How to Square the Circle of Voluntary Participation in Controlled Samples?

Kristīne Kampmane^1*Surette Van Staden²Antra Ozola¹

• ¹University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
• ²Universitat Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

As large-scale international comparative studies of education use controlled sampling design to ensure the reliability and validity of the data, participating countries are required to achieve certain response rates of pre-selected respondents. However, the sampled respondent has a free will to grant or refuse their participation. High rates of rejections compromise the quality of the results. The aim of this mixed methods study was to investigate what facilitates or discourages the responsiveness of respondents in studies. The sample was derived from the OECD TALIS 2024 Latvian sample – participating schools, school principals, school study coordinators and teachers. Correlation analysis showed a strong relationship between voluntary participation in the study and early completion of the survey (not postponing it until later). When respondents were asked to complete the survey simultaneously (e.g. when sitting in the same room during a meeting), less than 1% of respondents refused to participate. School coordinators (79%) indicated that there were too many different studies and surveys asking their school for participation. As many as 73% of coordinators whose schools had a low response to the TALIS 2024 survey indicated that teachers should be paid for participating in surveys as additional work, yet at the same time only 30% of teachers who refused to participate in the TALIS 2024 survey reported that money would have been a good motivator. Teachers who took part in the TALIS 2024 study identified the following as the most desirable features of surveys: 1) should be work-related, 2) can be completed during working hours, 3) compatible with mobile devices, and 4) accessible via electronically received link and login information. For all teachers and coordinators, it was most important that the survey would be short – meaning that it should possible to complete within 10 minutes, and all questions should be easily comprehendible. Overall, principal interviews showed an openness to surveys at their school, and positive keywords that featured regularly during the interviews included: "purposefully targeted", "meaningful", "in alignment with school's goals", "relevant topic", "personalised, understandable feedback in foreseeable future", "clear benefit for a respondent".