Structural Validation of Transformational Leadership Behavior Among Principals in Vietnam’s Educational Context

This study examined the factor structure of the twenty-item Principal’s Transformational Leadership Scale (PTLS) within the Vietnamese primary education context. Grounded in Bass and Avolio’s transformational leadership (TL) framework, the PTLS was adapted to capture five distinct dimensions: Idealized Attributes (IA), Idealized Behaviors (IB), Inspirational Motivation (IM), Intellectual Stimulation (IS), and Individualized Consideration (IC). A convenience sample of 760 in-service teachers from twenty-three public primary schools participated in the study through two phases of data collection, resulting in a response rate of 82.6%. The pretest dataset, comprising 347 responses, was utilized for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), while the formal dataset of 413 responses was used for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The EFA revealed a robust five-factor structure, accounting for 62.758% of the total variance. The CFA results confirmed the model’s strong fit to the data (χ²/df = 1.889, CFI = .972, TLI = .966, RMSEA = .046), thereby supporting its construct validity and reliability. These findings affirm the multidimensional nature of TL in Vietnamese schools and validate the PTLS as a culturally relevant instrument for leadership assessment and development. The study also underscores important implications for cross-cultural leadership research and educational policy in developing contexts.