A systematic literature review of TALIS secondary research: Trends and future directions

Abstract

The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) collects data from representative samples of teachers and principals across the world about their practices and work conditions, school and classroom contexts, and attitudes, motivation, and satisfaction with their profession and jobs. Given the growth of participating countries, the number of constructs assessed, and the volume of publications based on secondary analyses of the freely available data, it is reasonable to claim that TALIS represents one of the major data sources in the field of international educational research. This study provides a systematic literature review of secondary analyses of TALIS data, summarising the past 15 years of TALIS research. The review includes a synthesis of 238 peer-reviewed journal articles, providing bibliographical information about articles as well as the scope and impact of analysis of TALIS data across time, countries, and populations. Moreover, the article summarises information about the most prevalent research themes that have been investigated. The findings highlight the importance of TALIS data in the broader educational research scope, emphasising themes such as teacher characteristics, and teacher professional practices. Lastly, the review provides insights into methodological approaches to study and analyse TALIS data and calls for more caution in analysing complex survey data with respect to how clustering and multigroup design are handled.