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To develop a quality management (QM) measurement instrument that has sound psychometric properties and recognizes a key feature of the field, i.e. QM is currently characterized by three competing approaches: standards‐based; prize‐criteria; and, elemental implementation approaches.

The three disparate approaches were analyzed to identify sets of key constructs and associated items. The assembled instrument was empirically validated through a survey of 418 Australian manufacturing organizations. A full set of reliability and validity tests were performed. Wherever applicable, confirmatory approach using structural equation modeling was used.

The results of psychometric tests suggest that the constructs of the three approaches have good empirical support. In the manner in which the instrument is presented, it is possible to separately measure constructs related to each of the three approaches.

The measurement instrument has been validated with manufacturing organizations from Australia. It is applicability to other industry sectors or country contexts needs to be verified.

Practitioners and consultants can use the measurement instrument for conducting QM benchmarking exercises within and across organizations. Researchers can use the instrument in future studies for, inter alia, theory development in the area.

The measurement instrument overcomes the shortcomings of the existing instruments by explicitly including all three practical approaches to quality management. Also, a rigorous psychometric validation process is adopted that provides credible outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide recommendations for making a conceptual shift from current document‐centric to data‐centric metadata. The importance of adjusting current library models such as Resource Description and Access (RDA) and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) to models based on Linked Data principles is discussed. In relation to technical formats, the paper suggests the need to leapfrog from machine readable cataloguing (MARC) to Resource Description Framework (RDF), without disrupting current library metadata operations.

This paper identified and reviewed relevant works on overarching topics that include standards‐based metadata, Web 2.0 and Linked Data. The review of these works is contextualised to inform the recommendations identified in this paper. Articles were retrieved from databases such as Emerald and D‐Lib Magazine. Books, electronic articles and relevant blog posts were also used to support the arguments put forward in this paper.

Contemporary library standards and models carried forward some of the constraints from the traditional card catalogue system. The resultant metadata are mainly attuned to human consumption rather than machine processing. In view of current user needs and technological development such as the interest in Linked Data, it is found important that current metadata models such as FRBR and RDA are re‐conceptualised.

This paper discusses the implications of re‐conceptualising current metadata models in light of Linked Data principles, with emphasis on metadata sharing, facilitation of serendipity, identification of Zeitgeist and emergent metadata, provision of faceted navigation, and enriching metadata with links.

Most of the literature on Linked Data for libraries focus on answering the “how to” questions of using RDF/XML and SPARQL technologies, however, this paper focuses mainly on answering “why” Linked Data questions, thus providing an underlying rationale for using Linked Data. The discussion on mixed‐metadata approaches, serendipity, Zeitgeist and emergent metadata is considered to provide an important rationale to the role of Linked Data for libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to present the idea of a national health quality plan as a way of mobilising and organising effort towards quality improvement, and stimulate debate and interest in the West in the subject, showing how quality improvement can be developed and invigorated by engaging in issues arising from quality strategies in developing countries. Considers why developing countries are concerned to improve the quality of health care and the different methods which can be used. Stresses the importance of recognising the starting‐point and what can help and hinder this work. Concentrates on improving the quality of health care, rather than the wider and important question of improving health. Concludes that developing countries do have the exerptise and that extra resources are needed, mostly for training and supervision. Opines that if implementation is not managed then the investment will be wasted.

This chapter examines strategies deployed at individual and institutional levels to combat fake news in two media houses in Uganda. Grounded in the hierarchy of influences model, we examine journalists' and editors' perspectives on how Vision Group and Nation Media Group newsrooms respond to fake news. Journalists' and editors' responses, obtained through semi-structured interviews as well as document review enabled us to underscore the centrality of professional standards, training and technology in combating fake news. We found that technology plays a key role in fact-checking, although newsrooms are yet to adopt advanced digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms. The newsrooms under investigation deploy conventional hardware and software to detect, flag and debunk fake news. We posit that for the strategies adopted at the organisational level to succeed, they ought to appeal to individual reporters' goals and interests. Further, discourses on adoption of newer technology ought to reflect the contexts in which the news organisations operate in addition to their financial standing.

Examines the reasons for the strategic move in UK higher education to a new national quality assurance regime that is primarily focused on academic standards. Considers the conceptual basis on which the new approach is founded as a precursor to examining the proposals made by the National Committee of Inquiry in Higher Education and the initial development work undertaken by the Quality Assurance Agency to create a policy framework.

“Certification”, in the context of this book, is an endorsement by a professional body that a member of that profession has attained a specified set of advanced performance standards. Application for NBPTS advanced certification is usually voluntary and available to all members of the profession (who have had to have at least three years experience in the profession). It is based on assessment of performance; it is not an academic qualification, or a record of professional development courses attended. It is portable – it belongs to the person (it is not a job or position or classification specific to a school or employer). A professional certification system is not in itself a performance pay scheme, but it does aim to provide a service to the profession, to the public and to employing authorities seeking a credible basis on which to provide incentives for professional development and recognition to teachers who reach high standards. Most important, it acknowledges that the individual who gains this certification is demonstrably teaching at the highest levels in our profession.

The aim of this paper is to present the challenges external drivers and internal inertia faced by curriculum designers and implementers at institutions of higher education. The challenges to academics from competing factors are presented: internal resistance to changing existing curricula vs the necessity to continuously evolve programmes to reflect a dynamic, uncertain future. The necessity to prepare future leaders to face global issues such as climate change, dictates changing curricula to reflect changing personal, environmental and societal needs.

This paper uses the case study method to examine two models of climate change curriculum design and renewal. One model, from an Australian university, is based upon national education standards and the second is a non-standards-based curriculum design, developed and delivered by a partnership of four North American universities.

The key findings from this study are that the highest level of participation by internal-to-the-programme academics and administrators is required. Programme quality, delivery and content alignment may be compromised with either stand-alone course delivery and learning outcomes, or if courses are developed independently of others in the programme. National educational standards can be effective tools to guide course and programme management, monitoring, review and updating.

The paper includes implications for postgraduate level curricula design, implementation and programme evaluation.

The paper is the first to compare, contrast and critique a national standards-based, higher education curriculum and a non-standards-based curriculum.

Examines the proposals made by the National Committee of Inquiry in Higher Education (Dearing Report) for a national quality assurance regime that is focused on academic standards. Provides a simple conceptual aid to explain relationships between the elements of the policy framework. Considers the methodologies that are being developed by the Quality Assurance Agency and the implications for institutional and academic practice. Identifies factors and issues that will need to be considered during policy development.

This study aims to draw from overlapping scholarship in critical policy studies and governmentality studies to examine how recent standards-based education policies mark a pivotal shift in the aims and governance of English education.

The author traces this shift through a comparative analysis of the past two standards projects in the USA: the 1996 IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts and the 2010 Common Core State Standards.

An analysis of the standards’ comparative development processes, educational aims and governmentalities exemplifies a global shift toward new policy networks, neoliberal imaginaries and the interrelated policy technologies of managerialism, performativity and free markets.

This paper hopes to prompt more critical, reflexive and strategic stances towards standardization and the ways in which global education policies seek to reshape subject English and the future of teaching and teacher education.

A mid-semester request for help from a local neighborhood association turned into a graduate auditing class service-learning project. Service-learning projects have the potential to provide accounting students with valuable opportunities to integrate and apply auditing, accounting, and business knowledge, to acquire new knowledge, and to practice exercising professional judgment, due professional care, and communications skills in rich settings and to provide clients with useful information. However, the use of service-learning cases in the classroom poses significant risks. Common concerns are that such cases use too much class time relative to learning achieved using more traditional methods, students might not be able to provide a satisfactory work product for the client, instructors must plan and prepare too extensively, and instructors will assign grades based primarily on subjective grading criteria. I offer a standards-based framework for incorporating service-learning projects into existing graduate auditing courses that allows educators to manage potential risks while exploiting pedagogical benefits.