Evaluation of the Learning to Teach for Social Justice-Beliefs Scale in an Australian context

Title
Evaluation of the Learning to Teach for Social Justice-Beliefs Scale in an Australian context
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Ginns, Paul
Loughland, Anthony
Tierney, Robert J
Fryer, Luke
Amazan, Rose
McCormick, Alexandra
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1080/07294360.2014.956701
UNE publication id
une:17535
Abstract
A concern for social justice pervades the espoused curriculum of many pre-service teaching programmes, but the extent to which that curriculum influences the beliefs students hold is an open question. With the goal of developing an instrument suitable for evaluating such beliefs at the degree programme level, the present study analysed responses to the Learning to Teach for Social Justice-Beliefs (LTSJ-B) Scale (Enterline, S., Cochran-Smith, M., Ludlow, J.H., & Mitescu, E. (2008). Learning to teach for social justice: Measuring change in the beliefs of teacher candidates. The New Educator, 4, 267-290. doi:10.1080/ 15476880802430361) from 304 Australian pre-service teachers. Exploratory factor analysis and Rasch analysis both indicated a two-factor structure, driven by a methodological artefact of item valence. We conclude from these findings that a short, five-item version of the LTSJ-B Scale would suitably balance psychometric and pragmatic considerations, in the broader context of working within an institutionally aligned system of teaching evaluation with multiple levels.
Link
Citation
Higher Education Research and Development, 34(2), p. 311-323
ISSN
1469-8366
0729-4360
Start page
311
End page
323

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