VALIDATING THE SCHOOL-LEVEL ENVIRONMENT QUESTIONNAIRE WITHIN THE VIETNAMESE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have increasingly focused on dimensions of the school environment because of their effects on teachers’ outcomes such as teaching efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment. However, current literature illustrates that not many studies on different aspects regarding schools’ environmental issues have been conducted in Vietnam. The purpose of this research, thus, was to validate the psychometric properties in the 56-item School-Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ), which was translated into Vietnamese and administered to 387 Vietnamese junior high school teachers. Factorial analysis indicated that the eight-factor structure of the original SLEQ, which included innovation, resource adequacy, professional interest, affiliation, student support, mission consensus, empowerment, and work pressure, was appropriate for junior high school teachers’ psychometric properties. The internal consistency and reliability of general scale and eight subscales were satisfactory. The results confirmed the suitability of the SLEQ for measuring teachers’ perceptions of their school environment within the Vietnamese educational context. The study suggests to investigate the validity of the SLEQ, apart from other issues, with a different sample among elementary and secondary school teachers.