Validity and reliability of the total quality management questionnaire for recording and measuring primary and secondary education in Greece

Purpose of this study was to validate the questionnaire for measuring total quality management (TQM) in primary and secondary education in Greece based on Deming principles, to enable its further use in the Greek population. The research sample consisted of 822 executives (directors, associate directors and deputy directors) 374 men and 448 women. The analysis led to 19 final items that load on four factors with quite high scores. Exploratory factor, reliability and confirmatory factor analyses were used for the validation of the questionnaire. Correlation analysis was also performed to determine the correlation between the factors of the new questionnaire. The results confirmed the validity and reliability of the new questionnaire and it is now ready to be used in the Greek population as the basic recording tool by all school units. This research effort presents scientific originality by contributing new knowledge and methodologies to the field of quality in education.