The Survey of Teachers in Pre-Primary Education (STEPP) is the first international survey for low-and-middle-income countries designed to collect information that is known to affect the quality of pre-primary education from pre-primary teachers and centre heads. The collected information concerns training and professional development, pedagogical and professional practices, working conditions and job satisfaction, and characteristics of pre-primary personnel and the settings in which they work.[1]
The survey offers a valuable opportunity for teachers and centre heads to share views about their practice and needs. It seeks to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement as well as commonalities and differences across participating countries, which will inform policy discussions and development of measures on how to strengthen the quality of pre-primary teachers’ work. Launched in 2016, STEPP is an OECD–UNESCO Joint Initiative in support of the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 4.2 on early childhood care and education (ECCE).[1]
First phase of the Survey
The first phase of the Survey of Teachers in Pre-primary Education (STEPP) project was implemented by the organization UNESCO from 2016 to 2019, with the participation of seven countries: Dominican Republic, Ghana, Indonesia, Namibia, the Philippines, Togo, and Viet Nam. This phase consisted of instrument development, carried out in several steps, including the pilot study and field trial operations.[1]
STEPP instrumentation consists of three types of paper-based questionnaires: (1) a pre-primary staff questionnaire, (2) a questionnaire for the heads of pre-primary education centres, and (3) a combined questionnaire, used in small pre-primary education centres, and responded to by pre-primary personnel having a combined head-staff role comprising administrative, managerial and pedagogical responsibilities.[1]
Addressing the evidence gap
To effectively support teachers’ capacity enhancement, professionalization, and motivation, evidence-informed policy interventions are needed. However, there is limited information available on the training and working conditions as well as practices and needs of early childhood teachers, particularly in low-and-middle-income countries.[2][3] When available, the data is more often system-level/structural information (e.g. number of teachers, teacher-child ratio, teacher qualification) than personnel-level, qualitative information (e.g. what teachers do, how they work, how they interact with children, what challenges they experience in ensuring good quality care and education).
To tackle this evidence gap, the organization UNESCO launched in 2016 the development of this international Survey of Teachers in Pre-primary Education, in cooperation with the OECD and other partners. The survey aims to generate comparative, policy-relevant data and information on four interrelated themes that affect the quality of teaching and learning in early childhood care and education:
- Training and professional development
- Pedagogical and professional practices
- Working conditions and job satisfaction
- Characteristics of personnel and the settings in which they work[1]
The survey will also give an opportunity for ECCE personnel to share perceptions and insights about their work, needs, and challenges.
