Abstract

The practice of democracy within educational institutions is critical for fostering effective school governance. This study adopts a mixed-methods design to examine both the structural dimensions and measurement of organizational democracy in schools. During the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 teachers from primary and secondary schools in China. The qualitative data were systematically analyzed using NVivo 11.0 software through processes of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The analysis revealed that teachers’ perceptions of organizational democracy are characterized by core components including expression of freedom, collective decision-making, supervision and accountability, openness and transparency, and equality and fairness. Building upon the qualitative findings, the quantitative phase involved the initial development of a 40-item instrument designed to reflect the identified dimensions of organizational democracy. In three separate phases, a total of 407, 421, and 346 valid responses were collected from different regions. These data were subjected to item analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and convergent validity testing. The quantitative results corroborated the structural framework established in the qualitative phase. The final 20-item scale developed through this process demonstrated robust psychometric properties, including high levels of reliability and validity, thereby providing a theoretically grounded and empirically validated tool for assessing organizational democracy in school contexts.

Keywords: Democracy, Organizational democracy, School democracy, Scale development