Excellence: a new keyword for education?

Allan, KL

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8705.2007.00749.x

Abstract

Excellence is a term that stands out in modern educational discourse, and one that has attracted ridicule from some education commentators. In his critical commentary on how the notion of a university has changed, Bill Readings claims that excellence acts as a 'non-referential unit of value entirely internal to the system' and an 'empty notion'.1 Similar observations have become commonplace. One ironically humorous example of the kind of contempt shown towards the use of excellence as a technical term in educational discourse is presented as Appendix 3, drawn from a website written by an academic. Here it is suggested that the frequency with which excellence and excellent are used by a university in printed materials is an indicator of whether that institution is third-rate. The implication is clear: excellence and excellent have become effectively meaningless terms in such contexts. While such an assertion seems naïve from a linguist's perspective, it certainly appears that the word has been subject to a process of semantic change, and this process can be traced through its increased use in mission statements, governmental initiatives and education journals. In this article I suggest that an examination of the history and present-day use of excellence can illuminate key developments in higher education in recent years. The word's semantic ambiguity makes it a keyword, in the sense that it offers access to current perspectives in this important area of culture and society.

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Apr 1, 2007
Deposit Date	Jan 26, 2009
Journal	Critical Quarterly
Print ISSN	0011-1562
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	49
Issue	1
Pages	54-78
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8705.2007.00749.x
Publisher URL	http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8705.2007.00749.x

Excellence: a new keyword for education?

Allan, KL

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