Validation of a scale of attention to diversity for university teachers

Abstract

It is the job of universities to face the greatest challenges of highereducation in the twenty-first century. Creating policies and practices to attendto diversity is part of their social responsibility. Validated instruments areessential to find out teachers’ attitudes and practices in education regardingattention to diversity. This paper aims to present the process of constructionand validation of the Scale of Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices of Attentionto Diversity for University Teachers (CAPA-PU) created for this purpose. Asurvey method with a non-experimental design was applied to a sample of 428teachers from various Spanish universities. To validate this scale, analysis ofthe content and construct preceded the selected items in the ad hoc instrumentin order to reach the representativeness of the construct. A review of theliterature on attention to diversity, especially instrument design, informedof the definition of the construct and its dimensions, representativeness,relevance, comprehension, ambiguity and clarity. In addition, reliable internalconsistency and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed a fittedmodel and a five-factor structure: (1) Institutional Diversity; (2) Research,Training and Teaching Focused on Diversity; (3) Teaching and LearningPractices; (4) University Administrators’ Commitment; (5) Conception ofDiversity. In conclusion, it is evident that there is: a) current relevance of theassumed construct of attention to diversity focused on actions that providelearning opportunities to the most disadvantaged groups; and b) the need tooffer a scale such as the one created in order to attend to the processes ofeducational inclusion in Spanish universities.

Faculty Perception of Inclusion in the University: Concept, Policies and Educational Practices

“…In the process of creating the CAPA scale (for the Spanish initials of Beliefs, Attitudes, and Practices of Attention to Diversity), the method chosen for reviewing the validity of the content was the calculation of descriptors by determining the content validity index (Ramos et al, 2021). This index is obtained from the evaluation of 15 experts regarding the representativeness, relevance, and adequacy of each item, as well as their comprehensibility, ambiguity, and clarity.…”

Comparative Inclusion: What Spanish Higher Education Teachers Assert

“…An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out using the principal components extraction method, with Varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine the appropriateness of the scale (Ramos et al, 2021). Analyses carried out with different subsamples and with factor loadings equal to or greater than 0.40.…”

Luces y sombras en la percepción del alumnado universitario acerca de la inclusión y la diversidad

“…Conseguir una educación de calidad, inclusiva, equitativa, y promocionar oportunidades de aprendizaje durante toda la vida para todas las personas es uno de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS4) de la Agenda 2030 (Ramos et al, 2021); ello implica asegurar el acceso igualitario de todos los hombres y mujeres a una formación técnica, profesional y superior de calidad, incluyendo la enseñanza universitaria (UNESCO, 2017). La educación universitaria debe implicar un equilibrio entre la legislación educativa, la legislación universitaria y la legislación en materia de discapacidad, por lo que la mera implantación del modelo social de discapacidad no necesariamente va a la par con el desarrollo de la normativa universitaria, lo que puede generar una situación de inseguridad jurídica y desconcierto para el Fiuza et al (2023) estudiantado y el profesorado, entre otros agentes implicados (Alcáin & Medina-García, 2017).…”