Measuring parents' perceptions of inclusive school quality in China: the development of the PISQ scale

Meiju Zhao; Li Cheng; Wangqian Fu; Xiaochen Ma; Xiaoyu Chen

doi:10.1080/20473869.2021.1895696

Measuring parents' perceptions of inclusive school quality in China: the development of the PISQ scale

Int J Dev Disabil. 2021 Mar 10;68(6):824-837. doi: 10.1080/20473869.2021.1895696. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Meiju Zhao¹, Li Cheng^{2

3}, Wangqian Fu⁴, Xiaochen Ma⁵, Xiaoyu Chen²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Children Development and Education, China Women's University, Beijing, China.
² Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
³ Educational and Developmental Research Center of Children's Creativity, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
⁴ China Institute of Education and Social Development, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Shenzhen Nanshan Longyuan School, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop a scale measuring inclusive school quality from parents' perceptions (Parents' perceptions of Inclusive School Quality, PISQ) and investigate the perceptions of Chinese parents of children with disabilities of inclusive school quality using the PISQ scale. Method: The data for 78 parents of children with disabilities were used to measure the reliability and analyse the items of the PISQ scale. The data for 255 parents of children with disabilities were used to verify the construct validity and internal consistency of the PISQ scale and investigate parents' perceptions of inclusive school quality in China. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used for the statistical analyses. Results: The newly developed PISQ scale was found to have good construct validity and reliability. The investigation of Chinese parents of children with disabilities indicated that parents' perception of inclusive school quality in China was at a middle-high level and that the parents of children with ASD showed the lowest perception of inclusive school quality. Conclusion: This study reports the development process of the PISQ scale and presents a valid scale for measuring inclusive school quality in the future. Additionally, this study provides implications for improving the inclusive practices of regular Chinese schools.

Keywords: Inclusive education; Parents’ perceptions; quality; scale development.

Grants and funding

This research is supported by the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University under a grant from the International Joint Research Project (ICER201904) and by Grant No. 18YJC880140 from the Department of Social Sciences, Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China.