Abstract:

The ISO Standard responds to a set of quality standards that allow organizations to identify, correct and prevent errors, in addition to promoting continuous improvement (Bevans-Gonzales and Nair, 2004). In the educational context, it is argued that it helps schools respond and face the external pressures of accountability. In this way, ISO standards can be defined as a system of objective and collectively accepted rules (Boiral, 2003). Thus, educational management is indicated as a factor of great relevance for the achievement of quality learning. Against this, different investigations have been concerned with analyzing the factors that affect the scope of this objective.

In this line and in relation to the performance of schools, it is recognized as a phenomenon of evaluation and accountability, the proliferation of certifications under ISO Standard (Boiral, 2012). Educational institutions are pressured to be more efficient, work better at lower cost and know the needs of the environment, in a process aimed at developing efforts to achieve quality.

In this context we propose to investigate the way in which the implementation of devices oriented to the monitoring and control of processes, affect the quality concepts that the members of educational establishments possess.

To do this, we analyze the reports prepared by the members of the management teams of a network of educational centers for vocational training education in various regions of Chile that have implemented the ISO 9001 standard. With a qualitative approach we apply a semi-structured interview to a group of managers. The instrument is organized into three blocks of questions, related to: diagnosis on which the implementation of the ISO Standard is sustained; work experience in the establishment under the norm and; valuation of the norm.

The main results indicate that to advance in the implementation of the ISO standard it is necessary to:
a) Establish a clear diagnosis to correct the irregularity, informality and intermittency in the actions of the different actors of the educational community, and nurture the organizational culture of a sense of collective rather than individual action. Therefore, a first exercise to advance in the implementation of the standard requires a definition of functions within the educational establishments;
b) Generate evidence to guide the implementation of the standard and that this in turn becomes a tool to configure quality spaces and improve communication within the establishment. In other words, establish a minimum floor, and collective, of fulfillment of the tasks that each one affirms to fulfill in the different educational establishments;
c) Progressively install the culture of minimum standards, since the relationship between the implementation of the ISO Standard and the progress towards the quality of educational establishments is generally unclear, although its implementation is based on the certification of the quality of what certifying agencies understand as a teaching service, and that for members of educational establishments is nothing more than the teaching and learning process.

Keywords:

Quality, vocational training education, ISO 9001, management, monitoring and control.