"UUDLES" of accountability: A critical ethnographic policy analysis of university teaching work within the context of postsecondary education in Ontario

This ethnography explores how the everyday work of university teaching is shaped and organized by quality and accountability policies in higher education. The drive for greater accountability and transparency in Ontario postsecondary education is evident with the implementation of University Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations (UUDLEs).UUDLEs is a policy that has been implemented in the publicly assisted universities of Ontario that has mandated that the work of teaching be articulated through the use of outcomes, expectations, and standards. This research draws upon critical literature on academic restructuring, managerialism, quality assurance, accountability and efficiency reforms, and the political-economy of higher education in Canada. Moreover, the notion of quality is problematized as an empty, nebulous term that cannot be understood or realized without a common and agreed upon conceptualization. Through interviews with faculty, management, seconded faculty members, senate members, individuals in positions of senior management, curriculum committee members, complimented with textual and critical policy analysis, the organization of the work of university teachers is explored to make visible the invisible teaching work of faculty in relationship to higher education accountability policies. I trace UUDLEs from its conception within external governing bodies to its implementation within the Faculty of Education at one university in south western Ontario. This research is part ethnography and part policy analysis, employing tools from both. The study and its findings are framed and analyzed from a critical theoretical perspective. It is grounded in the everyday experiences of university teachers and the policies that influence their teaching work. I make visible the larger social web in which university teachers participate by showing what it is that a university teacher does as a part of a Faculty, and as a university employee, and how higher education policies influence this work. UUDLEs are taken up by university teachers in their work through course development, curriculum planning and evaluation of students learning. In my examination of UUDLEs I consider teaching from the perspective of university teachers working in higher education.