dc.description.abstracttranslated | The quality of education poses a threat to the educational systems at both an international
and a national level.
The term 'quality of education' though, as well as its assessment, is a matter of extreme
complexity, since it is influenced by social, political, historical and economic
circumstances, which are in fact interdependent.
The dialogue on this particular issue in Greece has been in progress for 40 years, due to
the fact that the reforms have begun since 1964, but the efforts that have been put into
practice have not been controlled in terms of accountability and efficiency.
Thus, it is noted that in the Greek educational system there is a general lack of standards,
procedures and mechanisms for quality control, although individual attempts to apply
quality methods and procedures to school units are identified, yet such efforts are made
instinctively and individually either by charismatic leaders or by gifted teachers.
However, since modern society has transformed itself from a society of knowledge into
an information society and shapes new data in the field of educational systems, the school
of secondary public education urgently needs upgrading; it needs to provoke the interest
of its students and listen to the imperatives of the modern world, so that it is not
questioned and not considered a finite institution, it needs, in other words, to adopt
quality procedures in an educational, operational and administrative level.
The present doctoral thesis examines, in essence, the extent to which the conditions of the
secondary schools in our country correspond to the indicators that have been put forward
which reveal elements that are the guarantee of the existence of quality procedures.
Moreover, it investigates whether the implementation / compliance / promotion of TQM
indicators in a school unit encounters impediments, problems or what prospects it creates
for further applications and improvements.
In the first part of the dissertation a bibliographic overview is made concerning the
principles of Total Quality Management, the implementation of TQM in secondary
education at a global and national level, the application of TQM indicators in Junior High
Schools and Lyceums and the weaknesses of the Greek educational system that make the
implementation of TQM difficult.
In the second part of the dissertation, the purpose and the necessity of the research are
recorded, and the research questions as well as its methodology are developed. It is
attempted to investigate by quantitative research through the study of a sample of 20
school units in the Region of the Peloponnese whether those defined as quality
characteristics in the theoretical part are "present" in the school units or to what extent
they are developed and in which way (systematically or not) under the present
circumstances in the Greek educational system. Finally, the results, the conclusions and
the proposals on this issue are presented in detail. | el |