“NQF explanation graph” by Discott is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The project proposes a holistic evaluation of education interventions to explore and understand the gaps in evaluative scholarship. A meta-analysis of evaluations that focused on national qualifications frameworks will be conducted. Specifically, the study asks to what extent have the evaluations considered the following:
- Stakeholder representation in decision-making related to the intervention
- Past experiences of institutions and subjects involved in the intervention
Drawing from the 4Rs (representation, recognition, redistribution and reconciliation), the research study will engage with Nancy Fraser’s concepts misrepresentation and misrecognition as key processes of social injustice. The 4R framework is considered particularly relevant to evaluation phases of policy (Novelli, Lopez Cardozo & Smith 2017).
In particular, misrepresentation will be applied to examining how stakeholder representation in decision-making related to the interventions were evaluated. Similarly, misrecognition to examining how past experiences of institutions and subjects involved in the intervention were evaluated.
Given that national qualification frameworks are not interventions that impact individuals directly, it is not easy to determine who the beneficiaries are likely to be. However, the findings could impact on education systems at the structural level, which if taken up by policy makers and implementers could have potential benefits for all stakeholders in education systems.
