Abstract
Background When novice teachers start working in a school, it is vital that they are aware of the moral aspects of the work environment and can use their moral abilities to make their work not only successful, but also right. To map these moral abilities, we developed the Moral Authorship Questionnaire for self-assessment. Objective: This paper reports the initial test of the structural validity and reliability of the developed self-assessment ques- tionnaire. Setting: Dutch student teachers, novice teachers and more-experienced teachers in primary and secondary education participated in this research. Method: To test the psy- chometric qualities of the attitude scales, we used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Pearson correlations. Results: The initial test resulted in reliable and valid subscales consisting of 69 Likert items in the renewed questionnaire. Next, the Pearson correla- tion between the subscales was calculated. Finally, the Pearson correlations between the domains were calculated to validate the construct of Moral Authorship. Conclusion: The test results show that the six tasks of moral authorship can be measured using Likert items. The questionnaire can be used as a tool for self-assessment and reflection on one’s moral abilities in one’s professional learning environment. Further testing to adjust the question- naire is needed to improve the personal moral authorship profile, or ‘the moral selfie’.
