Development and validation of a scale for the perception of sustainable leadership among teachers in Chinese higher vocational colleges

Abstract Due to internal organizational mandates for implementing sustainable development principles, Chinese vocational colleges necessitate an effective assessment tool to comprehend the current state of sustainable leadership as perceived by teachers. The study aims to develop and validate a scale for sustainable leadership as perceived by teachers in Chinese vocational colleges. Validation of the content validity index (CVI) was conducted by nine experts, and the factor structure was extracted through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), followed by reliability and validity tests. The research found that the scale comprises six dimensions with a total of 23 items, and Cronbach’s Alpha exceeds 0.700, demonstrating its robust reliability. This study marks the inaugural development and validation of a scale assessing sustainable leadership as perceived by teachers in Chinese vocational colleges, introducing a new, reliable assessment tool to the academic and practical domains.