Critical Event Narrative Inquiry in Higher Education Quality

Abstract: Quality Approaches in Higher Education Vol. 3 (2) Dec 2012 article by Patricie Mertova and Len Webster. The paper is another one of a series of works describing a research study concerning the academic voice in higher education quality in England and the Czech Republic (Mertova & Webster, 2009). To investigate the academic voice in higher education quality, a critical event narrative inquiry method was employed, and that is the focus of this paper. A significant feature of the method was eliciting critical events related to higher education quality in professional practice of academics and higher education leaders. The research uncovered a number of similar issues and concerns in higher education quality voiced by academics and higher education leaders in both countries. Some culture-specific issues related predominantly to Czech higher education quality were also uncovered.

Keywords: Quality Approaches in Higher Education - Educational Quality; Global Quality