The Status of the Teacher: a Global Analysis

Reading Time: 10 minutes

What is the position of teachers in society? The Global Teacher Status Index 2018 seeks to answer this and other questions.

The Status of the Teacher: a Global Analysis
What is the position of teachers in society? The Global Teacher Status Index 2018 seeks to answer this and other questions. Photo: Bigstock
Reading time 10 minutes
Reading Time: 10 minutes

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What is the degree of respect for teachers in relation to other professions? What is the social position of teachers? Do teachers want their children to teach? How many hours do you think teachers work per week?  And how much should teachers be paid? For the second time, the Varkey Foundation put itself to the task of resolving these questions in its Global Teacher Status Index 2018. The first edition was in 2013 when 21 countries, including China, the United States, Egypt, Brazil, Spain and others, were studied. The new edition of the GTSI added 14 countries, namely, Hungary, Ghana, Uganda, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Panama, India, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Canada.

According to the index, the ten countries where the teacher is respected the most are (from highest to lowest respect):

  1. China

  2. Malaysia

  3. Taiwan

  4. Russia

  5. Indonesia

  6. South Korea

  7. Turkey

  8. India

  9. New Zealand

  10. Singapore

And the ten countries where the teacher is least respected are (from least respect to higher):

  1. Brazil

  2. Israel

  3. Italy

  4. Ghana

  5. Argentina

  6. Czech Republic

  7. Hungary

  8. Uganda

  9. Spain

  10. Colombia

Because reverence for the teaching profession has many dimensions, the study decided to focus on four points:

  1. Analyzing the inspiration to be an educator.

  2. Discovering the status of primary and secondary teachers and principals compared to other professions.

  3. Understanding the context of the teacher’s social status according to the country.

  4. Knowing the level of respect students have for them.

One of the questions included in the index was how much respect an educator has compared to other professions, such as physicians, nurses, librarians, police, lawyers, and accountants, among others. According to the GTSI, these professions were included in the set of responses to be chosen because they require the same level of study (or equivalent) and because they are professions that could differ if they are performed in a private or public sector.

On average, of all compared occupations, society ranked primary school teachers in sixth place, with 14 being the highest profession. High school teachers are in seventh place, and principals are in eighth place. In 94% of the countries, principals are more respected than educators, and 91% of high school educators are more respected than primary school teachers.

The classification of teachers

It is difficult to determine the real value of teachers by country qualitatively, especially when comparing them against other professions. To solve this problem, the composers of the index decided to ask how people perceive the educator’s work by comparing their perceptions with those of a social worker, nurse, librarian, someone in a local government position, or a medic. The following table shows some results:


Table made by The ObservatoryTable made by The Observatory

Table made by The Observatory

The purpose of this comparison is to know how each country’s society considers teachers and how they see themselves. For example, China and Malaysia are the countries where teachers are most respected, which is reflected in that they see a teacher on the same level as a physician. Those two countries and Russia were the only ones that answered “medic.” In 51% of the countries analyzed, the public considers the educator to be a “social worker,” but only 34% of teachers see themselves in this way. On the contrary, 43% of teachers compare themselves to a nurse, but only 11% of public opinion agrees.

This relationship also helps classify how educators are believed to be paid. In another section of the study, the public view physicians with a lot of respect and expect him/her to have an excellent salary. In the case of social workers, it is a profession with less respect and fewer earnings, so it is understandable why, in countries like Argentina, teachers perceived that their incomes are low.

The respect that society has for teachers vs. the respect that teachers have for their profession

When it is the turn of teachers to rate respect for their job compared to the opinion of society, significant differences can be seen. In 14 countries, the teachers rank school principals higher than the general public, especially in Korea, Singapore, and Germany. The case of China is compelling because it is one of the countries where the teacher’s profession is most respected, but the teacher’s respect for his superior is not mutual. On the other hand, in countries like Peru, the opposite is true.

Compared to school principals, teachers have less respect for those in secondary schools than the general public, especially in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, or Portugal, where they were already undervalued. Similar to the case with principals, teachers have less respect for primary school teachers than the general public. The worst case is Panama, where the viewpoint of the teachers toward their primary school peers is much worse, followed by the United Kingdom, and Hungary.

Future Teachers

The Global Teacher Status Index also focused on finding out if teaching is a profession that teachers would like their children to pursue. Participants were asked to describe whether they would “definitely not encourage them,” “probably would not encourage them,” “perhaps encourage them,” “probably encourage them,” or “definitely encourage them.”

Unsurprisingly, in countries with a higher level of respect for educators, such as China and Malaysia, more than half responded that they would encourage their children to pursue the teaching profession. In the case of Brazil and Israel, 20% or less want their children to enter into that profession. One noteworthy example is that of Russia, where the teacher is very respected. Still, it was the country where the majority of respondents said that they would least like their children to be teachers, even less than the respondents in Brazil. Another compelling case is that of Spain, one of the ten countries where the educator is least respected. Still, to this particular question, 80% answered that they would “definitely encourage” or “perhaps encourage” their children to be teachers, which shows that in several countries, there is a dissociation between respect, pay and whether a parent would encourage their child to enter the profession.

The respect of the students toward the teachers 

One cannot talk about respecting the teaching profession without talking about students. On this topic, the study decided to ask whether the public believes that students respect their teachers. The most curious case is Uganda, as it is one of the ten countries where the educator is least respected. Even in the section on teachers’ opinions about their own profession, Uganda came in the last place of the 35 countries studied in the results of primary school teachers. However, when evaluating students’ respect for the same educators, the country came in second place. Overall, about half of the respondents said they agreed or agreed strongly that their students respect teachers.

Salary and working hours


Note. Recovered from the Global Teacher Status Index, from Dolton, P., Marcenaro, O., De Vries, R., &amp; She, P.-W. N. ,, (2018). Copyright by The Varkey Foundation, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/media/4867/gts-index-13-11-2…Note. Recovered from the Global Teacher Status Index, from Dolton, P., Marcenaro, O., De Vries, R., &amp; She, P.-W. N. ,, (2018). Copyright by The Varkey Foundation, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/media/4867/gts-index-13-11-2…

Note. Recovered from the Global Teacher Status Index, from Dolton, P., Marcenaro, O., De Vries, R., & She, P.-W. N. ,, (2018). Copyright by The Varkey Foundation, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/media/4867/gts-index-13-11-2018.pdf

The economic remuneration of a profession is often taken as an indirect measure of social position or status. The GTSI addressed this issue from three perspectives: what the public believes educators earn (estimated real salary), whether they thought it was a fair wage (fair wage received), and the actual wage per country (real wage).

This graph shows responses by country. The highest wages are in Switzerland and Germany, and the poorest are those in Latin America and Africa. In cases like Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, it is interesting to note how the public assumes that fair wages are much higher than teachers are really paid.

By comparing the estimated real wages received and the fair wages, the reader can see that the estimated actual salary is much lower in almost all countries. This means that society thinks that teachers should earn more than they actually receive, especially in countries in Africa and South America, where the public believes fair wages are 40% to 60% higher than teachers currently perceive. In the case of the U.S. and the United Kingdom, people think fair pay would mean a 16% increase in teacher pay in the U.S. and 23% in the UK.

Analyzing real wages and the perceived real wages, in 28 of the 35 countries, one sees that the former is believed to be lower than the public considers fair, especially in the cases of Russia, China, Uganda, and Ghana where there are differences of 40% and 60%. Interestingly, in the case of Switzerland, Germany, and Singapore, the opposite occurs, and it is believed that the fair wage is much lower than the real one.

Performance-related payment (PRP) and working hours

It has been established that the higher the salary, the better the performance of students, so educators’ pay is one of the most discussed topics among academics and politicians. One of the publications mentioned in the index is “Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence from New York City,” by Fryer et al., which describes how student performance improves significantly when there is an “aversion to loss” process. That process is based on paying teachers a bonus at the beginning of the year that they must return if, at the end of the year, the performance of their students was not good.

On the other hand, the index asked the public if they felt it was a good idea for teachers to receive a bonus depending on their performance or if they should receive some form of performance-related payment (PRP). At least 49% responded that they strongly agreed or agreed that teachers should be paid according to performance. The country that most agreed was Egypt, with 78% in favor. Interestingly, the countries with the best PISA test scores are the ones that were the least in line with a PRP system, such as Finland, which may be related to their educational system.

The study also sought to find a relationship between the desire to have a PRP and respect for teachers but found nothing conclusive about it, indicating that respect does not influence people’s willingness to establish a form of payment based on teacher performance. Varkey also analyzed the public’s perception of teachers’ working hours and compared these perceptions to the actual hours worked by teachers, including time outside the classroom for activities such as grading and planning classes. In most countries, people underestimate the actual working hours of teachers, especially those in South America, Egypt, and Panama, where the understatement is between 39% and 16%.

The teacher’s perception

Although in most countries respondents feel that teachers are caring, hardworking, influential, inspiring, intelligent, and trustworthy, there are significant differences among countries. In places such as China and Ghana, where teachers are seen as high-ranking professionals, 86% of respondents rated teachers positively, while in Peru and Greece, only 45% would describe teachers this way.

Concerning society’s perception of teachers’ competence and its relationship to respect for the profession, the GTSI index found that there is a relationship. In countries like China and Ghana, society sees teachers as highly competent and, at the same time, they are viewed with great respect. The opposite is true in countries like Peru, Greece, and Israel. On the other hand, cases such as the Netherlands, New Zealand, Brazil, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom are exceptions because, although teachers are seen as highly capable, their status in society is low.

As for the perception of educators’ self-respect, this is generally greater than that of the public, but it varies significantly according to the country. In Peru, India, Uganda, Indonesia, Switzerland, and Panama, where the gap among their opinions is large, teachers see each other more positively than the public. In the case of Portugal, the United States, Hungary, Spain, and France, the opposite happens; teachers see their own level worse than that of the general public.

The quality of the educational system

The index also investigated the perception of each country’s education system without involving educators. The index, where 10 is the highest rating and 1 is the lowest, revealed the average for all countries to be 5.9. The only countries below 5 were Egypt, Brazil, Peru, Turkey, Hungary, Greece, and Panama.

By comparing this classification with each country’s PISA score, as expected, Finland, Switzerland, and Singapore scored the best, being perceived as having sound educational systems by the public. In the case of Egypt, Brazil, Peru, and Turkey, which have low scores, the public’s perception of their educational system is weak.

The relationship between teacher pay, status, and PISA scores

Like Fryer, Dolton and Marcenaro published a paper that studies the likelihood that the quality of the teacher will be higher if he/she is paid in relation to the academic results of students. The report shows that there is a clear link between respect and the wage received: the higher the status, the more the professional will earn. And as mentioned at the beginning of the article, in many countries, the perception of the remuneration that educators receive is described as modest compared to other trades. But the reality is that each country decides how much to pay educators, and this salary is not affected by the status the profession has in the public eye. This is because each country manages remuneration through the country’s wealth, the government’s bargaining power over teachers, the perception of the importance of the teaching profession, and many other factors. This means that even if there is higher pay, respect may improve, but not the other way around; if teachers’ status to society increases, this does not mean that the government will give them better salaries. Also, the index demonstrated a possible link between teaching respect and student performance and how this is affected when the teacher’s salary is controlled. An increase in teacher status and better pay can positively affect classroom per
formance.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the index shows that directors and principals of educational institutions are often perceived with a higher status than teachers. It is also proven that teachers’ respect and salaries are not always related. Varkey points out that teachers are generally not paid fairly or according to what the public believes they should be paid. Society underestimates the actual length of the teachers’ working hours. Besides, cultural factors play an essential role in the perceptions of the teaching profession. Countries such as China, Russia, and Malaysia, see the educator at the same level as a physician, while in Argentina and Peru, their level is viewed as similar to that of a social worker.

The 2018 Global Teacher Status Index also showed that there is a strong relationship between teacher pay and PISA test results. In addition, there is a weaker relationship between the GTSI index and PISA test results, and more when considering the effect of teacher pay and status concerning students’ academic outcomes. The index concludes by emphasizing the importance for governments around the world to discuss the condition of teachers because this can directly contribute to improving student performance. If the teaching career is respected, there will be more people interested in dedicating themselves to this profession, and the academic performance of the students will improve. This supposition presents a considerable challenge for the ten countries that rated the teaching profession with the least respect.

Paulette Delgado

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0