Development and Validation of the Distributed Leadership Scale in Chinese Secondary Schools

Purpose: This study was to explore the concept and components of distributed leadership in secondary schools, and to develop and validate a scale that can objectively measure distributed leadership components. Methods: In this study, a two-step Delphi survey was conducted to develop the distributed leadership concept, components, and questions, and 298 preliminary and 842 main surveys were conducted for secondary school teachers to validate the scale. Results: In this study, distributed leadership is defined as leadership that is not limited to the capabilities or systems of individual leaders under a common vision, but is distributed in a community of practice formed by the action of three elements: leader, member, and situation. Distributed leadership in secondary schools consists of four elements: school's vision, leader, member, and situation, and the final development questions were found to be five questions for the school's vision, six questions for leader, seven questions for member, and eight questions for situation. Conclusion: The distributed leadership scale in secondary schools developed in this study was an empirical study that could clarify differences in various individual variations related to distributed leadership and explore structural relationships between range of factors affecting distributed leadership in secondary schools.