Author(s)

Betty Shitima Bweupe, Jason Mwanza

School of humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to understand from the teaching life world of quality assurance and education actors in the higher education institutions, their construction of teaching excellence. Design: Charmazian constructivist Grounded Theory Method was employed. Hermeneutic constructivist philosophy guided this study and 29 participants were interviewed using criterion i sampling. Findings: Eleven categories of teaching excellence emerged from the data and the constructions of teaching excellence were multifaceted. Based on the participants’ voices, there is no universally accepted definition of teaching excellence. There is no consensus of opinion on what constitutes teaching excellence in all higher education environments. However, research suggests that Teaching Excellence practices were beginning to be applied on an institutional level as a management tool though not recognised by the term teaching excellence. Nevertheless, it was not being practiced extensively, and was implemented in pockets, with emphasis on quality teaching more than teaching excellence, and not generally implemented in a systemic way. Practical implications: The teaching excellence categories that we have generated in this study could be one source of elements our policy makers could consider when developing teaching excellence policy instruments such as Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Such Instruments could support the enhancement of educational provision across our higher education system. Therefore, rather than focusing on developing metrics of teaching excellence, it is could be more effective to focus also on how these institutions could enhance their educational provision. Originality: The study provides empirical contextual individualised constructed constructs of teaching excellence. Conclusion: We stated in the title “No one has bothered to know”. Now we have known that the constructions of teaching excellence are multifaceted. The implication of the findings is that phenomenology is a powerful research strategy that is well suited for exploring challenging problems in quality assurance research. By building a better understanding of the nature of phenomenology and working to ensure proper alignment between the specific research question and the researcher’s underlying philosophy, we hope to encourage quality assurance and teaching excellence scholars to consider the utility of phenomenology when addressing their research questions.

Constructions, Teaching Excellence, Hermeneutic, Higher Education Institution

Bweupe, B. and Mwanza, J. (2022) No One Has Bothered to Know: Understanding the Constructions of Teaching Excellence in Higher Education Institutions of Zambia: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 87-114. doi: 10.4236/jss.2022.109007.