How Accreditation Policies Can Contribute to Improving the Quality of Education: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This study aims to analyze the discourse on improving the quality of education through school accreditation policies from early childhood education (ECE) to higher education. This research is motivated by the discourse on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presented by the United Nations, with one of the areas of focus being the improvement of education quality. This study uses a qualitative approach with critical discourse analysis to examine the relationship between accreditation policies and political will within them. The study involves three educational institutions and accreditation policy documents that are analyzed using social justice theory. The results of this study indicate that accreditation policies aim to improve quality based on the scores obtained by educational institutions. The final results are used as guidelines to meet standards without considering other aspects that influence the assessment. The existence of accreditation policies can lead to social inequality due to the dominance of power that influences the implementation of accreditation in educational institutions.