School accreditation in Indonesia is often reduced to completing documents before the assessment visit, so the quality it produces tends to be administrative and short-lived. SDIT Ar Refah Tanjungpinang faced the same problem before it raised its accreditation rating from C to A. This study aims to analyse the principal's strategies for building a quality culture from a Total Quality Management perspective, to explain how the values of amanah (trustworthiness) and ihsan (excellence) are internalised into that culture, and to reveal the impact of this culture on the accreditation transformation. The study employed a qualitative approach with a single case study design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis involving the principal, teachers, administrative staff, foundation board members, the school committee, and the accreditation team. The data were analysed using the interactive model of data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing, and their trustworthiness was tested through source and technique triangulation. The findings show that the principal built a quality culture through shared quality awareness, documented work cycles, improvement-oriented evaluation, team collaboration, and role modelling. Amanah and ihsan served as intrinsic motivation that shifted work orientation from compliance to worship. The study concludes that integrating TQM principles with amanah and ihsan produces a substantive accreditation transformation, because quality is embraced as a moral and spiritual responsibility of the entire school community.
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Susiyati et al. (2026) studied this question.
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