institutions which produce meaningful educational outcomes. The particular focal points, therefore, are the faculty and the curricula” (Witenstein 2015: 9). Singh posed one final important question that he answered with numerous thoughtful considerations and possible changes/solutions—“What steps therefore are required to be taken in order to deal with the situation?” (Singh 2003: 3207). As mentioned above, a glaring hole I grapple with in response to this question relates to the almost entirely devoid voice of the teachers at affiliated colleges. They are the overwhelming majority Economic & Political Weekly
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of faculty in the Indian higher education system and serve as the frontline transmitters of knowledge, yet their knowledge is rarely called upon. Unsurprisingly, notable higher education quality scholar Gerardo Blanco Ramírez (2013) encouraged scholars to engage with teachers to include their perspectives on quality. I will specifically respond to this question from a current vantage point as it relates to the quality in the affiliated college system using data from my recent study examining quality from the perspective of affiliated college faculty, particularly those from Bachelors of Education (BEd) programmes (Witenstein 2015). Their voices were invoked because of their marginalisation in curricula and educational policymaking conversations, which has thus created a gap between teachers’ expectations and policies affecting their work (Dyer et al 2002). BEd teachers’ insight can be particularly poignant as they should have deep pedagogical knowledge and while also having a systemic impact on Indian education generally since they prepare teachers who prepare the nation’s children. Responsive Research Questions and Context This response and further work on higher education quality beckon for rigorous empirical work which is sorely missing in the literature in India. There are far too many opinion pieces without data and evidence supporting meaningful research questions with rigorous methods. Poignant questions such as the following can overarch meaningful empirical queries about quality in affiliated colleges from teachers’ perspectives which can effectively respond to Singh’s call for steps that can aid in dealing with the current affiliated college situation: (i) How does affiliated college faculty generally perceive the impact of policymakers, politicians and government agencies on the quality aspects of affiliated colleges in India? (ii) What meaningful insights about Indian higher education quality policy and implementation can be unearthed by invoking implementers’ voices (teachers)? (iii) What aspects of external stakeholders’ policy development are desired by faculty? vol lIi no 39
Which ones are not? What examples are there to illustrate this? (iv) How can valuing affiliated college faculty members’ quality perceptions and knowledge increase quality at affiliated colleges? These questions help guide some of my findings which I share in brief below. For a bit of context, this study was conducted at 13 affiliated colleges across Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Mysore at public and private institutions, including several religiously affiliated and one women’s institution. A total of 46 BEd teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked to share how policymakers, politicians and government agencies affect quality at their institutions. Findings on Quality It was disconcerting that so many policymakers and politicians had minimal or no knowledge regarding the needs of higher education institutions and colleges of education in particular. This led to some of them having disapproving perceptions of the philosophies and practices of both types of parties. Since the decision-making about policies often rested with these groups, many teachers challenged that policymaker and politician knowledge levels about higher education should be much greater. One teacher proffered that an educationist must be made the Minister for Education … One should know that education has a direct impact on the economic development of the country. That fellow should be made education minister, not anybody and everybody. (Witenstein 2015: 90)
Several shared narratives about current policies that affect quality at their college and about their lack of engagement in curriculum development. Thus, the way in which policy developers intend quality-affecting policies to be enacted at the implementation stage may not come to fruition because (in part), there may be discord between the way decision-makers and implementers interpret it (Blanco Ramírez 2013). Yet, not all the feedback was negative, as the teachers held overwhelmingly positive views of one specific policymaking 15
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group, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). This demonstrates that some policymaking bodies may have better alignment with quality policy from creation to implementation. Findings that may be helpful for considering how other external stakeholders may positively affect quality at affiliated colleges included mechanisms for helping their respective colleges with organisation and accountability. Additionally, it was helpful in quality improvement and the structure and grading aspect gave institutions a goal to aspire to. Also, one could see relationships and discourse with NAAC and willingness to alter and improve their college based on feedback. For instance, “according to their report and suggestions we do change things, and we grow professionally” (Witenstein 2015: 90). A minority shared more negative critical feedback about NAAC, mostly about the short visiting period and the large amount of administrative work (that is, documentation) that accords with their assessment process.
policy impacts regarding quality at affiliated colleges through the perspectives of the micro-level implementers, the affiliated college teaching faculty. This should serve as a beginning and not an end to this line of inquiry. Whether the affiliated system remains or greatly changes, their input and daily knowledge can greatly affect what is known about quality and how it is implemented. By conducting rigorous empirical knowledge that perhaps answers some of the questions I laid out earlier or testing others, Singh’s (2003) all-important question posited 14 years prior can garner some useful answers that may systemically improve quality at affiliated colleges and perhaps, even more widely, the Indian higher education system. References Agarwal, Pawan (2006): “Higher Education in India: The Need for Change,” Working Paper: 180, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, June. Altbach, Phillip G (2009): “One-third of the Globe: The Future of Higher Education in China and India,” Prospects, Vol 39, No 1, pp 11–31.
Blanco Ramírez, Gerardo (2013): “Studying Quality beyond Technical Rationality: Political and Symbolic Perspectives,” Quality in Higher Education, Vol 19, No 2, pp 126–41. Carnoy, Martin and Rafiq Dossani (2013): “Goals and Governance of Higher Education in India,” Higher Education, Vol 65, No 5, pp 595–612. Chattopadhyay, Saumen (2009): “The Market in Higher Education: Concern for Equity and Quality,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 44, No 29, pp 53–61. Dyer, Caroline, Archana Choksi, Vinita Awasty, Uma Iyer, Renu Moyade, Neerja Nigam and Neetu Purohit (2002): “Democratising Teacher Education Research in India,” Comparative Education, Vol 38, No 3, Special Number (25): Democracy and Authoritarianism in Education (August), pp 337–51. Kapur, Devesh (2010): “Indian Higher Education,” American Universities in a Global Market, Charles T Clotfelter (ed), Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. Sabatier, Paul A (1986): “Top-down and Bottom-up Approaches to Implementation Research: A Critical Analysis and Suggested Synthesis,” Journal of Public Policy, Vol 6, No 1, pp 21–48. Singh, Amrik (2003): “Academic Standards in Indian Universities: Ravages of Affiliation,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 38, No 30, pp 3200–08. Sunder, Shyam (2011): “Higher Education Reforms in India,” Mimeo, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. UGC (2016): “UGC Annual Report 2015–16,” New Delhi, India: University Grants Commission. Witenstein, Matthew A (2015): “Educational Value in Urban Colleges of Education in India,” (Doctoral dissertation), retrieved from ProQuest.
Concluding Remarks Returning to Singh’s (2003) call for considering what steps should be taken, this brief insight into the perspectives of affiliated college teachers (from BEd colleges) offers findings suggesting that invoking the voices of the faculty/teaching base that predominates the Indian higher education system, should be tapped. In what is an incredibly top-down-heavy, policy-driven system, I urge stakeholders to consider utilising, in part, bottom-up policy approaches to enhance quality at affiliated colleges. Some of my recent work which focuses on understanding whether affiliated college curricula and academic programmes are relevant to what the marketplace is demanding and what constituents are currently valuing, might match better with a system that includes some aspects of bottom-up approaches. As Paul Sabatier’s seminal article shared, bottom-up approaches are more keenly in tune with “local implementation structures, and thus is better for assessing the dynamics of local variation” (Sabatier 1986: 37). Finally, I aspire for these brief findings to serve as foundational knowledge about 16
Journal Rank of EPW Economic and Political Weekly is indexed on Scopus, “the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature,” which is prepared by Elsevier N V (bit.ly/2dxMFOh). Scopus has indexed research papers that have been published in EPW from 2008 onwards. The Scopus database journal ranks country-wise and journal-wise. It provides three broad sets of rankings: (i) Number of Citations, (ii) H-Index, and (iii) Scimago Journal and Country Rank. Presented below are EPW’s ranks in 2015 in India, Asia and globally, according to the total cites (3 years) indicator. ●
Highest among 37 Indian social science journals and second highest among 187 social science journals ranked in Asia.
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Highest among 38 journals in the category, “Economics, Econometrics, and Finance” in the Asia region, and 37th among 881 journals globally.
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Highest among 23 journals in the category, “Sociology and Political Science” in the Asia region, and 17th among 951 journals globally.
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Between 2009 and 2015, EPW’s citations in three categories (“Economics, Econometrics, and Finance;” “Political Science and International Relations;” and “Sociology and Political Science”) were always in the second quartile of all citations recorded globally in the Scopus database.
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