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Influencing the
Global Discussion
Meeting our commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) and all of the SDGs requires strong local leaders deeply rooted in their contexts and culture and globally informed by what is possible based on insights from outside of their communities and countries. In partnership with communities, governments, and other development stakeholders, local leaders are best positioned to address the complex challenges of our current learning crisis. It is through this collective leadership that we can make progress towards truly sustainable development.
Leveraging our learning and innovations through
COVID-19 and beyond to reimagine education
During the pandemic, teachers across the Teach For All network have been innovating alongside students, parents, and others to ensure kids in marginalized communities don't stop learning. We believe that many of the learnings and innovations that have taken place during the school closure and progressively opening are going to be key to help us understand how to transform and reimagine education.
The following resources include innovations and lessons learned by Teach For All network partners in addressing the challenges caused by the pandemic:
EDUCATION CONTINUITY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
The OECD published reports on the work of Enseña Chile, Enseña Perú, Enseña por Colombia and Teach For India alumni to keep students learning despite school closures as part of their series on education continuity during the pandemic. These reports are part of a joint initiative of the Harvard Global Education Innovation Initiative, HundrED, the OECD, and the World Bank to gather and share learning from around the world, and have positioned the importance of intentional efforts to cultivate local leadership capacity in the global discussion.
A people-first approach to locally led, globally informed development:
Putting people, agency, and leadership at the center
For decades, the international development community has grappled with how to enable local ownership for development, which is essential to foster sustainable, systemic change. We are a community that has come together because we believe that achieving locally led development will require developing ourselves—building consciousness of our own biases and privilege and how these have informed our ideas about where leadership needs to come from—and growing and improving initiatives that cultivate the agency and leadership of people in developing contexts.
The approach we are suggesting would enable a fundamental shift in international development—from a focus on identifying proven interventions and scaling them across developing contexts in pursuit of measurable outcomes at significant scale, towards one that invests in the people in developing contexts and supports them to achieve meaningful outcomes over time.
Explore the following resources to learn more:
A “People-First” Approach to Locally Led, Globally Informed Development: Putting People, Agency, and Leadership at the Center
This working paper summarizes our belief that through prioritizing advancing the agency and leadership of people in impacted communities and countries at this critical juncture, we can enable these communities to emerge stronger, more resilient, and more prepared to create a better future.
The Colonial Roots of Inequity and the Need for Community-centered Education
In this video, Teach For Uganda alumnus Charles Obore reflects on the colonial roots of inequity in Uganda and the need for culturally-relevant education and local leadership.
For additional information, please visit the People-First Approach website, read about the approach on Medium, and reach out to people@peoplefirstdev.org if you’d like to learn more about this effort.
Related News & Stories
External Publications
Investing in Knowledge Sharing to Advance SDG4
We initiated an advocacy effort and co-authored this Education Commission report urging greater investment in enabling local leaders to learn from cross-border knowledge sharing in education.
UNESCO International Teacher Task Force Blog
Teach For All's Learning Through the Crisis initiative has been highlighted in this UNESCO blog in celebration of International Day of Education, along with the work of Enseña Chile, Teach For Malaysia, and Teach For Nigeria.
Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Students with Learning Differences
The Global Education Monitoring Report published this post focused on students from marginalized communities by Teach For All's Global Director, Programmatic Partnerships and Inclusive Education.
Investing in Knowledge Sharing to Advance SDG4
We initiated an advocacy effort and co-authored this Education Commission report urging greater investment in enabling local leaders to learn from cross-border knowledge sharing in education.
UNESCO International Teacher Task Force Blog
Teach For All's Learning Through the Crisis initiative has been highlighted in this UNESCO blog in celebration of International Day of Education, along with the work of Enseña Chile, Teach For Malaysia, and Teach For Nigeria.
Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Students with Learning Differences
The Global Education Monitoring Report published this post focused on students from marginalized communities by Teach For All's Global Director, Programmatic Partnerships and Inclusive Education.
UNESCO International Teacher Task Force Toolkit
UNESCO interviewed multiple Teach For All network alumni and included their insights in the second edition of this toolkit that offers tips and emerging practices to support educators in back-to-school efforts during the pandemic.