Development and validation of the “Instructional Leadership Behaviors Scale”: The Turkish urban sample

Abstract

BackgroundThe worldwide interest in the instructional leadership behaviors of school administrators has led to the prevalent use of the concept in domestic research. The increasing number of domestic research on instructional leadership research is a challenge but also an opportunity for the fields of educational leadership and management. ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop and validate the “Instructional Leadership Behaviors Scale” (ILBS) to describe the instructional leadership behaviors of school administrators in Turkey. MethodsThe data were collected online from 1100 teachers working in public schools in Turkey for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability analyses. ResultsThe analyses showed that ILBS comprised 28 items and two factors: “instructional management” and “professional development.” The ILBS was a valid and reliable instrument developed according to teachers’ opinions. ConclusionIt is expected that ILBS would be a reliable instrument sensitive to the domestic and legal aspects of “instructional management” and “professional development” in the instructional leadership behaviors of school administrators in Turkey.