Development of Teachers’ Structural Empowerment Scale (TSES): A Validity and Reliability Study

The purpose of this study is to develop a data collection tool in order to define the levels of teachers’ structural empowerment. The sample of the research consists of teachers of primary, secondary and high schools. For the construct validity, explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses are done. The five-factor structure, emerged as the result of explanatory factor analysis (EFA), is; Participatory DecisionMaking Environment (DM), Accountable Environment (AE), Professional Development Supportive Environment (PD), Facilitative School Environment (FE), and AutonomySupportive Environment (AS). This five-factor structure accounts for 65.01% of the total variance. The scale is comprised of a five-point Likert type 30 items ranging from “1-completely disagree” to “5-completely agree”. The five-factor, 30 item structure emerged at the end of EFA, is also analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the results show that the scale has good fit (χ/sd= 2.93, RMSEA= .079, NFI= .96, NNFI= .97, CFI= .97, IFI= .97, RMR= .04, SRMR= .05). For the reliability of the scale, item total correlations, Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficients and item means of the upper and lower 27% groups are examined. Consequently, a psychometrically adequate, valid and reliable data collection tool is developed to assess teachers’ structural empowerment.