Many of today’s schools are caught at the center of a perfect storm fueled by the pressures from a more demanding public, increased governmental accountability, warring political factions, shrinking resources, and new technologies and methodologies. Proponents of Quality Management/Continuous Improvement (QM/CI) have championed the philosophy for over two decades as a solution for addressing these kinds of pressures and systems problems. Unfortunately, QM/CI theory remains underdeveloped and subsequently often fails to align with or guide practice. Detert, Louis, and Schroeder propose that QM/CI theory is best explored through the organizational culture framework that borrows heavily from the work of Edgar Schein. According to Schein, organizational culture exists at the multiple levels of espoused values, material artifacts and creations, and underlying assumptions (deeply held organizational values that guide the norms of behavior). Detert and colleagues contend that there are “nine” core values that define the efficacy of QM/CI in school cultures. To assess the viability of these values, as lived out in the Leander ISD, Leander, Texas, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and was both confirmatory and exploratory in research intent. The Nine Core Values were examined through surveys, purposefully selected interviews, a review of the quality literature, on-site observations, and school documents, with the results triangulated to derive the findings and conclusions. Deeply and widely held values should be observable throughout the multiple levels of culture, expressed through espoused values, material artifacts and creations, and practices that reflect the norms of behavior. The findings and conclusions suggest that the first eight of the Nine Core Values are lived out in the Leander ISD as identifiable norms of behavior: shared vision, outside stakeholder involvement in educational decision-making, long term commitment, continuous improvement, employee involvement in improving the school, collaboration, fact-based decision-making, and focusing on processes rather than people. The ninth Core Value, “Quality can be improved within existing resources”, could not be corroborated across the methodological triangulations. The study also unearthed two additional Core Values, one associated with the organizational learning dimension of QM/CI, and a second incorporating the elimination of fear and blame.

Thesis (D. Ed.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-213). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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Aukštasis mokslas yra neatsiejama visuomenės kultūros dalis. Poreikis įgyti aukštąjį išsilavinimą, skatina kalbėti apie jo kokybę. Neatsiejamas dalykas nuo aukštojo mokslo kokybės yra dėstytojų – studentų santykiai. Taigi šio darbo objektas yra Lietuvos švietimo sistemos atstovų (studentų ir dėstytojų) santykiai ir jų įtaka aukštojo mokslo kokybei. Tyrimo tikslas - išsiaiškinti studentų - dėstytojų santykiu ypatumus ir jų įtaką aukštojo mokslo kokybei Lietuvos kultūriniame kontekste. Reikėtų tikėtis, jog po nepriklausomybės ir 2003-ųjų gegužės prisijungimo prie Europos Sąjungos, Vakaru Europos įtakos sandūroje formuojasi nauja akademinė kultūra, turint omeny dėstytojų ir studentų elgesį, normas, etiketą, ir jų sąveikos formas. Be to, sovietmečiu vyravusi monologinė paskaitos vedimo forma perauga į intensyvesnį dialogą su studentais paskaitų metu. Todėl įdomu pažiūrėti, ar santykiai tarp dėstytojų ir studentų turi įtakos kokybiškesniam mokymuisi. Todėl, pagrinde remiantis edukologijos atstovo Barnett‘o teorinėmis knygomis, šiame darbe bandoma apibrėžti „aukštojo mokslo kokybės“ sąvoką, bei empirinėje dalyje išryškinti studentų - dėstytojų santykių bendravimo ypatumus Lietuvoje, remiantis studentų ir dėstytojų požiūriais. Antropologija, kaip mokslas, ugdymo mokslų atžvilgiu, gali padėti suprasti žmogaus elgesį edukacinėse situacijose. Antropologai, studijuojantys skirtingas kultūras, bei matantys edukacinius procesus labiau negu formalus mokslas, gali padaryti ypač aktualių ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Higher education is an integral part of public culture. The widespread demand for higher education raises questions about its quality. Of direct consequence to the quality of higher education is the relationship between students and their professors. Thus, the purpose of this research project is to investigate particulars of the student-professor relations and their impact on the quality of education in the Lithuanian cultural context. It is to be expected that after independence and subsequently, after joining the EU in May, 2003, a significantly new classroom culture has emerged - in terms of expectations, teaching styles, and relationships between student and professor, the norms and etiquette, that shapes their interaction. In addition, the prevailing lecture by monologue in the time of Soviet union, took the form of guidance to intensify dialogue with the students during lecture. It is therefore interesting to see whether the relationships between teachers and students have an affect to better quality learning. On the theoretical side, this paper mainly utilizes the work of R. Barnett to define the concept of "quality of higher education", and the empirical part is meant to explore the relationship between students and professors as they manifest themselves in Lithuania, based on the opinions revealed by students and professors. The discipline of anthropology can aid us in understanding human behavior in the educational sphere. Anthropologists, who study different... [to full text]

This research project examines the successes and challenges of processes involved in the implementation of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) in six secondary schools. The focus of this study is limited to six secondary schools in the Umgungundlovu District in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The research seeks to critically trace the evolution of the IQMS as a policy strategy for the implementation of teacher appraisal in South African schools. The research also explores appraisal measures in place prior to the introduction of the IQMS in schools. The analytical framework uses forward and backward mapping as analytical tools to guide the data analysis. The methodology is a case study approach with qualitative interviews with principals, heads of departments and post-level one educators. The findings indicate that while progressing adequately, there are a number of areas of concern with the implementation of IQMS. The report makes several recommendations regarding these. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of educators on the effectiveness of the training for IQMS. The study explores just how effective the training was and what does this mean for the classroom practitioner in their implementation of the IQMS. Since 1994, the South African Department of Education has directed the educational system through a series of initiatives and has set quality assurance of the education system as its overriding goal. In 2003 the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) was gazetted as a national instrument for the evaluation of educators and schools. The appraisal is driven not only by the need to develop, but also to evaluate individual educators for salary and grade progression, affirmation of appointments, rewards and incentives. It is a particularly sensitive initiative and therefore the advocacy and training should address management issues of appraisal and be adequate to promote effective implementation. Currently, the training program employed by the Department of Education is the ‘cascade model’; starting with the national team and involving other teams at subsidiary levels. The one to one interviews and the group interviews comprise of level one educators who have gone through the process of IQMS. These respondents are at the lowest level of the cascade model of training used. The main finding was that most of the respondents were unhappy with the training they received and felt that the Department in terms of retraining, support and intervention programs did not support the initial training. The study recommends that it is essential for the Department to have a national / provincial training coordinator who is allocated a limited time slot at subsidiary training programs to clarify all the relevant issues and questions in the training program. This would give a national / provincial perspective on the implementation of IQMS. The study also recommends further training to be convened to clarify inconsistencies in the implementation of IQMS. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This research investigates the effectiveness of teambuilding in the whole School Development Department of an NGO based in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, KwaZuluNatal. My personal view is that teamwork is essential to the effective functioning of people in organisations. As I am the manager of the Whole School Development Department, I initiated a teambuilding programme at the beginning of 2002. My gut feeling is that teambuilding is the most important tool that can bring a team together in pursuit of common goals. By embarking on this research, I would be able to explore the perceptions of team members in respect of the effectiveness of teambuilding. From the outset it was believed that a case study approach would be most appropriate. This approach allowed the manager (researcher) to freely observe and interact with the subjects of the research. During the research, data was collected and analysed on an ongoing basis. Due to the nature of the research and the size of the population (eleven members in the team) the researcher was able to focus on the entire population. Results obtained revealed that the manager and team members were committed and dedicated to make teambuilding work. All the participants had a large say in how it would be run and all wanted the team to be as good as it could be. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This dissertation investigated the quality of service delivery at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) Pietermaritzburg campuses. According to du Toit (2004:182) student satisfaction is important in the Higher Education sector due to its role in effective enrolment management. It is essential for student perceptions of service quality to be evaluated and managed by the university. Iacobucci, et al (1995:277) emphasized that service quality and customer satisfaction are important concepts to academic researchers studying consumer evaluations as a means of creating competitive advantages and customer loyalty. According to the South African Department of Education (2004:3), the creation of a new merged institution must ultimately be accompanied by standardised service levels. Hence this study attempted to investigate the service levels of the merged institution in Pietermaritzburg. The research set out to measure service expectations of higher education as well as measure service perceptions at the DUT. The research also set out to establish the SERVQUAL gap, which causes unsuccessful service delivery (Gap 5) and examine the dimensions which contribute to Gap 5. A SERVQUAL analysis was undertaken on the two Pietermaritzburg campus, viz. Riverside and Indumiso campus. The study found that on average customers had high expectations in tangibles, reliability and assurance dimensions and their highest perceptions were found in the assurance dimension. The study also found that management of DUT need to apply a varying degree of attention to the dimensions between the two campuses. The key recommendation to management of DUT was to introduce a Total Quality Management (TQM) system and a service marketing management plan. In addition to implementing this, management also needs to develop a service-minded workforce. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-193).