ICT ethical leadership scale (ICTELS): A study of reliability and validity on Turkish pre-service teachers

Abstract

In this study, a scale was developed to determine pre-service teachers’ ICT ethical leadership levels. Effective leadership characteristics that were proposed by Harvey (2004) and computer ethics issues suggested by Mason (1986) were benefited by in developing the scale. ICTELS scale consists of 24 scale items. Findings of this study indicate that the reliability coefficient that was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha was found to be 0.933. Given that the recommended reliability level for measurement scales that can be used in research is 0.70 (Hair et al., 1998; Namlu and Odabaşı, 2007), it is observed that the reliability level of the scale is high. Two different study groups were formed for the reliability and validity of the ICTELS scale. The study group that was formed for the construct validity of the scale consists of 305 senior students in the computer teaching departments in 9 different universities in Turkey (Anadolu, Atatürk, Dokuz Eylül, Ege, Gazi, İnönü, Onsekiz Mart, Sakarya and Selçuk universities) in the 2008-2009 academic year. 60,7 % of the students were male (185) and 39,3 % were female (120). The second study group was formed to obtain the criterion-related validity of the scale. The number of the students in the study group was 55. 64,5 % of the students were male (36) and 34,5 % were female (19). The scale had a four-factor structure and these factors were named mentorial, visionary, cultural and instructional ICT ethical leadership.