Influence of Teacher Efficacy on Transformative Quality in Private Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Among the three major private higher education (HE) systems (China, India, USA), India has been recognized as the big one , holding a share of 21.9% of global private HE enrolments (Levy, 2018, p. 707). The global phenomenon of privatization and resulting massification in Indian HE, eventually led to a spate of debates on inclusiveness-excellence and access-quality issues, thus making the existing quality measures in a post-massification dichotomous HE system questionable. The reason for this questionability is because the current quality measures signify a self-fulfilling process of selectivity, in which the private-unaided higher education institutions (HEIs) continue to rank at the bottom. This research redefines quality as Transformative Quality (TRFQ) in HE, and develops it as a measure which can transcend a dichotomous HE system. Since quality is a relative concept, it is imperative to define whose perspective. Therefore, this research uses front-line faculty perspectives for establishing TRFQ in HE. This endeavour addresses the Research Objective 1, that is, to define and develop a quality measure which can transcend a dichotomous HE system. Furthermore, since the dimensions of TRFQ are teachable, it is crucial to investigate the impact of Teacher Efficacy (TE) on TRFQ in HE, which forms Research Objective 2. The Research Objective 3 is to provide a policy framework for addressing quality issues plaguing the private-unaided HE sector based on the results of RO1 and RO2. Research Objective 1 is partially addressed through a thorough literature review of concepts on quality in HE, and its questionability in addressing quality issues in a dichotomous HE system. Thereafter, TRFQ measure is prepared based on valuable feedback from academia and industry. This process helped in ensuring comprehensiveness, clarity, readability and face validity of the survey instrument.