The article suggests that stakeholders involved in quality development need a specific competence, called quality literacy, in order to successfully improve learning processes. We introduce and describe quality literacy as a set of competencies that are needed for professional quality development. Quality literacy emphasises the importance of professionalism as a necessary component for quality development, in addition to structural quality management models. We argue that quality development is a co-production between learners and their learning environment. This means that the educational process can only be influenced and optimised through participation and not steered externally. Quality strategies cannot, therefore, guarantee a high quality of learning processes but rather aim at professionalisation of the educational process and stakeholders. This article suggests participation and negotiation between educational stakeholders (clients and providers) as a main condition for quality development. In addition, we present a quality model that conceptualises quality as a potential that can only be achieved through interaction. (Contains 4 figures and 2 tables.)