TALIS 2024: What makes an effective school principal?

The Value of Principals is the latest report from the OECD using data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2024 to illustrate the relationship between different leadership behaviours and attitudes and school organisation, culture and teacher practice.
These factors have a significant impact on the quality of teaching and learning.

What is TALIS?

TALIS is the largest international survey of teachers and principals. Conducted every 5 to 6 years, TALIS produces internationally comparable data about teachers and teaching. Fifty-five countries and systems participated in the 2024 cycle, including 6,000 teachers and 359 principals from schools across Australia.
The 2024 national report, released in 2025, revealed that most Australian teachers remain positive about their profession despite higher than average levels of stress. Seventy-four per cent believe the advantages of teaching outweigh the disadvantages, and more than 80 per cent of primary and lower secondary teachers report overall job satisfaction.

What is ‘valued leadership’?

In TALIS, valued leadership is defined by teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ instructional and relational leadership, reflecting the extent to which principals support teaching, learning and positive relationships within the school.
Instructional leadership involves supporting teachers to develop their practice, work collaboratively and take shared responsibility for student learning. This is linked to student achievement.
Relational leadership involves building a shared vision, fostering inclusive decision-making and promoting positive professional relationships across the school community. This is aligned to school climate.
Valued leadership is associated with better professional outcomes for teachers, including greater self-efficacy, higher job satisfaction and wellbeing and a lower likelihood of wanting to leave the profession.

What does the report say about Australian principals?

Many of the findings are consistent with the 2024 reporting on teacher attitudes and experiences. Australian principals remain highly committed to the profession, with 95% reporting overall job satisfaction. However, work-related stress remains above the OECD average, largely driven by increasing pressures associated with staff absences, student behavioural issues, changing requirements from authorities and parent concerns. Seventy-nine percent of Australian lower secondary principals reported experiencing ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of stress at work, compared to the OECD average of 61%.
Female and younger principals are more likely to be valued but report higher levels of work-related stress. Principals in smaller schools are also generally rated more positively than those in larger schools.
Australian principals generally demonstrate instructional leadership practices at or above the OECD average. Most encourage collaboration among teachers to develop new teaching practices (85%), ensure teachers take responsibility for improving their professional skills (83%), and foster a sense of responsibility for student learning outcomes (90%).
However Australian teachers were overall less likely to report that their principals exhibited relational leadership behaviours.

Some of the other behaviours that teachers valued from their principals include:

• observed instruction in the classroom ‘often’ or ‘very often’ in the 12 months prior to the survey (45%)
• use assessments of teachers’ school- and classroom-based results as part of formal teacher appraisal (56%)
• developing a training or professional development plan following a formal teacher appraisal (55%)
• spending time with students at least weekly (88%).

You can view Australia’s country note here or read the full OECD report.
You can also learn more about Australia’s TALIS results by visiting the website.
Australia’s participation in TALIS 2024 was managed by ACER on behalf of the Australian, state and territory governments.