The Invisible Hands behind the Student Evaluation of Teaching: The Rise of the New Managerial Elite in the Governance of Higher Education

Calin Valsan and Robert Sproule

Journal of Economic Issues, 2008, vol. 42, issue 4, 939-958

Abstract: We contend that the notion of teaching effectiveness has no verifiable empirical content and therefore the question of teaching score validity is misguided. Universities create knowledge, invest in human capital, and grant degrees, yet teaching scores are ill equipped to capture and evaluate any of these outcomes. In spite of well-documented shortcomings, virtually all universities in North America use teaching scores because they allow the managerial elite to legitimize their control over the affairs of academia in the broader context of university governance. Using the enabling myth of teaching scores, the bureaucrats shift the focus from the investment in human capital to the granting of degrees in order to re-cast higher education into an authoritative, vertically organized hierarchy, better suited for managerial rent-extraction and entrenchment.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00213624.2008.11507197 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:42:y:2008:i:4:p:939-958

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/MJEI20

DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2008.11507197

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Economic Issues from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().