The caring behaviour of primary and middle school teachers in China: features and structure

Abstract

The present research, comprised of two studies, examines the features and factor structure of the Teacher Caring Questionnaire, a measure of teacher caring developed in the Zhejiang province of China. In the first study, features of teacher caring were derived from open-ended teacher and student descriptions of caring teacher behaviour. A second sample of teachers then rated the necessity of each of the features as an aspect of teacher caring. In the second study, the development of a self-report questionnaire based on these eight features is described, and its factor structure examined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. This process resulted in six initial factors, which were subsequently combined into three higher order factors, which appear to best capture the instrument’s structure. Internal consistency estimates for the three resulting subscales were calculated for five samples, and test–retest reliability calculated for Sample 5. Support for the convergent, discriminant and predictive validity of the measure were examined through correlations with conceptually similar measures, and t-tests comparing subscale scores for participants who indicated willingness to provide help (or not) under different conditions. Our analyses suggest that the Teacher Caring Questionnaire holds promise as a measure of teacher caring in the Zhejiang province. Furthermore, our method might inform similar efforts to develop context-grounded measures, as well as efforts to examine the cultural relevance of existing measures.

Keywords:

• Teacher caring
• teachers’ professional ethics
• measurement