The measurement of school principals' self-efficacy in leadership for inclusion
Published:
Dec 20, 2024
Keywords:
Self-efficacy school principals Inclusive leadership
Abstract
Leadership for Inclusion in Schools or otherwise Inclusive Leadership is proposed as an alternative approach to educational leadership that combines transformative, pedagogical and collaborative practices and seeks to create socially just schools, capable of providing meaningful and quality education to all students without discrimination. The degree to which principals feel able to successfully implement Inclusive Leadership practices will determine, according to socio-cognitive theory, their attitude, persistence and commitment to the goal of Inclusion. The following article presents the process for the development of a new research instrument that precisely aimed at measuring the self efficacy beliefs of Principals for Inclusive Leadership. The literature review revealed the absence of a relevant scale in both Greek and international literature. The design, construction and control of the Questionnaire were carried out according to the De Vellis methodology. The Questionnaire was tested, as part of a wider electronic questionnaire, on 392 school principals from 22 different Directorates of Primary Education. Its structural validity was tested through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Three (3) factors emerged with a total of 20 statements: self-efficacy in promoting participation and collaboration, self-efficacy in improving the quality of learning for all and self-efficacy in promoting inclusive vision and setting the direction,. The 3 factors explained 64.83% of the total variance. The Cronbach α reliability coefficient was high for both the scale (=0.95) and the 3 subscales. Testing for concurrent validity showed a medium positive statistically significant correlation of the Self-Efficacy scale score with the scores on the Attitude towards Inclusion for All Scale (Kielblock, 2018) and the Utrecht Professional Engagement Scale (Schaufeli et al., 2006). Future research can confirm the structure and utility of the new PSELIS-Questionnaire. Despite current limitations the PSELIS-Q could be used as a means to measure Principals’ SE beliefs in acting inclusively and to inform professional development programs.
Article Details
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Tsiolpidou, X., & Koutouzis, E. (2024). The measurement of school principals’ self-efficacy in leadership for inclusion. Dialogoi! Theory and Praxis in Education, 10, 196–219. https://doi.org/10.12681/dial.35888
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- New researchers
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