EdQual Working Paper No.27. Towards a framework for understanding the quality of education

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to set out EdQual‟s emerging framework towards researching the quality of education in low income countries with a focus on theoretical and methodological issues. Developing such a conceptual understanding has been a key objective of EdQual and has been an ongoing iterative process incorporating the views of different participants and grounded in our ongoing research in a range of contexts. The paper traces the evolution of our thinking. However, it is suggested the framework has a wider relevance for policy makers, practitioners and researchers. Central to the approach is that researching the quality of education involves recognising the complex and contested nature of the debate, including engaging with the wider historical, economic, political, cultural and discursive context within which it is situated and being suitably self-reflexive about the research process itself