Effekte der Qualitätszertifizierung auf das Verhältnis von Profession und Organisation

Quality assurance systems are ubiquitous – at the same time, this circumstance seems to cause a feeling of uneasiness in certain people who are actively involved in continuing education. What may often be hidden behind this uneasiness is the conflict between the need for systematisation as required by quality assurance systems and the fact that pedagogical work is related to individual cases, as theories of profession claim. Thus, institutionalised quality assurance for adult educators presents a challenge that they must integrate into their informal/habitual understanding of the profession. The present article introduces an exploratory study in which eight directors and quality assurance managers of adult education institutions in Lower Saxony (Germany) were interviewed about their handling of quality certification. Both productive and unproductive forms of reaction to the quality assurance laid out in the certification systems appeared. These kinds of reaction are presented in the article in the form of seven (hypo)theses that need to be examined more closely on an empirical level: a self-referentiality thesis, a responsivity thesis, a homogenisation thesis, a culture thesis, a bureaucratisation thesis, a hierarchy-implementation thesis, and an autonomy thesis.