What does it mean to recognise our teachers and school leaders as professionals? Most people have spent a significant portion of their lives inside a school, and many probably think they are able to identify what makes a “good” teacher or principal. But being a professional encompasses much more than being “good” at your job.

The skillset required to be an effective teacher is expansive and complex. On top of being knowledgeable about their subject and how to teach it, teachers are also expected to be experts in child development, classroom management, administration, and even psychology, and to update their knowledge base throughout their career. It is for these reasons that teaching is referred to as a “profession” rather than simply a “job”. Likewise, the expectations for school leaders have gone beyond their traditional role as administrators, and now include team leadership, instruction, networking and effective communication with parents and other stakeholders. But the “professionalism” of teachers and principals varies in its forms across countries and contexts, and can be influenced both by policy and the behaviour of teachers and school leaders themselves.

The results referred to in this volume are provided in .

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is an international, large-scale survey of teachers, school leaders and the learning environment in schools. TALIS uses questionnaires administered to teachers and their school principals to gather data. Its main goal is to generate internationally comparable information relevant to developing and implementing policies focused on school leaders, teachers and teaching, with an emphasis on those aspects that affect student learning. It gives a voice to teachers and school leaders, allowing them to provide input into educational policy analysis and development in key areas. It is also a collaboration between participating countries and economies, the OECD, an international research consortium, teachers’ unions and the European Commission.

The international report on the results of the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) focuses on the notion of professionalism and its various dimensions. The first volume, Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners, published in 2019, explored teaching practices, the changing contexts for teaching and the knowledge and skills dimensions of professionalism for teachers and school leaders. This second volume, Teachers and School Leaders as Valued Professionals, explores the prestige and standing of the profession, the security, flexibility and reward structures of teaching and school leadership careers, the extent of professional collaboration and collegial relations within schools and the degree of autonomy and leadership that teachers and school leaders enjoy in their jobs. This chapter is an overview of the main findings presented in both volumes. It offers policy pointers emerging from these findings and discusses trade-offs for policy makers to consider in designing teacher policies.

This chapter offers insights into teachers’ and school leaders’ perceptions of their working conditions and how they relate to the prestige and standing of the profession. To explore the prestige of the teaching profession, it examines to what extent teachers and school leaders consider their profession is valued in society. The chapter also contrasts teachers’ and school leaders’ levels of job satisfaction with both their working environments and their profession and how they have changed over time. In addition, new to this cycle of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), it describes the level of stress teachers report experiencing in their work and explores the sources of stress. The chapter concludes by examining how teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions are related to the risk of attrition.

This chapter depicts the working conditions of teachers and school leaders, including appraisal processes, as well as their satisfaction with them. It begins by discussing job security among teachers, along with the prevalence of part-time work for teachers and principals, and teaching in multiple schools. The chapter then reviews the characteristics of formal teacher appraisal procedures across the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) countries and economies: the agents conducting appraisals, the methods used and the consequences of these evaluations. Finally, it discusses teachers’ and principals’ satisfaction with their salary and other working conditions.

This chapter describes the different ways in which teachers collaborate in classrooms, schools and professional development avenues. It explores how often teachers engage in collaborative activities and how that shapes the wider dimensions of the teaching profession, such as expertise and job satisfaction. It further examines teachers’ collegiality, i.e. the quality of interpersonal relationships between colleagues in schools, which provide the basis for a collaborative working environment. The second part of the chapter discusses feedback received by teachers, a unique form of collaboration, and examines how specific types of feedback can help teachers to improve their practices.

School leadership has a powerful impact on student learning. In particular, the leadership and actions of school leaders and teachers can shape effective learning environments. But, to carry out these actions, teachers and school leaders must have the autonomy necessary to make decisions pertinent to their jobs. This chapter describes the levels of autonomy and leadership in schools. It first identifies the tasks where schools have a larger role than out-of-school authorities and then compares the responsibilities of teachers and school leaders for the different tasks. The chapter concludes by describing the prevalence of different forms of leadership for teachers and school leaders.

The objective of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in 2018 was to obtain, in each participating country and economy, a representative sample of teachers for each ISCED level in which the country and economy participated. Moreover, a representative sample of teachers teaching students of the appropriate age in schools selected for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018 was required for each country and economy that opted to participate in the TALIS-PISA link. TALIS 2018 identified policy issues that encompass the classroom, teachers, schools and school management, so the coverage of TALIS 2018 extends to all teachers of each concerned ISCED level and to the principals of the schools where they teach. The international sampling plan prepared for TALIS 2018 used a stratified two-stage probability sampling design. This means that teachers (second stage units, or secondary sampling units) were to be randomly selected from the list of in-scope teachers in each of the randomly selected schools (first stage units, or primary sampling units). A more detailed description of the survey design and its implementation can be found in the TALIS 2018 Technical Report (OECD, 2019).

The statistics presented in this report were derived from data obtained through samples of schools, school principals and teachers. The sample was collected following a stratified two-stage probability sampling design. This means that teachers (second-stage units or secondary sampling units) were randomly selected from the list of in-scope teachers for each of the randomly selected schools (first-stage or primary sampling units). For these statistics to be meaningful for a country, they needed to reflect the whole population from which they were drawn and not merely the sample used to collect them. Thus, survey weights must be used in order to obtain design-unbiased estimates of population or model parameters.

The following tables are available in electronic form only.

TALIS is a collaborative effort, bringing together expertise from participating countries that share an interest in developing a survey programme to inform their policies about teachers, teaching and learning. This report is the product of collaboration and co-operation among the member countries of the OECD and the partner countries participating in the third round of TALIS. Engagement with bodies representing teachers (Education International) and regular briefings and exchanges with the Trade Union Advisory Council (TUAC) at the OECD have been very important in the development and implementation of TALIS. In particular, the co-operation of the teachers and principals in the participating schools has been crucial in ensuring the success of TALIS.