Performance indicators as quality assurance: the Scottish Community Education PI scheme

Abstract

Examines the role of performance indicators (PIs) as a means of quality assurance. Uses, as a case study, the national scheme of performance indicators for Community Education Services in Scotland, and shows how the process of development led to a particular approach to evaluation. Considers the relationship of this scheme to other approaches to performance indicators in education contexts and develops an analytical framework. Explores the relationship between purpose, product and context, with particular reference to the ways in which practices and ideologies reflect, reproduce or subvert pre‐existing, unequal relations of power.

Entrepreneurship education in Brazil: Brazilian and Scottish approaches to policy and provision in vocational education

“…In contrast to Brazil, Scotland tracks and monitors EE for instance, quality assurance in Scottish Education (McCulloch and Tett, 1996); the growth of academic and governmental interest on small and medium-sized enterprises, recommending investments in vocational and entrepreneurial further education (Andrew et al, 2008;Matlay, 2009); the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in VE and further education (FE) (Mills and Whittaker, 2001); research policies in Scottish VE and FE (Grant and Edgar, 2003); methods of entrepreneurial teaching (Hegarty, 2006;McKeown et al, 2006); collaborative models for education and programme development (Comrie, 2011) and strategies to modernise VE training systems (Pilz and Canning, 2017). The challenges for Scottish VE institutions, according to Andrew et al (2008), reside in monitoring industry changes, given that courses need to remain accessible and effective both in terms of training the workforce, value for money and assisting adult students who need training for dynamic labour markets.…”

From Accountability to Assurance – Stakeholder Perspectives in Local Government

“…There is a distinction between the concepts of assurance and accountability. Discussions of quality assurance emphasise the formative, process‐focused feedback on performance rather than summative product‐focused, consistent, comparable and reliable results (McCulloch and Tett : 17) as well as the level of qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, information used to make the assessment. While the literature does not agree on a precise meaning of accountability or assurance, the distinction between them is that accountability is generally seen as an internal process of the organisation to report or demonstrate its compliance to standards and the achievement of performance goals for consumption by people or organisations external to it.…”