Abstract:

One of the current best practices of higher education institutions with multiple learning and teaching centers is to have standardized levels of teaching, learning and assessment especially if they all award the same degrees. Although this has been asserted as best practice, its implementation is not always simple, neither is it easy. This paper thus presents findings from a higher education institution in an emerging economy which undertook this task of achieving this standardization by harmonizing course outlines, teaching and materials as well as assumptive assessment across its five teaching and learning centers.

The paper chronicles the experiences of five female academic leaders who played significant roles in implementing this harmonization of teaching and assessment policy. Adopting a qualitative approach and phenomenological inquiry, this study utilizes one self-reflective report as well as four in-depth interviews to chronicle the experiences and challenges faced by these females in the implementation process over the course of one academic semester. Based on the question, do female academic leaders perceive themselves as encountering more obstacles in implementing novel institutional policies than their male counterparts, the main objective was to explore the lived experiences of females in various levels of leadership within the institution who were tasked with implementation. Specifically, the paper discusses the roles these women played, examines the challenges they encountered as well as the coping strategies employed to address the challenges faced.

The paper found that communication and a lack of understanding among team members hampered the effectiveness of the harmonization exercise. Further, a lack of overt support from male leadership in senior management was found to negatively impact cooperation from team members. The paper discusses these findings and makes recommendation for female leaders who find themselves at the forefront of implementing such harmonization policies in their institution.

Keywords:

Female academics, harmonization policy, phenomenological study, higher education.