Inclusive Leadership and Education Quality: Adaptation and Validation of the Questionnaire “Inclusive Leadership in Schools” (LEI-Q) to the Italian Context

Emilio Crisol Moya,María Jesús Caurcel Cara,Tiziana Molonia

doi:10.3390/su12135375

Emilio Crisol Moya, María Jesús Caurcel Cara + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135375

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jul 2, 2020
Citations: 11	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Granada

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Programme for 2030 has established the principles of sustainable action for today’s society, one of which is to achieve quality and more inclusive education. Our society has reached the stage where quality education is no longer a privilege of a few, but a fundamental right. Therefore, not achieving quality education is equivalent to not having had the opportunity to grow and develop as fully as one is entitled to in a free and just society, which needs inclusive leadership. The objective in this study is the validation of the instrument “Inclusive Leadership in Schools” for the Italian context. The methods used are content validity through expert judgement; construct validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis; and reliability through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the split-half method. The results reveal that both the version for school administrators and teachers and the version for families have optimal levels of validity and reliability for measuring the degree of inclusive leadership in Italian schools. The results suggest that inclusive leadership effects are expected to operate most closely via their influence on developing the improvement of teaching and learning quality and promoting a favourable school climate and culture that emphasize high expectations and quality education.

Highlights

“The United Nations (UN) launched its Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to address the greatest challenges facing the world’s populations” [1]
The main aim of the study was to test whether the Italian versions, called Inclusive Leadership in Italian Schools [Leadership Inclusiva in Istituti Comprensivi Italiani], for the school teachers and administrators—-LEI-Q-I—-and for families—-LEI-Q-IF—-constructed from LEI-Q [23], are suitable instruments for measuring inclusive leadership in the Italian context
After analysing the processes of content validity, construct (EFA and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)) and the reliability of the two questionnaires, it can be concluded that both are valid and reliable instruments for measuring the degree of inclusive leadership in preschool, primary and secondary education schools based on the opinion of teachers, administrators and families in the Italian context

Summary

Introduction

“The United Nations (UN) launched its Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to address the greatest challenges facing the world’s populations” [1]. These goals are a continuation of the Millennium Development Goals [2], which include quality education. For the management of the organization, according to De la Fuente-Anuncibay et al [7] and Agasisti et al [8], this means that a combination of functions is necessary, so that there is a balance between flexibility and control, and between its external and internal orientation They need to formulate policies to fit the environment, to achieve objectives, to integrate people so as to obtain a good social atmosphere, and to find a balance between authority, order, rationality and internal coordination in the administration of the organization

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Conclusion