Exploring the conception of quality education. An ethnographic inquiry in a secondary school.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
This study explores the conception of quality education in a secondary school in Mauritius. It
seeks to know how a secondary school community makes meaning of the notion of Quality
Education and how the notion of quality education is enacted and experienced in a secondary
school. The theoretical framework for Quality Education (Tikly & Barrett, 2011) was used to
provide the necessary analytical tools, based on the two primary educational lenses, the Human
Capital and the Humanist theories, to deepen insight and expand the perspective on quality
education. In addition, the framework also provides adequate space to study the phenomenon
of quality education under the influence of the three environments: home, school and policy.
The research methodology used in the study was an Ethnographic inquiry. It was chosen as it
allows the researcher to access the social reality of the people in the school site, PWSS (
Creswell, 2012). Also, I chose to enter the research site with an insider researcher's perspective,
so that I could bring out more insights into the school's psychological, social, and cultural
dimensions of the phenomenon, Quality Education.
Data was produced through interviews, participant observations, the review of documents,
qualitative questionnaires, and Focus Group Discussions so as to unravel how the participants
make meaning of Quality Education through their school experiences. A purposive sampling
technique was used based on Creswell's (2013) and Merriam (2009) arguments. The selected
learner participants were from three different categories of learners, Grade 9. Grade 10 and
grade 12, In the same way, six teachers, both male and female, were selected based on their
teaching experience at PWSS - with at least three years of experience at the school. Also, two
parents were chosen based on their availability and the school's rector.
The research came up with the following findings: (i) quality education is a fluid concept that
changes according to the agenda of the person using or viewing it (ii) high academic
achievement, holistic development, discipline and values, 21st-century skills, cared pedagogy
approach, quality teachers were among the outcomes of quality education, (iii) all provisions
enacted for quality education forms an integral part of quality education, (iv) Distributed
leadership as the most wanted type of leadership in a venture for Quality Education (v) Policies
that favour inclusion and equity are referred as Quality policies for Quality Education and (vi)
Quality Education is expressed as pride, reputation, and excellence.
Description
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.