Estudio de caso sobre la acreditación de carreras de educación en Costa RicaValor público, articulaciones y desafíos

Abstract

The objective of these research is the accreditation of degree careers n the Education Area in Costa Rica, due to the international recognition that these processes have acquired in the public guarantee of quality of the degrees. Accreditation has become the preferred means of evaluating, supervising, and promoting the continuous improvement of the quality of higher education, as well as for universities to be accountable to society for the quality of the educational supply. This research is part of the emerging exploratory-type interpretative qualitative paradigm. The main objective of the case study developed is to understand the contributions of accreditation with Sinaes in the continuous improvement of the quality of university careers, as well as the articulations and challenges that these processes produce. Two consecutive accreditation periods were addressed, of 6 careers in the Education Area that are taught in public universities. 5 in-depth interviews were carried out. 12 Final External Evaluation Reports (IFEE) (corresponding to two consecutive accreditation periods) and 6 documents with observations issued by the representatives of the Education careers on some of these reports, were analyzed. In the analysis of the information, three technological tools were used: Excel databases, the Power BI visualization tool, and the MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software. In an iterative interpretive-reflexive, transversal, round-trip process, precategories were built and rebuilt until final categories were formed, providing a solid and coherent basis for developing well-founded and structured answers to the three research questions posed. The results show 10 final categories on the public value of accreditation in the continuous improvement of Education careers, which were identified from a notion of public value built specifically for Sinaes. Also, 6 articulation factors were identified that result from a gradual process of mediation and organizational change, in two ways, that occurs between HEIs, Education careers and Sinaes related to the accreditation, whose construction is influenced by the interaction between the different actors involved in accreditation. In addition, 26 final categories were identified on the challenges associated with accreditation, 10 for Education careers, 6 for HEIs, and 10 for Sinaes. In conclusion, it is observed how accreditation has become one of the determining factors when selecting an Education Career in Costa Rica. The processes carried out by Sinaes are perceived as legitimate and of excellence in the development of this type of quality certifications. Valuable improvement opportunities were identified for the Sinaes Accreditation Model and for the design of improvement plans, which would allow increasing the incidence of accreditation in the quality of university degrees. The public value, the articulations and the challenges that emerge in accreditation are interrelated, coexist, and converge in the processes of change and transformation in HEIs. In addition, they constitute three dimensions that interact dynamically in a reciprocal dependence, in such a way that the more the articulation factors are enhanced, and the challenges are overcome, the greater the public value generated by accreditation with Sinaes in careers.