Copying from a model that does not fit? How the school staff survey TALIS impacted the new ECEC staff survey TALIS Starting Strong

Abstract

International organisations use large-scale assessment studies to systematically monitor the educational sector. In doing so, they often strive for synergies between different studies. This article focuses on the example of TALIS Starting Strong, an international comparative OECD survey of pedagogical staff and leaders in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Developed in the wake of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), a study that targets school teachers and principals, it was conducted for the first time in 2018. This article shows which consequences the links to TALIS and the integration into OECD structures had on the genesis of TALIS Starting Strong and also discusses more concrete aspects like the adaptation of the TALIS methodology to the ECEC sector. Overall, the example shows that the alignment with a study for a different educational level has advantages and synergy effects on the one hand, but also poses specific challenges on the other. Thus, it is important to maintain a critical discourse on the structures that shape surveys and the characteristics of international large-scale surveys as a whole in order to ensure that the data collected is useful for the further development of the ECEC and higher education sectors.