Abstract
In recent higher education research, quality in education export action has been explored from the perspective of traditional education export countries such as the UK and USA. However, less attention is given to novice education export providers that rely on different educational traditions. In this article, we explore quality of education as it is done in one exported Finnish master’s degree programme in teacher education in Indonesia. Our theoretical premise is based on the convention theory that relies on pragmatic sociology. The empirical data consist of 16 semi-structured students’ and staff members’ interviews gathered between the years 2016 and 2017 in Finland and in Indonesia. The results of this study stress the plurality of the quality factors that indicate the expectations by the students and the staff members, but also the priorities of the providers as to what is essential in exported degree-based education. From the perspective of convention theory, these considerations emphasize that the successful implementation of the exported master’s degree programme in teacher education is based on the professional-academic convention (as research-based teacher education) that together with the civic-domestic convention (as societal impact, local traditions and Finnish approach to pedagogy) influenced the content of the educational programme through personal interaction.
Highlights
In higher education research, quality in education is typically seen as a subjective, relative and value-laden concept (Harvey and Green 1993) aiming to answer the questions of what is good or valuable (Harvey and Green 1993; Segers and Dochy 1996)
This study aims to identify the internal logics that illustrate the quality of education from the perspective of students and staff members of the exported master’s programme by focusing on three main research questions: what factors describe the quality of education from the perspective of students and the staff members? What logics steer the identified quality factors? How do these conventions differ, or are the same, among the students and the staff members? The empirical data covers 16 semi-structured interviews conducted in Indonesia and Finland during 2016–2017
The focus was especially on the following research questions: what factors describe the quality of education (RQ1)? And what conventions steer the identified quality factors (RQ2)? Implicitly, the analysis included cross-group comparisons, and the analysis indicated the differences and similarities between the students and the staff members
Summary
Quality in education is typically seen as a subjective, relative and value-laden concept (Harvey and Green 1993) aiming to answer the questions of what is good or valuable (Harvey and Green 1993; Segers and Dochy 1996). Quality of education is considered in the context of the Finnish education export phenomenon by giving special attention to one exported Finnish master’s degree programme in teacher education in Indonesia that was organized between the years 2016 and 2017. This represents a case example of one of the first commissioned Finnish degree programmes, and it enables researchers to focus on quality as it is done in an early-stage implementation of education export activities by a novice provider without a long tradition of acting in the global educational market. This study illustrates the social dynamics in the frame of quality between the Finnish university staff members and Indonesian students, directing the focus on plural conventions as shared sociocultural frames for planning the actions that indicate quality in education (c.f. Diaz-Bone and Salais 2011) and that reinforce common understanding about quality practices (Biggart and Beamish 2003)
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