Excellence in teaching at Azerbaijani universities: a conceptualisation

Abstract

A qualitative empirical study of how higher education actorsin Azerbaijan conceptualise excellence in teaching and howthey promote it at different levels. The findings provide anoriginal insight into how the concept of excellence is under-stood in the higher education of Azerbaijan. Intriguingly,there is no definition of teaching excellence nor an equiva-lent of it in the Azerbaijani language, let alone an existingpolicy on framing its standards. Furthermore, both socio-eco-nomic and cultural contributors make educational contextsdifferent, thus affecting the conceptualisation of the phe-nomenon in focus. The article’s key findings indicate severalserious barriers to achieving excellence, mainly associatedwith the apparent lack of a practical framework for definingthe standards of excellence in teaching, measuring these andestablishing a resources-enhanced system that can allow forcontinuity of the process.