Balanced interests: towards a holistic sociology of higher education evaluation

Abstract

This paper provides one model for reflecting holistically on the practice and outcomes of evaluation in higher education institutions. It identifies three discrete but related areas of activity, each of which has distinctive interests which determine appropriate and legitimate evaluation approaches. The three interests are a managerial interest in control of organizational operations, interests of participants in teaching and study activities and interests of learners in their learning. Concern is expressed that, in the current environment, there is an imbalance of power among these three areas of activity. The power of information technologies to monitor and coordinate activities in education institutions aligns with managerial interests establishing discourses of control that take priority over teaching and study processes and over the quality of learning itself. The paper applies the suggested tripartite model to analyse the primary interests in evaluations and applies this analysis to evaluations of interactive video-conferencing in one university.