Validating the SACIE-R Scale for the Indigenous and International Teachers in Inclusive Education (IE): A Recommended Scale for Researchers Pursuing Research in Inclusive Education

A Recommended Scale for Researchers Pursuing Research in Inclusive Education

Abstract

Experts in the inclusive education (denoted as IE in the later parts) field state that education is the right of every child, therefore, IE is extremely important around the globe. The same is the case for Pakistan, therefore, measuring the Pakistani indigenous school teachers’ attitudes towards IE is an important fact for which providing a valid IE scale is really an important task. Thus, the present research tested and validated the SACIE-R scale of Forlin et al. (2011) by using the EFA and CFA through SPSS and AMOS-24. This study was cross-sectional, quantitative in nature, applied the purposive sampling technique and data was collected through an online survey having 500 Pakistani school teachers (males = 302, females = 198). Our validated model of fit was best suited to the current study for the SACIE-R scale and revealed that the said scale can be used like the original scale with the three original factors, five items for each. All three original factors were treated in one model. The CFA model also revealed a good fit and significantly approves the factor structure generated in EFA. Since the model was the best fit for the current study, therefore, neither factor nor any item was deleted but the original SACIE-R scale was retained in the full sense. The Alpha reliability coefficient of the main scale (α=.75) with sub-dimensions “sentiments” (α=.70), “attitudes” (α=.78), and “concerns” (α=.72) was satisfactory. It is recommended that indigenous researchers, school, college, and University teachers as well as research students should use this scale for the IE in Pakistan and in other countries in different contexts.