Quality culture and educational inclusion:
epistemological tensions in higher education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61454/6vsnxt69Keywords:
higher education, inclusion, quality, epistemology, public policyAbstract
This article analyzes the epistemological and political tensions that emerge between the notions of quality culture and educational inclusion in Chilean and Latin American higher education. Based on a systematic literature review (PRISMA) of indexed publications between 2015 and 2025, it examines the convergences and contradictions between quality assurance discourses promoted by accrediting agencies (CNA-Chile, CONEAU-Argentina, SINAES-Costa Rica) and the principles of cognitive justice and educational equity. It considers classic authors such as Bernstein, Bourdieu, and Freire, as well as contemporary authors such as Marginson, Barnett, Santos, and Trowler, highlighting how regulatory frameworks tend to homogenize institutional and epistemic diversity. The results reveal that quality assessment mechanisms, although oriented toward improvement, reproduce cultural hierarchies that hinder the inclusion of situated and decolonial epistemologies. It is concluded that a more symmetrical understanding of quality —as an intersubjective and dialogical construction— would allow reconciling academic rigor with educational and social diversity.
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