Development and Validation of an Instrument Measuring Elementary School Teachers’ Readiness to Implement Multicultural Education in Social Studies (IPS) Learning
Abstract
The current study investigated the initial evidence for validity and reliability of the tool used for the measurement of elementary school teachers’ readiness to apply multicultural education in IPS learning in Indonesia. The tool was based on the adaptation of DivePCK framework and previously validated multicultural attitude scales and consisted of 65 five-point Likert scale questions divided into four main constructs: diversity pedagogical content knowledge (15 questions), attitudes towards diversity (15), organizational support (15), and teachers’ readiness (20). The data collection was conducted through the online survey administered to 79 elementary school teachers representing three different Indonesian areas (Malang and Blitar – East Java, Ende-Flores - East Nusa Tenggara). After excluding 13 careless straight line answers (16.5%), 66 valid responses were analyzed. The content validity of the tool was established by expert judgment. Item validity was evaluated by means of corrected item-total correlation (criterion r > 0.242, df = 64), reliability by means of Cronbach’s alpha. Results showed that 63 of 65 items were valid; two items were flagged as problematic: a reverse-worded attitude item (SK9, r = 0.04) and a culturally responsive teaching item (KG8, r = 0.21). Cronbach’s alpha per construct ranged from 0.891 to 0.934, indicating good to excellent internal consistency; removing SK9 raised the attitude subscale’s alpha from 0.891 to 0.925. As a supplementary analysis, inter-construct correlations were positive and moderate (r = 0.44–0.73), consistent with the theorized structure but interpreted cautiously. The instrument demonstrates good preliminary reliability and item validity and is suitable for measuring teacher readiness after the two flagged items are revised or removed. However, the modest, non-probability, and geographically heterogeneous sample means the findings are preliminary and require exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on a larger, representative sample.
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