Design and validation of an instrument to measure educational inclusion in higher education institutions

Abstract

Despite growing awareness of the importance of inclusive education, there are few instruments to measure it in higher education. This study analyses the psychometric quality of an instrument designed for institutions to self-assess themselves in terms of educational inclusion. An instrument is validated on a sample of 181 university students based on five dimensions: institutional culture, equitable access, student-centred learning, participation and well-being, and mobility. After testing six models by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the five-factor model was chosen, plus the inclusion of the ordinal estimator ULSMV as a second-order factor, showing adequate fit values. The Average Variance Explained (AVE) has values above .5 and the composite reliability shows values between .71 and .86, indicating that the instrument has high validity and reliability. Bivariate analyses (Pearson correlation and T-Student correlation) were also carried out with the second-order factor. The results revealed statistically significant, negative and moderate intensity differences in the perception of educational inclusion according to age. In addition, those in the afternoon shift show a higher perception towards educational inclusion than those in the morning shift with a low effect size (d=-.36). This instrument is useful for universities to evaluate their inclusive practices, identify areas for improvement and develop counselling and guidance programmes in inclusive education.