I kjønneste orden?

Kvalitet og betydningen av kjønn i vurdering av professor- og dosentkompetanse i kunstfagene

Abstract

The aim of this article is to contribute to discussions concerning what is meant by quality in the assessment of professors and docents for promotion, by investigating if and how gender might influence the ways in which quality is measured and articulated in these processes. The study analyses interviews with five experienced committee members from higher art education institutions in Norway. Our results point to three main discourses: a quality discourse, a gender discourse, and an elite discourse. The study shows that committee members operationalize notions of quality in terms of markers such as arena, audience types, innovation, collaborations, and novelty. At the same time, the informants emphasize that the criteria in the regulations concerning appointment and promotion are unclear. According to the informants, these vague criteria, together with a dominant elitist definition of art in art education, causes those who already have power in the field to hold possession of what constitutes quality. They stress that it is especially difficult to explicate criteria for artistic qualities. The committee members say that gender influences both the way one assesses quality, and how applicants for promotion describe their own quality. The study points to a need for more clearly articulated criteria concerning what constitutes artistic quality in the assessment of professors/docents applying for promotion in performing arts education.