Construct validation of the teacher attitude to inclusion scale for Filipino pre-service teachers

Abstract

Inclusive education is one of the visions of the global agenda of “education for all.” It aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all” (Harrington, 2016, p.30). The teacher’s attitude is one of the identified factors in the effective implementation of inclusive education. Hence, schools in the Philippines would require tools that measure the teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education as they plan to accommodate inclusive education in their classrooms as mandated by Republic Act No. 11650: “Instituting a Policy of Inclusion and Services for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education Act.” This study examined the theoretical model of the Teacher Attitude to Inclusion Scale (Monsen, Ewing, & Boyle, 2015), specifically section 4 of the scale: “Attitudes toward Inclusion,” through a cross-sectional, explanatory nonexperimental design utilizing both between-network and between-network construct validation approaches. The participants were 417 pre-service teachers from private and state-owned universities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, selected through convenience sampling. They completed two sets of measures online, the fourth section of the Teacher Attitude to Inclusion and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). The results of within-network and between-network construct validation suggest the acceptability of the reduced 10-item of section 4 of the Teacher Attitude to Inclusion Scale among Filipino pre-service teachers. Based on confirmatory factor analysis, the data fit the three-factor structure (i.e., factors 1, 2, and 4) rather than the original four-factor structure suggesting within-network construct validity. Furthermore, the relationships between the TAIS and the TSES subscales were positively correlated, indicating the TAIS's between-network construct validity. Since this scale is psychometrically sound for Filipino pre-service teachers, it is recommended to consider extending this study by examining the applicability of this scale to in-service teachers.