The development of the Academic Incivility Scale for higher education

Academic incivility is a serious concern for higher education. The continuum of incivility to bullying is not agreed upon, but the behaviors associated with these constructs disrupt education at every level. Unaddressed, these behaviors can significantly complicate teaching and learning conditions for students, faculty, and institutions. Acts of academic incivility in higher education influence (a) student achievement, (b) psychological well-being, (c) instructor performance, and (d) institutional growth. Incivility can be overt or covert, but the damage can be pervasive and long-lasting. To support faculty and institutions of higher education in their efforts to mitigate of incivility, an instrument to measure incivility is warranted. To meet this need, the Academic Incivility Scale was developed, and an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the scale’s factor structure and psychometric properties. The scale, intended for students, measures the frequency of academic incivility. Theoretically and statistically, the final two-factor solution yielded the subscales of Interpersonal Communication and Personal Conduct, included 33 items, and accounted for 60% of the variance. The scale demonstrated evidence of internal consistency, convergent validity, and divergent validity.