Teacher shortage in Venezuela: Leveraging positive deviance in a humanitarian setting

In the face of Venezuela’s educational crisis, characterized by a 250,000-teacher shortage, declining educational outcomes, and exacerbated by economic constraints and the COVID-19 pandemic, the study proposes actionable strategies to mitigate the negative impact on learning outcomes in the short term. Using a mixed-methods research design, we first analyze the school level factors explaining teacher dropout, followed by identifying high-performing schools through a positive deviance analysis. These are schools that, despite sharing the same adversities as their peers in similar locations, significantly outperform in terms of learning outcomes. By conducting field visits and interviews with principals and teachers in deviant schools in Venezuela, we identify and synthesize their strategies, practices and behaviors. We find that outperforming schools face the same challenges in terms of access to basic services and teacher shortage, but they mainly differ in their relationship with parents and the community, an effective principal and recurring peer-to-peer learning, which are aligned with school effectiveness literature. By mapping these strategies, we propose policy solutions that can provide immediate learning opportunities for children currently in school, who cannot wait for ideal political and economic conditions. The study emphasizes the use of evidence-based interventions that have been successful in various settings, but more importantly, it uncovers effective, yet lesser-known strategies currently being developed by schools and teachers within Venezuela. The analysis provides valuable insights that can inform current humanitarian and development programs; it further contributes to the positive deviance literature applied to education in a complex, data-scarce and humanitarian setting.

Authors

  • Catalina Reyes Villegas, Master of Arts candidate in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID), Harvard Kennedy School (Presenter)
  • Maria Andreina Cantele, Master of Arts candidate in Public Administration in International Development(MPA/ID), Harvard Kennedy School (Presenter)

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