Identification of school profiles as a result of implementing ISO 9001 STANDARDS

Author(s):

Jesús Miguel Rodríguez-Mantilla(presenting / submitting)María José Fernández-Díaz

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 04, Standardization Tests vs. Other Assessments

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

09:00-10:30

Room:

W2.10

Chair:

Jana Poláchová Vaštatková

Contribution

Implementation of Quality Management Systems (QMS) to improve schools, as well as the partial results these systems achieve to strengthen relations, management, communication, customer service, etc. in the institutions, are topics which have been widely studied (López-Alfaro, 2010; Cantón and Arias, 2009). However, there is a lack of scientific literature on the consolidation, over time, of a school culture based and focused on quality.

In the field of education and, specifically, at the university level -one of the levels where the most research has been done- there are authors who consider that there is hardly any evidence that QMS are truly efficient and achieve the expected results but rather, on the contrary, they appear to stimulate bureaucracy in organisations with no effect on the most relevant aspects (Hernández, Arcos & Sevilla, 2013; Ferrer, 2015).

Although authors such as Rodríguez Ponce et al. (2011) highlighted the need for more empirical evidence to show how these QMS impact the quality of school processes, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of studies on the impact of different QMS on schools from various perspectives (Chen, Chen, & Chen, 2013; Duque, 2013; Mehta, Verma, & Seth, 2013).

Based on these and other studies, the areas of impact of QMS may be identified as including (ISO STANDARDS, Total Quality Management Models, and other alternatives): systematisation of efficient channels for horizontal and vertical Communication, consolidation of systems for school External Relations (establishing alliances with other institutions and organisations) to help achieve objectives set and which also favour Process Management (Fernández-Díaz, Rodríguez-Mantilla, & Fontana-Abad, 2016). Likewise, the areas of Teaching Process, School Climate and Satisfaction of the various members of the school community, were notable as quality factors (Fernández Cruz, Egido Gálvez & Carballo Santaolalla, 2016; Egido Gálvez, Fernández Cruz, & Fernández Díaz, 2016).

In this sense, as pointed out by Fernández-Díaz (2013), further research is required to be able to learn the true impact of QMS, understood as substantial and sustainable changes at educational organisations, whether in staff attitude, work style, climate, school culture or in planning, evaluation and development of the organisations. This is why the primary objective of this study was to identify and define possible school profiles, as a result of implementing a QMS (specifically, ISO 9001 STANDARDS), for a minimum of 3 years. Similarly, we aimed to analyse existing differences between schools by Autonomous Community, ownership of the school, number of years the ISO 9001 STANDARDS have been implemented at the school and the type of financial aid received for their implementation.

Method

This study is along the lines of non-experimental, ex post facto research, with incidental sampling. The sample was composed of 2,132 subjects (teachers and management team members) belonging to 83 schools in 4 Autonomous Communities in Spain (Madrid -21.2%-, Andalusia -55.3%-, Valencia -13.6%- and Castilla y León- 9.8%-). We looked at schools with different years of implementation of the ISO 9001 STANDARDS: between 3-5 years (3.6%), between 6-8 years (22.8%), between 9-11 (37.6%) and over 11 years (36%). 8.5% of the schools were private with state subsidies, 9.5% were private and 9% public. Regarding financial aid received to implement ISO 9001 STANDARDS, 12.1% had external aid, 55.3% internal aid and the remaining 32.6% received no aid at all. To identify the various school profiles, based on the impact of ISO 9001 STANDARDS, we used a questionnaire with 124 items where subjects had to answer each one on a Likert-type scale from 0 to 4. The tool satisfactorily met psychometric validity and reliability requirements (Cronbach's alpha > .95) and evaluated 7 dimensions: Communication System (9 items), Management System (27 items), Support and Recognition (9 items), School Climate (17 items), Teaching Process (21 items), Satisfaction (4 items), External Relations (15 items) and Quality (22 items). To secure school participation, we arranged an initial interview with the Head Masters, where we explained the study objective. The questionnaire was administered to teachers and management teams during the first semester of 2016, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality of results. To analyse data, we used the software package SPSS 24. First, we conducted a descriptive analysis of each dimension. Next, we conducted a clustering analysis (with the K-means method) in order to identify and define the various school profiles as a result of implementing the ISO 9001 STANDARDS. Finally, studies were complemented with differential analyses by Autonomous Community, years of implementation, ownership of the school, and type of aid received (using ANOVA and Scheffé tests with a significance level of .01).

Expected Outcomes

Descriptive studies indicated that the ISO 9001 STANDARDS had a greater impact on the dimensions of Management and Quality in the schools and a lesser one on Support and Recognition, Climate, and Satisfaction. The clustering analysis showed 3 final school profiles: Profile 1 (34.2% of the sample): defined by schools with high scores in Communication System, Management, Teaching Process and Quality; with medium scores in all other dimensions. Profile 2 (44.5%): schools with medium scores in Communication, Management, Teaching Process and Quality; and with low scores in all other dimensions. Profile 3 (21.3%): schools with medium levels in Quality, low scores in Communication, Management, Teaching Process and very low scores in all other dimensions. Differential studies on the impact of ISO 9001 STANDARDS on schools by Autonomous Community showed that the schools in Andalusia and Valencia had significantly higher scores (p<.01) than those in Madrid or Castilla y León in all dimensions, except for Quality (where there were no differences between Communities). By Type of School, private ones with state subsidies presented higher levels than public or private ones in all dimensions, except for Quality (where there were no differences). By Years of Implementation of the ISO STANDARDS, schools with 9-11 years of implementation had higher scores than schools with 3-5 years or 6-8 years in Communication, Management, Support and Recognition, Climate, Teaching Process. Schools with 9-11 years attained higher levels than schools with more than 11 in the areas of Support and Recognition and Teaching Process. Finally, schools with over 11 years of implementation, reached higher levels than those with 6-8 years in External Relations and higher than those with 3-5 years in Climate. By Financial Aid received, the schools which received internal aid showed higher impact levels than those which received external aid in the dimension Teaching Process.

References

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. Egido Gálvez, I., Fernández Cruz, F. J., & Fernández Díaz, M. J. (2016). Evaluation of the impact of quality management systems on school climate. International Journal of Educational Management, 30(4), 474-492. Fernández Cruz, F. J., Egido Gálvez, I., & Carballo Santaolalla, R. (2016). Impact of quality management systems on teaching-learning processes. Quality Assurance in Education, 24(3). Fernández Díaz, M. J., Rodríguez Mantilla, J. M., & Fontana Abad, M. (2016). Impact of implementation of quality management systems on internal communications and external relations at schools. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 27(1-2), 97-110. Fernández-Díaz, M. J. (2013). Evaluación del impacto para un cambio sostenible en las organizaciones educativas. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 254, 45-65. Ferrer, L. G. (2015). Aplicación y seguimiento del modelo sistema gestión de calidad, desde el punto de vista de la eficiencia administrativa basada en la cultura organizacional en las instituciones de educación superior públicas en Colombia. Hernández, G., Arcos, J. L., & Sevilla, J. J. (2013). Gestión de la calidad bajo la Norma ISO 9001 en instituciones públicas de educación superior en México. Calidad en la educación, (39), 81-115. 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. Rodríguez-Ponce, E., Pedraja-Rejas, L., Araneda-Guirriman, C., González-Plitt, M & Rodríguez-Ponce, J. (2011). El impacto del sistema de aseguramiento de la calidad en el servicio entregado por las universidades privadas en Chile. Ingeniare. Revista chilena de ingeniería, 19 (3), 409-419.

Author Information

Jesús Miguel Rodríguez-Mantilla (presenting / submitting)

Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

María José Fernández-Díaz