What Can Catholic Schools in the UK Learn About Leadership from OECD Data? Part 2: Teachers and School Leaders as Valued Professionals

The analysis in this chapter, like the previous one, is simple: While there is a need to discuss aspects of school leadershipSchool leadership related to the Catholic identityCatholic identity of Catholic schools, it is also important to pay attention to dimensions of teaching and leading that are not related to faith. The assumption that guides this chapter is that Catholic schools in the United Kingdom could benefit from a better understanding of (i) the policies and practices that are considered important to strengthen teaching and leading and (ii) how well the United Kingdom performs on those criteria in comparison to other countries as well as in absolute terms. This chapter explores data on teachers and school leaders from the OECD in the hope that sharing key findings may provide useful insights to Catholic school leaders in the United Kingdom. The focus in this chapter is on the extent to which teachers and school leaders are valued professionals and feel as such (OECD, in TALIS 2018 results (Volume II): teachers and school leaders as valued professionals. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2019). Two other topics are also considered: first, whether various practices appear to boost job satisfaction and feelings of self-efficacy among teachers, and second whether available resources are allocated to the schools that need them the most, with a focus on teachers and ICT (OECD, in Mending the education divide: getting strong teachers to the schools that need them most. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2022). The analysis in this chapter presents some challenges to those who lead Catholic schools in the UK. The approach used to review the available indicators was to benchmark the United Kingdom versus the average for OECD countries. The implicit assumption is that in areas where the United Kingdom may perform poorly, whether comparatively to other OECD countries or in absolute terms, it is likely that Catholic schools in the country also perform poorly. This is something which Catholic school leadersCatholic school leaders need to attend to as a matter of urgency.