Development and Validation of a Self-constructed Psychometric Scale: Perceptions on Equity in Secondary Education (PESE)

Abstract

This empirical paper is based on the development of a self-constructed scale Perceptions on Equity in Secondary Education(PESE) in the context of Uttar Pradesh.The scale was constructed on the basis of extensive review of literature and state policies focusing on equity. The purpose of scale construction was to measure the perceptions of school functionaries on different dimensions of equity centering on systemic policies, learner attributes, teaching-learning, classroom processes and teacher professional expertise. The scale was bifurcated into two sub-scales, facilitating an in-depth analysis. The sub-scales were Positive Measures for Equity(PMES) and Negative Measures for Equity(NMES). Separate reliability and factorial validity was established for both the sub-scales. Further, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to discover latent factors that measured the positive and negative conceptions of equity. This scale can be taken as a useful addition to the literature on educational psychology and for measuring perceptions of school functionaries on equity in Indian context. Successive researches can further validate the scale on a larger sample.