Self-regulatory dimension of teachers' intercultural competence: Development and psychometric evaluation of new scales

Abstract

Self-regulation is a key issue for teachers. Self-regulatory competencies help teachers maintain both their well-being and professional commitment. This is of particular importance when it comes to teaching in culturally diverse classrooms. However, this facet is generally neglected when Teacher Education supports pre- and inservice teachers in the development of their intercultural competencies. Against this background, the current paper deals with the development of three scales for the assessment of self-regulatory aspects of teachers' intercultural competence - the Teacher Cultural Diversity Flexibility Scale (TCDFS), the Teacher Cultural Diversity Emotional Regulation Scale (TCDERS), and the Teacher Cultural Diversity Tolerance for Ambiguity Scale (TCDTAS). Each scale was developed and validated in two forms: one referring to minority students in general, and one referring specifically to Roma students. The results indicate generally good reliabilities (αs from .74 to .91) and a unifactorial structure for each of the proposed scales. Both forms (general and the one for the Roma) of the TCDFS and the TCDERS also demonstrated concurrent validity. An assessment based on these scales may better inform training interventions aiming to develop self-regulatory aspect of teachers' intercultural competence and to measure the outcomes and efficacy of such interventions. However, correlation analyses have also revealed some weaknesses of the TCDTAS. In the light of these results, further efforts should be directed at reanalysing the construct of self-regulation in dealing with diversity.

Keywords

• teachers' intercultural competence
• self-regulation
• flexibility
• emotional regulation
• ambiguity tolerance
• assessment