Summary: The workshop will examine the key quality requirements in support for higher education’s potential to contribute to Education for All. It explores novel strategies required for the transformation of higher education into a force for realization of the EFA agenda. It will interrogate the role of teacher education for quality in higher education and vice versa.

Contact:

Speakers:

  • Prof. Kweku Osam, former (immediate past) Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and Board Member of the National Accreditation Board, Ghana.
  • Prof. Mayunga Nkunya, Executive Secretary of the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA)
  • Prof. Divya Singh, Vice-Principal for Assurance and Governance, UNISA

Workshop Questions and Sub-Themes

What are the key quality requirements in support for higher educations potential to contribute to Education for All – and what are the options? What novel strategies need to be envisioned for the transformation of higher education into a force for realization of the EFA agenda? What role can teacher education play for quality in higher education and vice versa?

Possible sub themes to be explored:

  • Expansion of educational systems (consequences – conditions – requirements):
    • Access
    • Resources (faculty, finance, infrastructure as dormitories, internet access, libraries, digital resources etc.)
  • Quality assurance systems (regional collaboration/harmonization of structures and processes)
  • The role of teacher education in the assurance of quality in higher education
  • Governance and leadership for advancement of higher education institutions
  • Defining and assessing “quality”

Background

The overarching workshop theme, Quality, is to a high degree understood as directed towards higher education in general. A particular aspect of importance is teacher education due to its role for the preceding parts of the educational system.

Education is political in its nature and it has been argued that “questions about the nature and purpose of education are ultimately questions about what it is to be, and about how we understand what it is to be, human.” (Paul Standish, 2003) It is also the case that education is located not only in space and time but also related to culture and identity. A consequence is that the workshop also has to address inclusiveness as an aspect of quality. That approach points also towards questions on what educational content is relevant, who should have the power to decide upon that etc. A perspective that has been voiced and that takes this further, deals with questions on how education includes “intrinsic values of knowledge, i.e. what the learner already possess” and how that can be perceived as the point of departure for teaching and learning in the context of Education for All.

In the UN-context of Education for All the workshop cannot ignore that the purpose of education set in the Convention on the Rights of The Child, is the realization of the full potential of the child. This workshop, with its explorative focus, and its task to send a message forward, has to recognize the wider aspects of education as described here, a perspective that transcends beyond schooling of skills – and that will bring into our discussions also tensed aspects. Without addressing also such issues, it will most likely not be possible to proceed, neither to establish any shared envisioning of what Education for All can represent in an African as well as a Swedish context.

Thematically quality is explored in two sessions, each with a different sub-theme. The session described here is first of this two sessions, this one with focus on the Advancement of Quality in Higher Education in The Context of the Education For All Agenda. An overarching question for the session concerns what the key quality requirements in support for higher educations potential are to contribute to Education for All – and what are the options? This session of the workshop will examine the key quality requirements in support for higher education’s potential to contribute to Education for All. It explores novel strategies required for the transformation of higher education into a force for realization of the Education for All agenda. It will interrogate the role of teacher education for quality in higher education and vice versa.

The workshop provides an opportunity for participants to, based on a shared exploration of the concept of quality and aligned perspectives, send a message on what is understood to be the most crucial aspects of quality in higher education for the purpose of fulfillment of the ambitions that carries the agenda known as Education for All.

Format

We would like this workshop to become a site for interaction and one that expands and deepens insights and perspectives and how higher education can support further realization of current and forthcoming Education for All.

For the workshop three overarching questions have been identified as described above. After the three presentations participants are invited to and expected to take on the task of deliberation over the workshop theme, the input from presenters and the proposed questions. At the end of the workshop session, we hope to be able to summarize and bring voiced opinions, ideas, comments and questions together.

We, in the program committee, believe it is very important that participants in the workshop prepare themselves in advance. It is advised that participants take a look at the background document for the meeting in 1990 when Education for All was established (“Meeting Basic Learning Needs: a Vision for the 1990s”), the six EFA goals launched in year 2000, the background material for the upcoming World Education Forum to which our workshops sends it messages, the report “Sustainable Development begins with Education. How Education can Contribute to the Proposed Post-2015 Goals,” and the document “Beyond 2015: The Education we Want.” In addition we emphasize the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals.

These materials will provide sufficient information on the context. However, we ask all participants to reflect upon the settled workshop theme also from other perspectives and points of views. In particular it is key for the workshop to reflect upon the role of higher education and Academia. Are the perspectives lacking, if so, which? Is the proposed direction of the post-2015 EFA-agenda sufficient? Are there, from your perspective, needs to add to or amend the proposed agenda? The reason for our gathering is to explore, expand and express our opinions!

Main Expected Outcomes

We envision some crucial messages to be identified and formulated during the workshop. Our ambition is to contribute to the reformulation of global strategies for educational advancement. We also believe that an important outcome also consists in the sharing and exploration that takes place during the workshop. We hope that all participants will travel home with new insights, new inspiration and renewed strategies for, continuing themselves to take on the role as agents of change.