The aim of this investigation was twofold: to explore how policy texts are discursively involved in the formation of subject positions and to help lay bare the part dominant hegemonic discourses play in this process. To this end, a policy document on the Iranian higher education quality supervision, assessment, and assurance system was analyzed using the theoretical lens of poststructuralism and the analytical resources of critical discourse analysis to see how language is implicated in the asymmetrical representation of actors/actions in that domain of social life, and might channel our views of reality in specific ways. The findings revealed that whereas the assessees, i.e., Iranian university teachers, are depicted as faceless entities who are at the receiving end of the quality assurance process, the assessors are foregrounded and come to life through the workings of the policy text. In addition, being a mix of especially legal and technocratic genres, the document discursively legitimizes the closely intertwined processes of higher education quality supervision, assessment, and assurance in ways that seem to leave little room, if any, for the potential assessees to challenge them. Implications for policy and research are finally given.

这项调查的目的是双重的：探索政策文本如何以话语方式参与主体立场的形成，并帮助揭示主导性霸权话语在这一过程中发挥的作用。为此，使用后结构主义的理论视角和批判性话语分析的分析资源，对伊朗高等教育质量监督、评估和保证体系的政策文件进行了分析，以了解语言如何与行为者/行动的不对称表现有关在社会生活的那个领域，并可能以特定的方式引导我们对现实的看法。调查结果显示，被评估者，即伊朗大学教师，被描述为处于质量保证过程接收端的匿名实体，通过政策文本的运作，评估者被前景化并变得生动起来。此外，由于特别是法律和技术官僚流派的混合体，该文件以话语方式使紧密交织的高等教育质量监督、评估和保证过程合法化，似乎几乎没有给潜在的被评估者挑战他们的空间（如果有的话） . 最后给出了对政策和研究的影响。