Peer observation: a tool for staff development or compliance?

Peer observation has become a feature of university practice over the last decade, the primary impetus for its introduction being the political drive to raise teaching quality via the development and sharing of 'good practice'. Peer observation within higher education (HE) involves observing colleagues in the classroom and has the further aim of supporting continuing professional development (CPD) through peer learning. This article is based upon a research study of a typical observation scheme as introduced within a new university prior to a quality review. It is underpinned by the deconstruction of the university's observation documentation and focuses upon the experience of a teaching observation trio taking part in this formal peer observation process over a 2‐year period, before and after a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) subject review. The deconstruction of the university's documentation, combined with the actual experience of the observation trio studied, reveals issues of politics, power and pragmatics. A managerial discourse emerges with emphasis on compliance by lecturing staff and with an economic underpinning not actually supported by resources. Pre‐QAA, the observation trio complied with the management's requirements for record keeping but the process of peer observation opened up learning and development opportunities for them as individuals. Post‐QAA the trio members became focused primarily on their own objectives. Although management had sought control, the individuals involved developed and pursued their own, shared agenda of professional development.