Domain-Specific Diversity Model Scales

Abstract

The Domain-Specific Diversity Model Scales (DSDMS), developed by Konings, Ağirdağ, and De Leersnyder (2023), constitute a 47-item psychological instrument designed to assess how educational institutions approach ethnic-cultural diversity within the school environment. The development of the scales is grounded in the theoretical framework of the School Diversity Model (SDM) proposed by Plaut (2010).

Item generation involved synthesizing existing measures, conducting extensive literature reviews, and creating novel items. Items originating in English were translated into Dutch using the rigorous back-translation method (Brislin, 1970). The resulting measure was validated using a sample of Flemish pre-service and in-service teachers, with detailed results provided for factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity.

Keywords

Ethnic-Cultural Diversity, School Diversity Model, Teacher Perceptions, Assimilationism, Pluralism, Color-Blindness, Curriculum, Interculturalism, Multiculturalism, Critical Consciousness Socialization, Structural Equation Modeling.

Authors

Konings, Roy, Ağirdağ, Orhan, De Leersnyder, Jozefien

Purpose

The primary purpose of the DSDMS is to provide a nuanced, domain-specific measurement tool for quantifying teachers’ perceptions regarding institutional practices associated with cultural diversity. The scales move beyond general attitudes by asking teachers to evaluate practices within four concrete educational domains: language, religion, curriculum, and identity.

This instrument is specifically designed to capture three key cultural diversity models—assimilationism, color-blindness, and pluralism—as they are applied or prioritized within the school context. This domain-specific approach allows researchers to pinpoint variations in diversity management ideologies across different facets of schooling.

Construct

The DSDMS measures teachers’ perceived implementation of the core tenets of the School Diversity Model (SDM). The SDM posits that schools adopt differing ideologies when managing cultural differences. These ideologies are operationalized through specific factors:

• Assimilationism: Practices demanding conformity to the majority culture.
• Color-Blindness: Practices ignoring ethnic or cultural differences in favor of universal, difference-neutral treatment.
• Pluralism: Practices acknowledging, valuing, and integrating diversity. This factor is further differentiated into sub-aspects such as Multiculturalism, Interculturalism, Critical Consciousness Socialization, and Participation-Multiculturalism.

By assessing these constructs across the domains of Language, Religion, Curriculum, and Identity, the DSDMS offers a high-resolution view of diversity policy implementation as perceived by teaching staff.

Validity

Construct Validity

Construct validity was established through the application of Structural Equation Modeling. The domain-specific scales demonstrated significant relationships with external criteria in theoretically anticipated directions. Specifically, DSDMS scores correlated positively with personal and educational diversity beliefs, as well as with teachers’ knowledge of multicultural teaching and their self-efficacy beliefs regarding diversity management.

A central finding supporting the scale’s domain-specific design was the observation that correlations between the diversity models and teachers’ personal beliefs were not consistent across all domains. This variability confirmed the necessity of assessing diversity approaches contextually, highlighting that a teacher’s ideological stance may manifest differently when dealing with language issues versus identity issues in the classroom.

Reliability

Internal Consistency

The internal consistency of the DSDMS was measured by calculating Cronbach’s alpha across the various scales and subscales. The reliability coefficients demonstrated a satisfactory to high range of internal consistency, spanning from .651 to .932. This result indicates that the items within the respective scales generally cohere well, providing reliable measures of the underlying constructs.

Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis

The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) supported the domain-specific structure. It was found that Assimilationism was reliably measurable across three of the four domains, notably showing a weaker structure when applied to curriculum. Color-Blindness, in contrast, was primarily found to apply only to the curriculum domain. Pluralism was applicable across all four domains, and the EFA results further justified making distinctions based on specific theoretical sub-aspects of pluralism, such as Interculturalism and Critical Consciousness Socialization.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The authors tested a second-order factor model using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). In this model, the domain-specific scales served as first-order factors, while the overarching School Diversity Models (SDMs) acted as second-order factors. Although the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) did not reach the conventional cut-off value, the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) indicated a good model fit. All standardized factor loadings were statistically significant and uniformly high (never lower than 0.484). Therefore, despite some minor structural indications for potential improvement, the overall model fit was deemed satisfactory for the proposed structure.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: All 47 items are rated on a 5-point Likert Scale, ranging from ‘Absolutely not true (1)’ to ‘Absolutely true (5)’.

Language Available: English, Dutch

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older)

Population Details: Respondents were Flemish In-Service and Pre-Service Teachers. Location of study: Belgium.

Test Methodology: Test Validity, Construct Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling.

Keywords

Educational Measures, Educational Program Evaluation, Models, Multicultural Education, School Environment, Teacher Attitudes, Multiculturalism, Ethnic Diversity, Cultural Diversity.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Konings, Roy: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4501-0504

Affiliation Email addresses:

• Konings, Roy (Affiliation: KU Leuven; Email: [email protected])
• Ağirdağ, Orhan (Affiliation: KU Leuven)
• De Leersnyder, Jozefien (Affiliation: KU Leuven)

Correspondence Address:

Konings, Roy: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author

Fee: No

Commercial: No

Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Konings, R., Ağirdağ, O., & De Leersnyder, J. (2023). School diversity models revisited: A plea and first evidence for a domain specific approach. Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, 26(4), 1127–1179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09784-0

Items of the Domain-Specific Diversity Model Scales

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

No data is Available