Network analysis and teaching excellence as a concept of relations

Hayes, Aneta; Garnett, Nick

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to foreground network analysis as a statistical lens through which higher education institutions can articulate their own process of striving for teaching excellence, and how it is constituted in their own contexts. The paper offers an approach to analysis that extends the frontiers of methodologies in ‘measurement’ of teaching excellence; one that responds to the shortcomings of the current methodologies, critiqued for being reductive, performative, alienating, and promoting closure and convergence in how they assess teaching excellence. We review epistemological and methodological shifts in conceptualising teaching excellence and measurement that are required to work with our methodology, as well as provide statistical details, for anyone who wishes to reproduce our profiled examples. We thus build in the paper a link between the theory of (teaching) excellence and practice (of measurement) and champion a theory-based approach to the methodology of educational metrics.

Citation

Hayes, A., & Garnett, N. (in press). Network analysis and teaching excellence as a concept of relations. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2024.2341417

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 4, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 22, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 10, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 23, 2025
• Journal: Teaching in Higher Education
• Print ISSN: 1356-2517
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1294
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-18
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2024.2341417
• Keywords: teaching excellence, network analysis, decision trees, relational analysis, metrics
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/792997