The Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders study has been commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) for teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders working in schools in England. The survey is being carried out by IFF Research and IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society.
Read more about each organisation here: Department for Education | IFF Research | UCL IOE
What are the aims and objectives of the research?
The survey explores the views and experiences of teachers and leaders over time. The questions cover a range of areas, from workload and pupil behaviour to school culture and leadership, career reflections and future ambitions. Those who take part will be helping DfE to design policies that better support teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders.
The survey is longitudinal by design which will allow us to explore changes over time. It is currently planned to run for five years, with the option to extend beyond this. The study is now in its second year. You can find the full report from the first year of the study here.
I took part in this survey last year. Why are you asking me to participate again? It is the longitudinal nature of this study that makes it so important. We are aiming to collect robust evidence about the experiences of classroom teachers and school leaders in England over an extended period. This will allow us to identify trends that will support DfE in designing policies that better support teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders, and help to shape the future of the teaching profession.
Where/how will the findings be published? IFF Research will distribute a summary of findings to everyone who takes part in each year of the survey. The first year of this survey was carried out in spring 2022 and the report from this survey can be viewed on the GOV.UK website here.
What does taking part involve? Can teachers/leaders opt in? Those selected will be invited to take part in a 20-25 minute survey in January to May of each year. You will initially receive a letter and/or email inviting you to take part, followed by a telephone call if needed (where a telephone number is available). Those who leave the profession between survey years will be followed up in the next survey year – to find out more about their change of career – and then removed from the panel. Teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders not already on the panel from Year 1 are randomly selected from one of DfE’s centralised databases, either the Schools Workforce Census (SWC) or, if an Early Career Teacher (ECT), the DfE Online Teacher CPD Service platform. We are unfortunately unable to collect responses from anyone outside of this selection, as records will be drawn to ensure a representative cross-section of teachers in England.
Is participation compulsory? What if teachers / leaders want to take part in the first year but are undecided about future years? Participants are not obliged to take part every year, although the expectation is that they will as it is the longitudinal nature of this study that makes it so important. Participating this year does not commit you to participating in future years; participation is entirely voluntary and you can choose to opt out at any time.
What contact information are schools asked to share? We may contact schools and ask them to provide a name, job title, work email and work phone number for teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders who have been selected for the survey, so that we can invite them to take part. These details will be collected under strict adherence to data protection and GDPR guidelines – please see the Data Sharing Information for Schools document for more information.
What about data protection and GDPR? The research is being conducted by independent research contractors – IFF and UCL IOE – on behalf of the DfE, in strict accordance with the Market Research Society Code of Conduct. Any information provided through the survey will be handled securely and in line with the UK Data Protection Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For more information about how data is collected, used and stored, you can read the privacy notice and Data Sharing Information for Schools document. Under UK data protection law, participants have the right to request a copy of their data, to change their data, or withdraw from the research at any time. Anyone who wishes to do this can contact a member of the IFF Research team via email at workinglivesofteachersandleaders@IFFResearch.com.
Have more questions? You can contact IFF on workinglivesofteachersandleaders@IFFResearch.com and/or DfE on WorkingLives.TEACHERS-LEADERS@education.gov.uk.