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Consideration of student evaluations of teaching SET and learning perspectives of learning and teaching leaders through the ethical lens of first 2.11 MB
Published VersionCC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Consideration of student evaluations of teaching (SET) and learning: perspectives of learning and teaching leaders through the ethical lens of “first, do no harm”
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol.50(1), pp.1-15
2025
Abstract
This paper explores institutional leaders’ perceptions of learning and teaching involved in facilitating and assessing Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) survey instruments across Australian regional universities. It focuses on how they understand the function of SET, strategies used to mitigate bias, and potential residual harm. Through adopting a combination of inductive and deductive research processes and a thematic analysis through the ethical lens of nonmaleficence (first, do no harm), we report that leaders in learning and teaching perceive SET as a form of surveillance and Quality Assurance ‘performance’, recognise inherent biases inhabited in SET reports, and identify how these biases negatively impact academics through a lack of systematic harm mitigation strategies. The paper’s critical – and novel – contributions include an increased understanding of how SET inflicts harm towards women and other marginalised academic groups through systematic and authorised microaggressions and how SET contravenes universities’ duty of care to employees. It recommends an expansion of the principle of nonmaleficence beyond potential harm to research subjects, including those who undertake research or evaluation (such as academics), particularly if these impact them.
Details
- Title
- Consideration of student evaluations of teaching (SET) and learning: perspectives of learning and teaching leaders through the ethical lens of “first, do no harm”
- Authors
- Gail Crimmins (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative IndustriesSarah Casey - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative IndustriesIan Weber - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative IndustriesShahab Pourfakhimi - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
- Publication details
- Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol.50(1), pp.1-15
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1080/02602938.2024.2367586
- ISSN
- 1469-297X; 0260-2938
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991043498502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Web Of Science research areas
- Education & Educational Research