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The TQM literature suggests that success comes to organizations ready for a change in climate. Determining levels of readiness or conversely resistance to change is an important step, yet few organizations assess readiness in starting a TQM (Total Quality Management) implementation. This paper highlights an assessment of a major hospital's readiness to implement a continuous quality improvement process. Discussion of the survey of both managers and employees regarding these characteristics are presented. The case highlights the need for establishing a common vision and providing training for teamwork. Perceptions of management and employees are important because these groups function as if perceptions are real. Background information and implications of findings are also included. Ways to diagnose and identify ways to remove potential hurdles to TQM are identified. Suggestions for implementing the methodology using the assessment framework and model are included. The findings can be used to assist in formulating plans for TQM implementations assessments in other hospitals.

The TQM literature suggests that success comes to organizations ready for a change in climate. Perceptions of management and employees are important to assess because these groups function as if perceptions are real. Determining levels of readiness or conversely resistance to change is an important step, yet few organizations assess readiness in starting a TQM implementation. Highlights key assessment criteria and discusses the variables used to survey both managers and employees regarding these characteristics. Identifies ways to use the variables to develop a survey instrument as well as to diagnose and identify potential ways to remove potential hurdles to TQM. Indicates that both manufacturing organizations and service providers can use these variables to implement continuous improvement processes better.

Bill participated in the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership exchanges in 2005 in Wellington New Zealand and in 2007 in Ottawa Canada. Bill was interviewed by Janet Peters (IIMHL) about his IIMHL experiences and the benefits for First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

To represent the effect of ‘human factors in total quality management (TQM) environment’ in terms of a single numerical index by considering their inheritances and interactions.

Various human factors affecting the TQM culture in an organization are identified and discussed for the sub factors affecting them. These factors are interacting with each other and their overall effect helps an organization in attaining TQM enabled needs. The paper attempts to represent the overall effect of human factors quantitatively by developing a mathematical model using graph theoretic approach. In this approach, interaction among identified human factors is represented through digraph, matrix model and a multinomial.

The extent of human aspects present in an organization, conducive to TQM culture is represented in terms of the “human index”. It provides an insight into the human factors at system and subsystem level. The developed procedure may be useful for self‐analysis and comparison among organizations.

Since, human behaviour is difficult to predict, so are the human factors. The paper considers general factors, which may vary depending on type of organization, size of organization and geographical location. There is a scope of research in factor specific organizations.

It provides a useful methodology for organizations to assess human aspects and improve upon therein. Procedure for stepwise application of methodology is given with example that may help an industry to implement it.

The paper attempts to quantify the intangibles through systematic approach and is of value to industries to improve upon their work environment.

Our Mi’kmaq and Anishinabe Elders, Sister Dorothy and Florence, remind us of the centrality of family in our lives and who we are becoming. When children are taken away from their families and familial contexts the suffering endured by the children, parents, family members, and community is unbearable. This removal of Aboriginal children from families, communities, and the places they knew was unnecessary. Aboriginal people have always known what they want for their children: “We all agree that respect is one of the foundations of what defines our values of our people.” This teaching of respect given to us by the Elders has sustained us in the past and in the present. These teachings will continue to sustain us into the future. The stories of our parents have sustained us too. When our mothers and fathers urged us to not lose our languages they were reminding us of who we are and where we come from. In this way they were giving us a legacy of being proud of our language, of our traditions, and of our ways of being Aboriginal people. It is as we claim and reconnect with these stories of the Elders and our ancestors that we know ways forward (Archibald, 2008; Cajete, 2001; Restoule, 2000).

We began this chapter with storied experiences of relationships with children and youth and of questions around tensions they can experience as they make home, familial, community, and school transitions. These questions included: Why do we do it this way? Who decides? Can’t I think about what's best for my child? For Aboriginal children? As Khea, Jennifer, and Brenda Mary storied the experiences noted earlier, and as we collectively inquired into their stories, attentive to the intergenerational narrative reverberations of colonization made visible, it was their attentiveness to the particular life of a youth, Robbie; of a child, Rachel; and of a grandchild that we were first drawn. Their deep yearnings for something different in schools also turned our attention toward the counterstories to live by which they were composing. Across Khea's, Jennifer's, and Brenda Mary's earlier storied experiences the counterstories to live by around which they were threading new possible intergenerational narrative reverberations were focused on understanding children and youth as composing lives shaped by multiple contexts, that is, lives shaped through multiple relationships in places in and outside of school. This need for understanding the multiple places and relationships shaping the lives of children and youth as they enter into schools is, as shown in the earlier noted stories, vital in Aboriginal families and communities given the ways in which the narrative of colonization continues to reverberate in present lives.

In a university/district collaboration, three college professors and authors of this chapter co-taught with four teachers over a period of seven years. This study explores the perceived changes in thought and practice of both groups as a result of providing three-week summer school programs for fifth and eighth grade emergent bilinguals. This research is grounded in qualitative methodologies of self-study and case study. We present our joint story as a self-study. Data were collected in the form of lesson plan notes, yearly journals, personal notes, audiotapes of meetings, and in-depth interviews/discussions of those involved in the bounded context. Resulting themes were situated meaning, hybrid language, and a 5R Instructional Model. A case study design is used to present the data from the four in-service teachers. Data were collected from field notes and interviews. Several themes emerged from the teacher data, all of which are components of situated meaning: professional development as side-by-side teaching and learning, recognition of and interest in curriculum integration, and change in classroom practice. Findings indicate that the summer program was a meaningful avenue for professional development (PD) for both groups. However, within group similarities were stronger than across group. The experience changed the way we teach and how we develop PD for teachers. The implications for professors and K-12 teachers are discussed and suggestions for further study and PD are given.

While the benefits of teacher collaboration are well documented, less is known about how emotions intersect with teachers’ collective work. Educational change is an emotional process, as reform efforts often involve shifts in teachers’ daily routines and professional identities. To better understand these complexities, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the emotional dimensions of teachers’ collaborative efforts to improve instruction.

Drawing on qualitative data, this longitudinal case study of one teacher team explores how teacher collaboration for instructional improvement intersects with emotional geographies. Data analyzed include three years of meeting observations and annual interviews with teachers and school leaders.

An analysis of data reveals how emotions both shaped and were shaped by teachers’ collaboration experiences. Varying beliefs about practice, expectations about collective work and identity (in this case, gender) impacted collaboration and subsequently opportunities for instructional improvement.

This study demonstrates how attending to the emotional aspects of teacher collaboration could serve as an effective strategy for bolstering capacity-building efforts. Findings highlight the interplay between emotional geographies, suggesting that common ground across one geography could potentially be built upon to close gaps across others.

This study provides a unique longitudinal exploration of the emotional dimensions of teachers’ collective work. The study also contributes to new knowledge about the ways in which teachers’ emotions and collaborative experiences intersect, including the interplay between emotional geographies.

There is much to think narratively about in the experiences storied by Lulu, Brenda Mary, Jennifer, Jerri-Lynn, Khea, and Lucy of ways their stories to live by rubbed up against narratives constructing them as not “real” teachers. Untangling these experiences shows ways the historically dominant narrative of colonizing Aboriginal people is still shaping intergenerational narrative reverberations, reverberations that weave into the life of each teacher, and as well, into the familial, communal, institutional, and broader provincial landscapes on which each teacher is composing her life.