TQM – more quality into teaching

• Pirjo Ståhle Helsingin yliopiston Vantaan täydennyskoulutuslaitos

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.96904

Abstract

The author examines the advent of TQM (Total Quality Management) in the 1980s into the education sector and its appropriateness there. The article is based on the views of Edward Sailis, quality researcher and developer in the field of education, Frank Bett's systemic thinking, B.H. Banathy's criteria for continuously developing educational establishments, and Amitai Etzioni's thoughts on spontaneity and planning in relation to results. Quality is seen as a direction. lndeed, the idea behind TQM is in that the educational establishment itseif is capable of creating a system enabling the continuous development of quality. Nevertheless, TQM should be applied in education an imaginative manner: the definition of quality cannot come from without the establishment itself. Quality and its assessment are firmly anchored to the general value base of life, and thus requires the making visible of the values in the background.