Fostering Quality in the Graduation Research Project at the Libyan Faculties of Education: Libyan Teacher-Educators’ Perspectives

Abstract

One of the Libyan Faculty of Education exit requirements is the graduation research project. Current literature review indicates the scarcity of literature on the quality of the graduation project in the Libyan context. Thus, the present study addressed this shortcoming by investigating the opinions of the faculty members at the Faculties of Education at various Libyan public universities on achieving quality standards in the graduation research projects. The design of the study was exploratory sequential mixed methods as we gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to get accurate and detailed picture of the Libyan teacher-educators’ views on fostering quality in the graduation research project. The context of the study is the Faculties of Education at eight Libyan universities. The participants were 62 Libyan teacher-educators who were faculty members at the Libyan Faculties of Education. Data were collected through documents, questionnaires, and follow up interviews. The results showed that the participants’ views were opposite to the document analysis and revealed that the participants were not sure whether the regulations covered all the points related to the graduation research projects, so they preferred to be neutral. They also perceived several factors as the issues that hindered the quality of the graduation research projects. The participants suggestions as ways of fostering quality in the graduation research projects included achieving quality by following the quality standards described by the quality assurance department among other suggestions.