Measurement Imperatives and Their Impact: Academic Staff Narratives on Riding the Metric Tide

Taylor, Carol; Harris-Evans, Jean; Garner, Iain; Fitzgerald, Damien; Madriaga, Manuel

Abstract

Higher education (HE) is in the grip of an unprecedented level of attention to quantitative performance indicators. Measurement imperatives are positioned in policy discourses as key to the generation of market competition and institutional differentiation. But beyond government policymakers, many are sceptical about their use and value, particularly in relation to enhancing knowledge, improving pedagogic relationships and developing learning communities. This chapter explores five academics’ narratives—each in different institutional roles—of their personal responses to measurement imperatives; and utilises C. Wright Mills’ (1959) notion of the sociological imagination to trace how individual narratives intersect with broader discourses of marketisation, equity and differentiation. These five staff narratives bring to the fore what matters to them as academics, in their relationships with students and colleagues, and how they navigate the performative discourses and practices which shape their working lives.

Citation

Taylor, C., Harris-Evans, J., Garner, I., Fitzgerald, D., & Madriaga, M. (2018). Measurement Imperatives and Their Impact: Academic Staff Narratives on Riding the Metric Tide. . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78313-0_8

• Online Publication Date: May 25, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 3, 2024
• Pages: 171-194
• ISBN: 9783319783123
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78313-0_8
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/23550139
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-78313-0_8