Abstract:

In this study, development of a valid and reliable scale that is suitable for determining teachers' behaviors of trust in the leader according to teachers' views was aimed. In this context, expert opinion was consulted for the item pool prepared based on the literature on trust in the leader. A draft scale with 20 items was created in the light of the suggestions of experts. The first stage of the scale was applied to 159 teachers working at schools in Trabzon province. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett Sphericity tests were administered to determine whether the data provided the necessary assumptions for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The construct validity of the scale was examined with EFA. At the second stage of the scale, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was applied to 178 different teachers in Trabzon. It has been revealed with EFA that Trust in Leaders Scale (TLS) has a single factor. TLS explained 73% of the variance. CFA analysis showed that the goodness of fit values of the findings related to the single factor model were at the "perfect fit" level. It has been determined that the discrimination power of the items and factors in the TLS is also high. These results also showed that TLS is highly reliable. Based on these findings, TLS is concluded to be a valid and reliable data collection tool suitable for use in determining the trust in leaders behavior of teachers at schools in Turkey.

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