The Path to Quality English Teacher Education: Is There Any Relationship Between Total Quality Management and the Determinants of Quality?

Quality is the leading goal that organization’s management strives for accomplishing in its everyday performances. English language teacher education programs should be, like any other educational programs, featured with quality. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a holistic approach that has been used to achieve quality. This study was executed to explore whether the embedding of TQM core principles can lead to enhance the determinants of quality of the English language teacher education programs delivered at Malaysian pubic higher institutions. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect the quantitative data from 69 academics of English teacher education programs at 5 major public higher Malaysian institutions. Two questionnaires were employed to answer the study’s questions. The findings disclosed that Training and Development represents the most critical quality core principle in producing quality programs followed by top management commitment. A further finding exhibited a positive relationship between TQM implementation and the aligned four forms of capital (intellectual, financial, spiritual, and social). Finally, the study’s conceptualized model is proposed to be used by other researchers as a corner stone to explore the degree of quality for any offered program.