The Contribution Of Quality Management Practices To School Culture And Student Performance:Perception Of Public Secondary School Principals Of Punjab Province,Pakistan

Education advancement is deemed the main mechanism to drive a country forward in the desired direction.According to the current situation,controversial issues emerging in Pakistan are national education’s excellence,worth,and quality.The pervasiveness of good administration and management has long captured the interest of the educational community as key influencers for school success and improvement.The school management is responsible and accountable for implementing educational policies into practice effectively and efficiently to provide quality education.Simultaneously,school management can grasp the core features of the whole school process and identify how to regulate and pertain to the obstacles running in the school system.There is no short way to bring quality in academic and managerial processes.Hence,certain plans,initiatives,reforms,and programs are launched to maintain quality in public schools.For the same purpose,Punjab Schools Reform Roadmap(PSRR)was launched in 2010 in the Punjab province of Pakistan.This roadmap was one of the efforts to foster the quality of educational processes in public secondary schools.The roadmap was comprised of three main dimensions.Implementation of Quality Management was the first domain of this roadmap(PSRR).And still,after several years,the performance of public secondary schools is not satisfactory.Henceforth,the paramount purpose of the current study is to explore the principals’ perception of the quality management practices in the public secondary schools of Punjab province,Pakistan.Simultaneously,the study uncovered the contribution of quality management practices to improve the whole school culture and determine the relation between quality management practices and student performance.Additionally,identifying the factors affecting quality management was another study objective.Further,determining the difference in urban and rural school principals’ perceptions of challenging and success factors is the concern of the current research work.The present study obtained a theoretical framework based on Edward Deming’s model for quality management in education(1986),Dr.Joseph M.Juran’s Quality theory(1904),and the International Standards Organization(ISO 9000)framework to explore the principals’ perception about current practices and the factors affecting the quality management of public secondary schools in the Punjab province of Pakistan.To achieve the objectives of the study,the study adopted an exploratory sequential mix-methods research design.The specific methodology included two phases: Qualitative and Quantitative phase.For the qualitative data,the researcher conducted a systematic literature review and interviews with the 11 school principals.On the basis of results obtained from the qualitative phase,a questionnaire was prepared and dispatched to school principals to get quantitative data.Successively 550 valid responses were received.In order to answer the research question 1 and test the hypothesized relationships and effects,a model was specified to show hypothesized relations amongst variables.As per the complexity of the proposed model,the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling(PLS-SEM)approach was used.Moreover,for other research questions,the study performed frequency analysis,comparative analysis,Pearson’s correlation,t-tests and chi-square data analysis to get the results.Consequently,obtained results supported all hypotheses.According to the study outcomes,the school principals believe that quality management positively affects student performance.Besides,the mediating role of school culture has also been proved imperative.Further,eight significant challenging factors were: “Unhealthy relationship between the school & community”,“Frequent changes in educational policies”,“Retention and shortage of teachers”,“Low job satisfaction of teachers”,“Technology incompetence of principal & teachers”,“Inadequate physical facilities”,“Emotional health of Students & Teachers” and “Striking a balance between technology and pedagogy”.Simultaneously,seven significant success factors were: “Clear & focused vision”,“Provision of instructional leadership”,“Provision of professional development to principals”,“Perfect implementation of plans”,“Effective teaching strategies”,“Allocation of sufficient funds” and “Increasing teachers’ salary & incentives”.Furthermore,the schools in urban and rural areas have different significant challenging and success factors.Therefore,the findings are inevitably aimed at raising management standards and helping overcome the shortcomings of school management.Additionally,the present study will not only bridge the gap in the relationship between quality management,school culture and student performance but also determine valuable discernment for researchers working on this phenomenon.Meanwhile,the study results would greatly benefit experts in advancing quality management practices and dealing with factors affecting quality management in public secondary schools.Ultimately,the research equips school administrators,practitioners,and researchers with comprehensive and relevant information of direct value,which is greatly conducive to schools’ enriched culture and student performance.