Excellence in higher education: dominant discourse and student's perspective

Ovaj rad iznosi rezultate kvalitativnog istraživanja provedenog na uzorku od 6 studenata/ica Sveučilišta u Zadru metodom polustrukturiranog intervjua kojem je cilj bio doznati na koji način studenti razumiju izvrsnost, koja je njihova motivacija da budu izvrsni studenti, što smatraju da su preduvjeti, a što prepreke za izvrsnost na studiju, te što misle o dominantnom neoliberalnom diskursu izvrsnosti. Rad također daje uvide u utjecaj izolacije tijekom pandemije korona virusom na izvrsnost intervjuiranih studenata. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da je poimanje izvrsnosti kod intervjuiranih studenata kompleksnije od dominantnog diskursa izvrsnosti, te da na izvrsnost utječu kako osobne karakteristike (motivacija, organiziranost, trud, upornost, samokontrola), tako i društvene karakteristike (podrška kolega i prijatelja te obitelji, ekonomski status, smještaj) i institucijske karakteristike (podrška i razumijevanje profesora, dostupnost literature) koje mogu i olakšati i otežavati studiranje i samu izvrsnost. U radu se afirmira Bourdieuovo razumijevanje obrazovnog uspjeha kao rezultata brojnih okolnosti, a suprotno objašnjenjima koji uspjeh svode na čimbenike poput sposobnosti ili pak motivacije.This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research study with six students from the University of Zadar using semi-structured interviews which explored how students understand excellence, what is their motivation to be excellent students, what they consider to be prerequisites and barriers to excellence, and what they think of the dominant neoliberal discourse of excellence. This thesis also provides insights into the impact of isolation during the coronavirus pandemic on the excellence of the interviewed students. The results of the research show that the interviewed students perceive excellence in a more complex manner than the dominant discourse of excellence, and that they understand excellence as influenced not only by personal characteristics (motivation, organization, effort, perseverance, self-control), but also social (support of colleagues, friends and family, economic status, accommodation) and institutional characteristics (support and understanding of professors, availability of literature) that can both facilitate and complicate study and excellence itself. The paper affirms Bourdieu’s understanding of educational success as a result of numerous circumstances, as opposed to explanations that reduce success to factors such as ability or motivation