This intends to delve into the scale development/adaptation studies with the theme of leadership, school management, and school principal in the field of educational administration using thematic content analysis. The scale development studies published within the framework of the themes determined by the current study were examined, and an analysis was presented vis-à-vis various variables. A total of 42 studies published between 2002-2022 were included in the study. The studies in question were systematically selected in light of certain criteria. This study analyzed scale studies according to the area of research and study intensity, study subjects, sample types and sizes, as well as types of analyses. As a result, it is observed that most of the studies are carried out in the territories of leadership, in the second place come studies on school principals and lastly the ones on management of school. It was identified that the samples of the studies mainly consisted of teachers, administrators and school principals, and the sample sizes varied between n=136 and n=1784. When the types of analyses resorted to in scale development/adaptation research are studied, it is witnessed that exploratory factor analysis is generally utilized in all the studies, and confirmatory factor analysis has also been adopted in the studies conducted after the year 2010. Checking the results of the validity analyses, it was specified that the construct validity of the developed/adapted scale studies was chiefly confirmed, and the validity of the scope, aspect and criterion was also inspected in a number of studies. Once the reliability analysis results are scrutinized, it is seen that the internal consistency coefficient is figured out in almost all the studies, and at times, test-retest, 27% lower-upper group independent t-test difference, correlation analysis and equivalent halves test methods are referred to as well.

Educational administration, scale development, thematic content analysis.