Session Information
11 SES 08 A, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The progressive implementation of Quality Management Systems in educational organisations of all levels is a fact in many countries (Chen, Chen, & Chen, 2013; Duque, 2013; Mehta, Verma, & Seth, 2013). From the various administrations to the organisations promoting these models (ISO Standards, Total Quality Management Models, and other alternatives), they all defend the need and relevance of the management systems associated with these models in order to set up continuous improvement plans.
However not everyone is a major advocate of these models and management systems. Detractors also strongly criticise and challenge their relevance in improving organisations, especially in the education sector. They have questioned and been critical of the adoption of models originally designed for companies and later adapted to schools (Doherty, 2008). This criticism has gradually decreased with time due to the positive experiences in many educational institutions.
Nonetheless, the supposed improvement generated by these systems requires proof and evidence. Until now barely any references could be found in literature and the limited evidence from studies has not provided identical results on the usefulness of quality management systems in schools (Stensaker, Langfeldt, Harvey, Huisman, & Westerheijden, 2011). While some studies seem to show considerable improvements in education (Cantón Mayo & Arias Gago, 2009; López Alfaro, 2010; Ramírez García & Lorenzo, 2009), other papers indicate their effects are irrelevant or even detrimental for education centres.
Given this situation, the pertinent question is: do they help improve the quality of an organisation? There is no doubt that the arguments and procedures required for their implementation appear to indicate their efficacy, as has been expressed by those who, with a greater or lesser level of confidence, decided at one point to set up a management system. Yet it is necessary to go further and evaluate their efficacy throughout the organisation and the effects on the centre as a result of implementing the system.
Without going into the requirements of implementing a management system, it would seem logical to think that such a system aims to achieve not so much immediate or short-term improvements, but rather medium to long-term changes. These would be sustainable changes, either in the way the organisation works, or in its culture, or in the planning system, among other aspects. This transformation cannot only take place at the start of the implementation, not even during the first years, but rather it should be consolidated over time, as a consequence of the progressive implementation of the system. These are the medium-long term effects. In this sense, it is necessary to differentiate immediate results from those generated over time as a consequence of implementing the system and improvement plans, through interaction with other factors in the same context, centre or organisation. In this paper, it has been termed the latter “impact”, to differentiate it from the immediate results referred to above.
Assessing the effects of implementing a quality management system is essential to provide validated and reliable evidence. It is not easy to assess the effects of complex processes that cover the whole educational organisation, integrated in the QMS. Organisations in themselves are highly complex and the systems are equally complex and, obviously, assessing their effects is equally difficult. Logically, this difficulty is substantially increased when the aim is to assess effects that become apparent in the medium-long term, that is, the so-called impact.
This paper focuses on determining the technical quality of a Questionnaire for Evaluation of the Impact of Quality Management Systems on Schools to improve primary and secondary education schools with over 3 years of implementation, using assessments conducted by their management team and the teachers involved.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Byrne, B. (2010). Structural equation modelling with AMOS. (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor and Francis Group. Cantón Mayo, I., & Arias Gago, A. R. (2009). Metáforas y teorías implícitas de los directores escolares. Educación XXI, 28(1), 227-248. Chen, Y., Chen, J., & Chen, C. (2013). Teaching quality in higher education: An introductory review on a process-oriented teaching-quality model. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(1-2), 36-56. Duque, L. (2013). A framework for analysing higher education performance: students' satisfaction, perceived learning outcomes, and dropout intentions. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(1-2), 1-21. Doherty, G. D. (2008). On Quality in Education. Quality Assurance in Education, 16(3), 255-265. López Alfaro, P. (2010). El componente liderazgo en la validación de un modelo de gestión escolar hacia la calidad. Educação e Pesquisa, 36(3), 779-794. Mehta, N., Verma, P., & Seth, N. (2013). Total quality management implementation in engineering education in India: an interpretive structural modelling approach. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(1-2), 124-140. Kline, R. (2010). Principles and practice of structural equation modelling (Third edition). New York: The Guilford Press. Ramírez García, A., & Lorenzo, E. (2009). Calidad y Evaluación de los Centros Educativos no Universitarios en Andalucía: Una adaptación de la EFQM. Revista Iberoamericana de Evaluación Educativa, 2(2), 22-45. Stensaker, B., Langfeldt, L., Harvey, L., Huisman, J., & Westerheijden, D. (2011). An in‐depth study on the impact of external quality assurance. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 36(4), 465-478.
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