Forms of Capital among Arab and Jewish K-12 Teachers: Development of 'Capital Scale'

Abstract

The present study aimed to demonstrate how the mixed methods approach was used to develop and validate a quantitative instrument for measuring forms of capital (a “Capital Scale”) among K-12 teachers, using the two-phase approach of an exploratory sequential model. The study includes: (1) a qualitative phase based on 16 semi-structured interviews with teachers; (2) quantitative exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis among Israeli Jewish teachers and measurement equivalence analyses of data among Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab teachers, as two ethnic groups, confirmed the scale's cross-cultural validity. The study contributes to the development of a new instrument for measuring teachers' capital, illustrating the benefit of triangulated methods in a study of participants from different ethnic backgrounds.