Inclusion at universities: Psychometric properties of an inclusive management scale as perceived by students

Abstract

Introduction During the last century, the inclusion of all kinds of diversity became a social imperative in all social spaces but above all in some institutions such as the educational ones. Among these, inclusion has been least studied in the tertiary education organizations. This communication proposes and evaluates the psychometric properties of a new instrument, named Inclusive Management in Tertiary Institutions Scale (IMTIS), to assess inclusive management in universities. Method The researchers used a quantitative research model through survey. We based on the Index for Inclusion to design the IMTIS. We first submitted it to the assessment of experts. Then we applied the resulting version in an online survey including a sample of 1557 students from two universities and 121 different undergraduate careers. A panel of experts judged the content validity of the instrument. Participants answered the IMTIS after informed consent. We used confirmatory factor analysis to assess the construct validity of the instrument. We also evaluated the reliability of the measurements. Results From a kit of 33 originally proposed items, we obtained a version of 22 items with CVR between 0.60 and 1.00, and a IVC = 0.78. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the six-factor solution had a better adjustment than the one and three factors solutions (RMSEA = 0.059; CFI = 0.947; TLI = 0.937). The McDonald ω coefficients were between 0.864 and 0.922. Conclusion The results deliver evidence that supports the validity and reliability of the IMTIS measurements to carry out research and diagnosis of inclusive management in higher education institutions.

Inclusion in the university: Who assumes responsibility? A qualitative study

“…For universities to be inclusive, they need to assume commitments from institutional management that have a cross-cutting impact, not only on students but also on the entire educational community and all areas, for example, in administrative aspects, accessibility and the implementation of specific actions in the classroom [5,6]. Furthermore, as in the school environment, universities need to advance in the three dimensions proposed by the Index for Inclusion: Policy, Culture and Practice [7], which have been incorporated in research on inclusion in tertiary education in recent years [8][9][10]. National and international legal instruments support the need to strengthen the inclusive approach at all levels of education.…”

“…In this context, Booth and Ainscow's Index of Inclusion [7], originally designed for schools, has now been used in research that has adapted its domains for application in higher education [8][9][10]20]. The three dimensions of the index and its indicators allow us to understand how the phenomenon of inclusion unfolds and, in the case of this study, to elucidate possible associated responsibilities.…”