Benefits, mechanisms and challenges of international accreditation for teacher education: ASEAN academics’ perspectives

What is it about?

International accreditation has become a growing concern to increase global recognition. Despite this long-standing practice, most accreditation agencies, however, do not specifically address Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs). Responding to this specific quality assurance, the Association of Southeast Asian Teacher Education Networks (AsTEN) develops an online accreditation for TEIs. Generating data from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews among ASEAN academics, this study explores some benefits and challenges of establishing an international accreditation for TEIs by AsTEN Quality Assurance Agency (ATQA). As the findings show, participating academics from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Brunei Darussalam believe that it is necessary to have a specific international accreditation agency that can properly accommodate particular standards of teacher education. This accommodation is expected to increase the governance of quality teaching, learning, and research to prepare more competent and professional future teachers. Participating academics also acknowledge some potential challenges this specific accreditation agency may have, including local acceptance by national governments in ASEAN region and global acknowledgment from international accrediting agencies mostly based in Global North countries. The study also identifies aspects and mechanisms of online international accreditation application for TEIs which grows its significance due to technological advancement, efficiency, and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

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