Understanding teaching excellence in Higher Education in an Arab country : the case of Lebanon

• Main Author: Hariri, Randa
• Other Authors: Rosowsky, Andrey
• Published: University of Sheffield 2016
• Subjects: 378.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.694681

The purpose of this research study is to explore the perceptions of teachers in private and public higher education institutions about Teaching Excellence in an Arab country, more specifically Lebanon. Teachers’ perceptions are explored in terms of Skelton’s (2005) four Understandings of Teaching Excellence, which form the theoretical framework that guides this research study. These four Understandings are the Traditional, Psychologized, Performative, and Critical understandings of Teaching Excellence. To fulfill the purpose of this research study, the researcher adopted an interpretive-qualitative approach, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews as the sole means of data collection. Accordingly, participant teachers were selected from five higher education institutions, four private and one public, and interviewed on a one-on-one basis. The adoption of a qualitative approach allowed the researcher to explore faculty members’ perceptions of teaching excellence and the means through which they think it can best be attained. The use of in-depth interviews was an effective research method since the participant interviewees, as adults and educators, have the courage and ability to speak up, express their thoughts, identify the challenges they face in teaching, and communicate their ideas freely (Creswell, 2012). Moreover, interviews gave the researcher the opportunity to hear the perceptions and views of faculty members about teaching excellence one at a time, explicitly, and in their own words (Lichtman, 2006; Wildy, &Wallace, 1998). The findings of this research study reveal that the teachers in the selected higher education institutions hold Psychologized and Performative Understandings of teaching excellence. Therefore, it can be concluded that the teachers’ perceptions of Teaching Excellence belong to more than one of Skelton’s four Understandings of Teaching Excellence. Accordingly, the researcher suggests formulating a new Understanding of Teaching Excellence, the Psycho-performative Understanding, to describe the perceptions of teachers in higher education institutions in Lebanon.